Reading and Writing Standards for Grades K - 3*
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Grade Three
Standards for
Third-Grade Reading Standard 1: Print-Sound Code
In third
grade, students' decoding of the print-sound code should become automatic
across the whole span of language. Throughout third grade, they should continue
to learn about words - roots, inflections, suffixes, prefixes, homophones and
word families - as part of vocabulary growth. Each book they read presents new
words that they should be able to figure out using knowledge of word
structures.
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Third-Grade
Accuracy
By the
end of third grade, students should be able to:
independently
read aloud unfamiliar Level O books with 90 percent or better accuracy of word recognition.
Fluency
By the
end of the year, third-graders should be able to:
independently read aloud from Level O
books that they have previewed silently on their own, using intonation, pauses and
emphasis that signal the structure of the sentence and the meaning of the text;
easily read
words with irregularly spelled suffixes (for example, -ous,
-ion, -ive);
use the cues
of punctuation to guide themselves in getting meaning and fluently read aloud
from the increasingly complex texts they read; and
use pacing
and intonation to convey the meaning of the clauses and phrases of the
sentences they read aloud.
Self-Monitoring
and Self-Correcting Strategies
By the
end of the year, third-graders should be able to:
monitor
their own reading, noticing when sentences or paragraphs are incomplete or when
texts do not make sense;
use their
ear for syntax to help figure out the meaning of new words;
infer the
meaning of words from roots, prefixes and suffixes, as well as from the overall
contextual meaning of what they are reading;
analyze the
relations among different parts of a text; and
raise
questions about what the author was trying to say and use the text to help
answer the questions.
Comprehension
By the
end of third grade, students should continue to demonstrate the comprehension
capabilities they used in second grade. In addition, they should:
capture
meaning from figurative language (for example, similes, metaphors, poetic
images) and explain the meaning;
cite
important details from a text;
compare one text to another text they have read or heard;
and
discuss why
an author might have chosen particular words.
In
addition, when engaging with narratives (whether fiction or nonfiction), third
graders should:
say how a
story relates to something in real-life experience;
explain the
motives of characters; and
discuss plot
and setting.
Further,
when they read informational texts, third-graders should:
use the
structure of informational text to retrieve information;
analyze the
causes, motivations, sequences and results of events;
understand the concepts and relationships described;
use
reasoning and information from within and outside the text to examine
arguments; and
describe in
their own words what information they gained from a nonfiction text and how it
relates to their prior knowledge.
Finally,
third-graders should be able to:
follow
instructions or directions they encounter in the more complicated functional
texts they now are reading.
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Third-Grade Reading Standard 3: Reading Habits
Reading a
Third-Grade
students should:
read 30
chapter books a year, independently or with assistance, and regularly
participate in discussions of their reading with another student, a group or an
adult;
read and hear texts read aloud from a
variety of genres, including narrative accounts, responses to literature
(written by other students and found in book blurbs and reviews), informational
writing, reports, narrative procedures, recountings,
memoirs, poetry and plays;
read multiple
books by the same author and be able to identify differences and similarities
among them;
reread some
favorite books or parts of longer books, gaining deeper comprehension and
knowledge of author's craft;
read their
own writing and the writing of their classmates, including pieces compiled in
class books or placed on public display;
read the
functional and instructional messages they see in the classroom environment
(for example, announcements, labels, instructions, menus, invitations) and some
of those encountered outside school;
listen to
and discuss one chapter read to them every day; and
voluntarily
read to each other, signaling their sense of themselves as readers.
Literature
Every
day, third-grade students should:
read good
children's literature every day
have
worthwhile literature read to them to model the language and craft of good
writing;
discuss
underlying themes or messages when interpreting fiction;
read and
respond to poems, stories, memoirs and plays written by peers;
identify and
discuss recurring themes across words;
evaluate
literary merit and participate informatively in peer talk about selecting books
to read;
examine the
reasons for a character's actions, accounting for situation and motive;
read multiple
books by the same author and be able to identify difference and similarities
among them;
recognize
genre features, understand differences among genres and compare works by
different authors in the same genre; and
note and
talk about author's craft: content, point of view, word choice, plot,
beginnings and endings, and character development.
Discussing
Books
Students
at the end of third grade should be able to:
demonstrate
the skills we look for in the comprehension component of Reading Standard 2:
Getting the Meaning;
note and
talk about author's craft: word choice, beginnings and endings, plot and
character development;
use
comparisons and analogies to explain ideas;
refer to
knowledge built during discussion;
use
information that is accurate, accessible and relevant;
restate
their own ideas with greater clarity when a listener indicates noncomprehension;
ask other
students questions requiring them to support their claims or arguments; and
indicate
when their own or others' ideas need further support or explanation.
Vocabulary
Third-Grade
students should be able to:
learn new
words every day from their reading;
recognize when they don't know what a
word means and use a variety of strategies for figuring it out (for example,
ask others, look at the context, find the word in use elsewhere and look for
clues there);
know
meanings of roots, prefixes and suffixes;
talk about
the meaning of most of the new words encountered in independent and assisted
reading;
notice and
show interest in understanding unfamiliar words in texts that are read to them;
know how to
talk about what nouns mean in terms of function (for example, "Water is
for drinking"), features (for example, "Water is wet"), and
category (for example, "Water is a liquid");
know how to
talk about verbs as "action words"; and
talk about
words as they relate to other words: synonyms, antonyms or which word is more
precise.
