3rd Grade ELA (Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks)

Reading: Literature (RL)

• RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to show understanding, pointing directly to the text for answers.
• RL.3.2 Retell fables, folktales and myths from many cultures; work out the message or moral and how details convey it.
• RL.3.3 Describe characters' traits, motives or feelings and how their actions move events along.
• RL.3.4 Work out word and phrase meanings in a text, telling literal from figurative language.
• RL.3.5 Name common structural parts of fiction (problem, solution) and describe how each part builds on earlier ones.
• RL.3.6 Tell your own point of view apart from the narrator's or characters'.
• RL.3.7 Explain how pictures add to what the words of a story say, e.g. mood or setting.
• RL.3.9 Compare themes, settings and plots of stories by one author about the same or similar characters.
• RL.3.10 Read and understand grade 3 literary texts of many genres, cultures and perspectives on your own.

Reading: Informational Text (RI)

• RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to show understanding, pointing directly to the text for answers.
• RI.3.2 Find the main idea, retell key details and explain how they support it.
• RI.3.3 Describe how historical events, science or math ideas, or steps in a procedure are linked, using time, order and cause/effect words.
• RI.3.4 Work out the meaning of academic and subject words in a text about a grade 3 topic.
• RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (key words, sidebars, links) to find information quickly.
• RI.3.6 Tell your own point of view apart from the author's.
• RI.3.7 Use maps, pictures, words, numbers and symbols to show understanding of where, when, why and how key events happen.
• RI.3.8 Describe how particular sentences and paragraphs connect logically (comparison, cause/effect, sequence).
• RI.3.9 Compare the most important points and details of two texts on one topic.
• RI.3.10 Read and understand grade 3 informational texts, including history, science, math and technical texts, on your own.

Reading: Foundational Skills (RF)

• RF.3.3 Know and use grade 3 phonics and word analysis to read words.
  • a. Know the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes and what they mean.
  • b. Read words with common Latin suffixes.
  • c. Read words of several syllables.
  • d. Read grade 3 words with irregular spellings.
• RF.3.4 Read accurately and fluently enough to understand the text.
  • a. Read grade 3 texts with a purpose and with understanding.
  • b. Read grade 3 prose and poetry aloud accurately, at a suitable pace and with expression over repeated readings.
  • c. Use context to check or self-correct word reading, rereading if needed.

Writing (W)

• W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, backing an opinion with reasons.
  • a. Introduce the topic or text, state the opinion and set out a structure that lists reasons.
  • b. Give reasons that support the opinion.
  • c. Join opinion and reasons with linking words such as because, therefore and since.
  • d. End with a concluding statement or section.
• W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts that examine a topic and share ideas clearly.
  • a. Introduce the topic and group related information, adding pictures when they help.
  • b. Use facts, definitions and details to build the topic.
  • c. Join ideas within categories with linking words such as also, another and but.
  • d. End with a concluding statement or section.
• W.3.3 Write narratives in prose or poems using literary techniques, description and a clear order of events.
  • a. Set up the situation, introduce speaker, narrator or characters and order events sensibly.
  • b. Develop events with dialogue and by describing actions, thoughts and feelings.
  • c. Use figurative language to suggest images.
  • d. Use time words and phrases to show order.
  • e. Give the piece a sense of closure.
  • f. In poems, use sound patterns such as rhyme and repeated sounds for meaning or effect.
• W.3.4 Produce writing whose development and organization fit the task, purpose and reader.
• W.3.5 Plan, revise and edit to strengthen writing as needed.
  • a. Use standard English conventions up to grade 3 Language Standards 1–3.
  • b. Choose and use suitable vocabulary up to grade 3 Language Standards 4–6.
• W.3.6 Use technology, including keyboarding, to produce and publish writing and to work with others.
• W.3.7 Do short research projects that build knowledge of a topic.
• W.3.8 Recall experiences or find information in print and digital sources; make brief notes and sort evidence into set categories.
• W.3.10 Write regularly over long and short time frames for many subject tasks, purposes and readers.

Speaking and Listening (SL)

• SL.3.1 Discuss grade 3 topics and texts well in pairs, groups and class, building on others' ideas and stating your own clearly.
  • a. Come prepared and draw on what you read and know to explore ideas.
  • b. Follow agreed rules such as getting the floor politely and listening with care.
  • c. Ask questions to check understanding, stay on topic and link your comments to others'.
  • d. Explain your own thinking in light of what was said in the discussion.
• SL.3.2 Find the main ideas and details of a read-aloud text or information in different media, including visual and numerical.
• SL.3.3 Ask and answer questions about a speaker's information, adding suitable detail.
• SL.3.4 Give a report on a topic, text or math solution, or recount an experience or story, with facts and detail, speaking clearly at a good pace.
• SL.3.5 Make engaging audio recordings of stories or poems read fluently, adding visuals to stress key facts or details.
• SL.3.6 Speak in complete sentences when the task calls for it, to give detail or clarify.

Language (L)

• L.3.1 Use standard English grammar and usage in writing and speaking, keeping earlier skills.
  • a. Write, expand and rearrange simple, compound and complex sentences.
  • b. Make subjects agree with verbs and pronouns with what they refer to.
  • c. Use present, past and future tenses and choose the right one for the meaning.
  • d. Use joining words (and, but, because, when) and pick the one that fits the meaning.
  • e. Form and choose the right comparing forms of adjectives and adverbs (taller, tallest).
  • f. Use abstract nouns (e.g. childhood, courage).
  • g. Form regular and irregular plurals and past tenses.
• L.3.2 Use standard English capitals, punctuation and spelling when writing.
  • a. Write clearly and fluently by hand, in print or cursive.
  • b. Capitalize the right words in titles.
  • c. Use commas in addresses.
  • d. Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
  • e. Form and use possessives.
  • f. Spell common and studied words and words with suffixes correctly (sitting, cries).
  • g. Know that a number starting a sentence is written as a capitalized word.
  • h. Use spelling patterns (word families, syllable patterns, ending rules) when writing words.
  • i. Check and correct spellings in beginning dictionaries and other references.
• L.3.3 Apply what you know about how language works when you write, speak, read and listen.
  • a. Pick words and phrases for the effect they create.
  • b. Notice and follow differences between spoken and written English.
• L.3.4 Figure out what unfamiliar words and words with several meanings mean, choosing from a range of strategies.
  • a. Use the sentence as a clue to a word's meaning.
  • b. Work out a new word made by adding a known prefix or suffix (comfortable/uncomfortable).
  • c. Use a known root as a clue to an unknown word with the same root.
  • d. Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, print or digital, to pin down meanings.
  • e. Recognize and use common abbreviations, e.g. N, S, E, W on a map.
  • f. Recognize and use common symbols, e.g. < and >.
• L.3.5 Show understanding of how words relate and differ slightly in meaning.
  • a. Tell literal from non-literal meanings in context (take steps).
  • b. Link words to real life (e.g. people who are friendly or helpful).
  • c. Tell apart related words for states of mind or certainty (knew, believed, suspected).
• L.3.6 Learn and use grade 3 conversational, academic and subject words, including words for place and time.