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New Colorado P-12 Academic Standards

Current Display Filter: Reading, Writing and Communicating - Third Grade

Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating
Grade Level Expectations: Third Grade
Standard: 1. Oral Expression and Listening

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Oral communication is used both informally and formally
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace. (CCSS: SL.3.4)
  2. Distinguish different levels of formality
  3. Speak clearly, using appropriate volume and pitch for the purpose and audience
  4. Select and organize ideas sequentially or around major points of information that relate to the formality of the audience
  5. Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details. (CCSS: SL.3.5)
  6. Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (CCSS: SL.3.6)
  7. Use grammatically correct language for the audience and specific vocabulary to communicate ideas and supporting details

Inquiry Questions:

  1. Do children talk differently to their friends than to their teachers? Why?
  2. Could presenters speak passionately about a topic if their back was turned to the audience?
  3. When people talk to someone who speaks a different language, how do they know that the person is happy, sad, scared, or mad?
  4. Why is it important to speak clearly with appropriate volume and pitch?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Participate in group discussions around a topic of interest. (Actors in a group scene must communicate the appropriate thoughts and feelings for the audience to understand their intent.)
  2. Speak at a rate and volume others can understand. (Television reporters demonstrate expertise in clearly presenting to an audience.)
  3. Use correct grammatical structures to clearly express new ideas to a group.
  4. Collaborate with a group for a presentation (such as a book report or dramatic reading).
  5. Electronic tools visual mapping tools can be used to organize ideas.

Nature Of:

  1. Good communicators make changes to their presentations based on the interests of different audiences.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Successful group activities need the cooperation of everyone
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. (CCSS: SL 3.1)
    • Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion. (CCSS: SL.3.1a)
    • Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion). (CCSS: SL.3.1b)
    • Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others. (CCSS: SL.3.1c)
    • Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion. (CCSS: SL.3.1d)
    • Use eye contact, volume, and tone appropriate to audience and purpose
    • Use different types of complete sentences to share information, give directions, or request information
  2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. (CCSS: SL 3.2)
  3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail. (CCSS: SL 3.3)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. What are the different kinds of roles people have when working in a group?
  2. Do rules help people or hold them back?
  3. What characteristics do good group leaders have?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Express and support ideas with others. (Filmmakers select the most exciting and meaningful scenes from a movie to use in trailers.)
  2. Drivers need to follow the rules of the road to keep themselves and others safe.
  3. Interact with others by sharing knowledge, stories, and interests to build positive relationships. (Dancers in an ensemble work together to present a dance performance for others to enjoy.)
  4. Online shared workspaces can be used to enhance collaboration.

Nature Of:

  1. Good communicators work collaboratively with others to have the desired effect on their audience.

Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating
Grade Level Expectations: Third Grade
Standard: 2. Reading for All Purposes

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Strategies are needed to make meaning of various types of literary genres
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Use Key Ideas and Details to:
    • Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. (CCSS: RL.3.1)
    • Use a variety of comprehension strategies to interpret text (attending, searching, predicting, checking, and self-correcting)
    • Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. (CCSS: RL.3.2)
    • Describe and draw inferences about the elements of plot, character, and setting in literary pieces, poems, and plays
    • Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. (CCSS: RL.3.3)
  2. Use Craft and Structure to:
    • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language. (CCSS: RL.3.4)
    • Use signal words (such as before, after, next) and text structure (narrative, chronology) to determine the sequence of major events
    • Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections. (CCSS: RL.3.5)
    • Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters. (CCSS: RL.3.6)
  3. Use Integration of Knowledge and Ideas to:
    • Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting). (CCSS: RL.3.7)
    • Summarize central ideas and important details from literary text
    • Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series). (CCSS: RL.3.9)
  4. Use Range of Reading and Complexity of Text to:
    • By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently. (CCSS: RL.3.10)
  5. Read grade level text accurately and fluently, attending to phrasing, intonation, and punctuation

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How do readers use different reading strategies to better understand a variety of texts?
  2. How is accuracy in reading like accuracy in mathematics?
  3. What would reading be like if readers had no signal words to assist them?
  4. What was one prediction that you made that changed after you read the text?

Relevance & Application:

  1. The skills used in reading comprehension transfer to readers' ability to understand and interpret information.
  2. Poets give readers literature with specific structure for styled meaning.
  3. School plays require a plot and settings to be interesting.
  4. Publishing podcasts online provide an authentic audience for students to help them in practicing fluency.

Nature Of:

  1. Using what they know about phrasing and punctuation helps readers read proficiently and get more meaning from a text.
  2. Reading helps people understand themselves and makes connections to the world.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Comprehension strategies are necessary when reading informational or persuasive text
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Use Key Ideas and Details to:
    • Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. (CCSS: RI.3.1)
    • Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. (CCSS: RI.3.2)
    • Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. (CCSS: RI.3.3)
  2. Use Craft and Structure to:
    • Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area. (CCSS: RI.3.4)
    • Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently. (CCSS: RI.3.5)
    • Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text. (CCSS: RI.3.6)
    • Use semantic cues and signal words (because, although) to identify cause/effect and compare/contrast relationships
  3. Use Integration of Knowledge and Ideas to:
    • Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur). (CCSS: RI.3.7)
    • Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a sequence). (CCSS: RI.3.8)
    • Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic. (CCSS: RI.3.9)
  4. Use Range of Reading and Complexity of Text to:
    • By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently. (CCSS: RI.3.10)
    • Adjust reading rate according to type of text and purpose for reading.