Writing
Third-Grade Writing Standard 1: Habits and Processes
Habits
and Processes
Third-grade
students should:
write daily
generate
their own topics and spend the necessary amount of time to revisit and refine
their writing;
extend and
rework pieces of writing (for example, turn a paragraph from a memoir into a
fully developed piece;
routinely
rework, revise, edit and proofread their work;
over the
course of the year, polish 10 or 12 pieces for an audience in and beyond the
classroom;
write for
specific purposes of their own (for example, writing a thank-you letter,
writing a birthday card for a parent or friend);
consciously appropriate
specific elements of a favorite author's craft to refine the quality of their
own work; and
apply
criteria (both public and personal) to judge the quality of their writing.
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Third-Grade Writing Standard 2: Writing Purposes and Resulting Genres
Sharing
Events, Telling Stories: Narrative Writing
By the
end of the year, third-grade students should produce narratives - both
fictional and autobiographical - in which they:
orient or
engage the reader (set the time, indicate the location where the story takes
place, introduce the character or enter immediately into the story line);
create a
believable world and introduce characters through the precise choice of detail;
develop a
character, often by providing motivation for action and having the character
solve the problem;
develop the
plot or tell about the event by describing actions and emotions of the main
characters, including descriptive details, using dialogue and other story
strategies;
add
reflective comments (especially in an autobiographical narrative); and
provide some
kind of conclusion.
Informing
Others: Report or Informational Writing
By the
end of the year, third-grade students should produce reports that:
introduce
the topic, sometimes providing a context;
have an
organizational structure that is useful to the reader;
communicate
big ideas, insights or theories that have been elaborated on or illustrated through
facts, details, quotations, statistics and information;
use
diagrams, charts or illustrations appropriate to the text.
have a
concluding sentence or section; and
employ a
straightforward tone of voice.
Getting
Things Done: Functional and Procedural Writing
By the
end of the year, we expect third-grade students to produce functional writings
that:
engage the
reader by establishing a context for the piece;
identify the
topic;
provide a
guide to action;
show the
steps in an action in considerable detail;
include
relevant information;
use language
that is straightforward and clear; and
may use
illustrations detailing steps in the procedure.
Producing
and Responding to Literature
Producing
literature - by the end of the year, third-grade students should be able to:
write
stories, memoirs, poems, songs, and plays - conforming to appropriate
expectations for each form;
produce a
piece that incorporates elements appropriate to the genre after engaging in a
genre study; and
build on the
thread of a story by extending or changing the story line.
Responding
to literature - by the end of the year, third-grade students should be able to:
support an
interpretation by making specific references to the text;
provide enough
detail from the text so the reader can understand the interpretation;
go beyond
retelling;
compare two
works by an author;
discuss
several works that have a common idea or theme; and
make
connections between the text and their own ideas and lives.
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Third-Grade Writing Standard 3: Language Use and Conventions
Style and
Syntax
Using
one's own language - by the end of the year, third-grade students should be
able to:
use
appropriately a variety of syntactic patterns (for example, equal weight in
compound sentences, subordination in complex sentences) to show relationships
of ideas;
incorporate
transitional words and phrases appropriate to thinking; and
embed phrases
and modifiers that make their writing lively and graphic.
Taking
on language of authors - by the end of the year, third-grade students should be
able to:
use varying
sentence patterns and lengths to slow reading down, speed it up or create a
mood;
embed
literary language where appropriate; and
reproduce
sentence structures found in the various genres they are reading.
Vocabulary
and Word Choice
Using
one's own language - by the end of the year, third-grade students should be
able to:
use words
from their speaking vocabulary in their writing, including words they have
learned from reading and class discussion; and
make word
choices that reveal they have a large enough vocabulary to exercise options in
word choice.
Taking
on language of authors - by the end of the year, third-grade students should be
able to:
extend their
writing vocabulary by using specialized words related to the topic or setting
of their writing (for example, the names of breeds of dogs if they are writing
about dogs).
Spelling
By the
end of the year, third-grade students should be able to:
notice when
words do not look correct and use strategies to correct the spelling (for
example, experiment with alternative spellings, look the word up in a
dictionary or word list);
correctly
spell all familiar high-frequency words;
correctly
spell words with short vowels and common endings;
correctly
spell most inflectional endings, including plurals and verb tenses; and
use correct
spelling patterns and rules such as consonant doubling, dropping e, and
changing y to i; and
correctly
spell most derivational words (for example, -tion,
-ment, -ly).
Punctuation,
Capitalization and Other Conventions
By the
end of third grade, students should be using punctuation that makes sense, even
if it is not always completely correct. By the end of the year, they should be
able to:
use capital
letters at the beginning of sentences;
use periods
and other end punctuation correctly nearly all the time;
approximate
the use of quotation marks;
approximate
the use of commas;
use question
marks;
use capital
and lowercase letters; and
use
contractions.
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*from Reading
& Writing Grade by Grade, New Standards Primary Literacy Standards ã 1999
National Center on Education and the Economy and the University of Pittsburgh.
New Standardsä
is a trademark of the
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