3rd Grade ELA Overview - Quarter 3 Reading Unit: Exploring Mysteries Unit Overview: This unit will explore the mystery genre along with poetry and drama. Students will discuss texts by referencing the text, asking and answering questions, and making inferences about the events or characters. Students will create a reenactment at the end of the unit by using a chapter from a mystery book, a poem, or poetry theater script. Students will also use illustrations to gain knowledge about the text and create their own illustrations to support their reenactment. Fluency will also be a focus as students do repeated readings with their chosen text.

Reading Unit: Exploring Biographies Unit Overview: This unit begins by connecting what students already know about narrative fiction to the genre of biography, or narrative nonfiction. In whole group, small group, and in partnerships, students will discuss the major events and relationships in a character’s life and how his/her actions/reactions inform us about their personal traits and motivations. Students will explore how the sequence of events in a person’s life causes them to make certain choices which have major effects on those around them. They will compare/contrast author and personal points of view and, in the final week, share their characters’ points of view and lessons learned by “becoming the character” in an individual culminating project.

Writing Unit: Realistic Fiction Unit Overview: This unit is about writing realistic fiction. Students will take something real that happened in their daily life and add to it. Students will write their piece in the third person. In previous units, student’s writing may have been a page or two in length. In this unit, students will push themselves to write two, three and even four pages! Students will need to write with volume, fluency and stamina. To increase volume, students will spend more time planning the writing. They will also spend time creating several complete drafts of a single story. Writing Unit: Informational Writing - Biographies Unit Overview: This unit will extend and provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge about informational texts by focusing on autobiographies and biographies. In Week 1, to learn the structure of a biography, students will write an autobiography. Then in Week 2 and 3, students will write a biography on a person of their own choosing. Waiting until week 2 to begin writing biographies will provide students time to study the genre’s structure within the reading unit. Before starting the unit, each child’s teacher may send a note home asking parents to send in photos of their child. These photos will help student to write an autobiography. It would be helpful for the pictures to fit into certain categories such as the ones listed below.  Photos with family and/or friends  Photos showing your child doing a hobby or activity  Your child on a special trip or in a special location  Photos showcasing your child’s interests or favorite things

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Reading Unit: Informational Reading: Research Projects and Writing in the Content Areas

Writing Unit: Research and Report Writing

Unit Overview: For this unit, students will be researching a topic that they will then write about during Writers’ Workshop. They will learn to use text features, text structures, and search tools to gain more information on their topic. They will then include similar text structures and features in their own writing. Students will learn to determine main ideas and supporting details in their reading. Students will expand their own vocabularies by determining the meaning of unknown words and the various shades of meaning of related words. This study of words will enhance the quality of their writing. Students will use these new words as they try to inform an audience about their topic. Reading Common Core Standards:

Unit Overview: This unit is taught concurrently with a reading unit on informational text where students will be learning to read in a way that supports research. The two units will be closely linked with students collecting and gathering information for their writing during their reading instruction. Students’ research topics will be influenced by the content currently being taught in science and Social Studies, the topics used in the concurrent reading unit, and by the students’ own interests.

Note: Focus Standards on Elementary Report Card are bolded.

Note: Focus Standards on Elementary Report Card are bolded.

Keys Ideas and Details RL3.1 - Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. RL3.3 - Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. RI3.3 – 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.

Text Types and Purposes W3.2 - Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. a. Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aid comprehension. b. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details. c. Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information. d. Provide a concluding statement or section. W3.3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. a. Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/ or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. b. Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations. c. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order. d. Provide a sense of closure.

Craft and Structure RL3.5 - 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. RL3.6 - Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters. RI3.5 - Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently. RI3.6 – Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of the text.

Writing Common Core Standards:

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas RL3.7 - Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to Wake County Public Schools

what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting). RI3.7 - 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). RI3.8 - Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a sequence). RI3.9 – Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity RL3.10 – By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, drama, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently. Reading Foundational Skills RF3.3b - Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis in decoding words. Decode words with common Latin suffixes. RF3.3d - Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis in decoding words. Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words. RF3.4 - Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding. b. Read on-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate and expression on successive readings. c. Use context to confirm or self-correct word. Language L3.4b - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. Determine the meaning of a new word formed when a known affix is added to a know word (e.g., agreeable /disagreeable, comfortable/ uncomfortable, care/ careless, heat/ preheat).

Production and Distribution of Writing W3.4 - With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above). W3.5 - With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 3 on pages 28-29.) W3.6 - 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. Research to Build and Present Knowledge W3.7 – Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic. W3.8 – Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories. Language L3.1- Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. e. Form and use regular and irregular verbs. f. Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement. g. Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified. i. Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences. L3.2 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. b. Use commas in addresses.

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d. Form and use possessives. e. Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries, happiness). L3.5b - Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe people who are friendly or helpful). The standards below may be observed and assessed within any content area throughout the day. SL3.1 - 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. c. Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others. d. 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. Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.

SL3.2 - 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. SL3.3 - Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail. SL3.5 – 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. SL3.6 - Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 3 Language standards 1 and 3.) L3.4c - Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., company/ companion). L3.5 - Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. a. Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (e.g., take steps). c. Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered). L3.6 - 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).

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