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How do readers use different reading strategies to better understand a variety of texts (science, social studies, nonfiction)?
  2. Looking at our list of comprehension strategies, which one supported your thinking the most as you read this genre today (e.g., I used monitoring because this text had many details and technical terms.)?
  3. How does cause and effect work in people's lives?
  4. When does punctuation change the entire meaning of a sentence?

Relevance & Application:

  1. The skills used in reading comprehension transfers to readers' ability to understand and interpret events.
  2. Throughout life, people will be asked to retell or recount events that have occurred.
  3. Signal words are used to assist readers in describing key events.
  4. Summarizing is a life skill that will be used every day as people read, express opinions about a topic, or retell an event.
  5. Readers must organize details from informational text as they read (using a graphic organizer, two-column notes, outline, etc.).
  6. Reading and preparing for commenting on classroom blogs gives students practice in locating information to support opinions make predictions and draw conclusions.

Nature Of:

  1. Readers read for enjoyment and information.
  2. Reading helps people understand themselves and make connections to the world.
  3. Readers use comprehension strategies automatically without thinking about using them.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

3. Increasing word understanding, word use, and word relationships increases vocabulary
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. (CCSS: RF.3.3)
    • Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes. (CCSS: RF.3.3a)
    • Decode words with common Latin suffixes. (CCSS: RF.3.3b)
    • Decode multisyllable words. (CCSS: RF.3.3c)
    • Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words. (CCSS: RF.3.3d)
  2. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. (CCSS: RF.3.4)
    • Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. (CCSS.3.4a)
    • Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression. (CCSS.3.4b)
    • Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary. (CCSS.3.4c)
  3. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. (CCSS: L.3.4)
    • Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. (CCSS: L.3.4a)
    • Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word (e.g., agreeable/disagreeable, comfortable/uncomfortable, care/careless, heat/preheat). (CCSS: L.3.4b)
    • Use knowledge of word relationships to identify antonyms or synonyms to clarify meaning.
    • Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., company, companion). (CCSS: L.3.4c)
    • Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases. (CCSS: L.3.4d)
  4. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings. (CCSS: L.3.5)
    • Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (e.g., take steps). (CCSS: L.3.5a)
    • Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe people who are friendly or helpful). (CCSS: L.3.5b)
    • Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered). (CCSS: L.3.5c)
  5. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that night we went looking for them). (CCSS: L.3.6)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How do prefixes (un-, re-) and suffixes (-ness, -ful) change the meaning of a word (happy, happiness; help, helpful)?
  2. How are prefixes and suffixes useful in oral and written communication?
  3. How are prefixes and suffixes similar? How are they different?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Readers recognize common words that do not fit regular spelling patterns. (TV and magazines use common words that do not fit regular spelling patterns.)
  2. The spelling of a base word can change when adding suffixes (hop, hopping; hope, hoping).
  3. Decoding words is a skill that is useful throughout life.
  4. Animated graphic organizers can assist with the task of word categorization.

Nature Of:

  1. Readers use phonemes, graphemes (letters), and morphemes (suffixes, prefixes) in an alphabetic language.
  2. Readers can decode words with ease and notice if words have a prefix or suffix and simply see the base word.

Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating
Grade Level Expectations: Third Grade
Standard: 3. Writing and Composition

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. A writing process is used to plan, draft, and write a variety of literary genres
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons. (CCSS: W.3.1)
    • Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure that lists reasons. (CCSS: W.3.1a)
    • Provide reasons that support the opinion. (CCSS: W.3.1b)
    • Use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and reasons. (CCSS: W.3.1c)
    • Provide a concluding statement or section. (CCSS: W.3.1d)
    • Brainstorm ideas for writing
  2. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. (CCSS: W.3.3)
    • Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. (CCSS: W.3.3a)
    • Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations. (CCSS: W.3.3b)
    • Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order. (CCSS: W.3c)
    • Provide a sense of closure. (CCSS: W.3.3d)
  3. Write descriptive poems using figurative language

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How can thoughts and ideas be organized to prepare for writing?
  2. When are transition words appropriate to use in writing?
  3. What is a primary use of a graphic organizer?
  4. When people brainstorm, why do they write down all ideas without judgment?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Authors choose graphic organizers appropriate for the purpose of their writing and utilize the information to create a well-written piece.
  2. Writers/authors present points of view to inform, entertain, and communicate a variety of ideas and opinions and to understand that language has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
  3. Ghost stories and mysteries often are written with the outcome in mind.

Nature Of:

  1. Writers know that a story needs a beginning, middle, and end.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. A writing process is used to plan, draft, and write a variety of informational texts
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (CCSS: W.3.2)
    • Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension. (CCSS: W.3.2a)
    • State main ideas and include sufficient details or facts for appropriate depth of information (naming, describing, explaining, comparing, use of visual images)
    • Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details. (CCSS: W.3.2b)
    • Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information. (CCSS: W.3c)
    • Provide a concluding statement or section. (CCSS: W.3.2d)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How do transitions support fluent writing?
  2. Why is it necessary to connect ideas when writing?
  3. How do authors know what information is accurate?
  4. How do authors know what information is credible?
  5. Why would it be important for authors to label illustrations, photos, graphs, charts, or other media?
  6. What forms of writing assist writers in sharing information?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Reporters and journalists will sometimes write about one topic from different points of view.
  2. Today there is so much information; people need skills to help them sort the information and make sense of it so it can be useful.

Nature Of:

  1. Writers can describe events or people fluently.
  2. Writers summarize information by using only the important details.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

3. Correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are used when writing
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. (CCSS: W.3.4)
  2. With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (CCSS: W.3.5)
  3. With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others. (CCSS: W.3.6)
  4. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. (CCSS: L.3.3)
    • Choose words and phrases for effect. (CCSS: L.3.3a)
    • Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English. (CCSS: L.3.3b)
  5. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (CCSS: L.3.1)
    • Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences. (CCSS: L.3.1a)
    • Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns. (CCSS: L.3.1b)
    • Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood). (CCSS: L.3.1c)
    • Form and use regular and irregular verbs. (CCSS: L.3.1d)
    • Form and use the simple (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb tenses. (CCSS: L.3.1e)
    • Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement. (CCSS: L.3.1f)
    • Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified. (CCSS: L.3.1g)
    • Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. (CCSS: L.3.1h)
    • Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences. (CCSS: L.3.1i)
    • Vary sentence beginnings, and use long and short sentences to create sentence fluency in longer texts
  6. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. (CCSS: L.3.2)
    • Capitalize appropriate words in titles. (CCSS: L.3.2a)
    • Use commas in addresses. (CCSS: L.3.2b)
    • Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue. (CCSS: L.3.2c)
    • Form and use possessives. (CCSS: L.3.2d)
    • Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries, happiness). (CCSS: L.3.2e)
    • Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words. (CCSS: L.3.2f)
    • Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings. (CCSS: L.3.2g)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How does punctuation help people understand what they read and write?
  2. What resources can be used to help spell words correctly?

Relevance & Application:

  1. Desktop tools, spell-check and grammar-check are used to edit written work.
  2. Newspapers, newsletter and Internet web pages rely on precise and descriptive writing to inform or entertain.

Nature Of:

  1. Written symbols show both meaning and expression.
  2. Writers know that words can have identical pronunciations but differ in spelling and meaning (you/ewe, eye/I).

Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating
Grade Level Expectations: Third Grade
Standard: 4. Research and Reasoning

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Researching a topic and sharing findings are often done with others
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic. (CCSS: W.3.7)
  2. Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories. (CCSS: W.3.8)
  3. Interpret and communicate the information learned by developing a brief summary with supporting details
  4. Develop supporting visual information (charts, maps, illustrations, models)
  5. Present a brief report of the research findings to an audience

Inquiry Questions:

  1. What if research was always done alone?
  2. Why are visuals part of social studies, science, and other textbooks?
  3. Why is summarizing an important skill for all in a group?

Relevance & Application:

  1. People who build bridges and buildings work together to research and share ideas.
  2. Sports teams work together to discover the other teams' weaknesses.
  3. The members of a play recognize and present information using visuals and narrative tone.
  4. Researchers summarize information about a topic using reference materials.
  5. Researchers organize and present information using visuals and narrative.
  6. Compare and contrast Wikipedia with the content in library encyclopedia and resources.
  7. Using a collaborative online tool to share your work with others

Nature Of:

  1. Researchers scan visuals before they read text to help them focus their thinking.
  2. Researchers summarize information from different resources.
  3. Researchers look for evidence or supporting details to prepare for questions that others may ask after their presentation or during discussion.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Inferences and points of view exist
Evidence Outcomes 21st Century Skill and Readiness Competencies

Students Can:

  1. Recognize that different sources may have different points of view
  2. Assess points of view using fairness, relevance, and breadth
  3. Determine the clarity, relevance, and accuracy of information
  4. Recognize that all thinking contains inferences from which we draw conclusions and give meaning to data and situations
  5. Assess inferences for accuracy and fairness
  6. Recognize what they know and don't know (intellectual humility)

Inquiry Questions:

  1. How and why can points of view differ?
  2. What are the relevant points of view?
  3. How does one person's point of view compare to others?
  4. What information will support an inference?
  5. What happens if people use information that in not accurate?
  6. Why is useful to have many points of view on a topic?
  7. When is it difficult to have different points of view?

Relevance & Application:

  1. People use research to help support their ideas.
  2. Different sources have different points of view.
  3. People learn many things when they listen to others.
  4. Readers must learn to draw conclusions and make inferences because they help to improve comprehension.

Nature Of:

  1. Researchers understand that points of view are based on the interpretation of the reader.
  2. Researchers understand reasoning is done from a point of view, based on data, information, and evidence, and contains inferences by which they draw conclusions and give meaning to data.