3rd Grade - English Language Arts

Avon Lake City Schools 

Curriculum Framework

3rd Grade ELA

Course Overview:

Students in Third Grade are provided an environment rich in reading and writing opportunities to help them progress from learning to read to reading to learn.  The focus in English Language Arts (ELA) at the Third Grade Level is to solidify foundational skills in decoding, expand comprehension strategies and communicate effectively through writing.  Students have access to technology and are provided opportunities to read from a broad range of topics and cultures in literature and informational texts.  In Third Grade, writing encompasses opinion, narratives and expository paragraphs.  Students will learn to develop focused paragraphs to share and respond using text evidence.

Textbook (Title and Publishing Company): 

Core Knowledge Language Arts, Amplify

Online/Supplemental Materials:

Readworks

Assessments: 

Ohio State Test

NWEA MAP Growth

mCLASS

Curriculum & Benchmark Assessments 

Content/Topics/Learning Goals

Subject to Pacing and Schedules

1st Quarter- 

Unit 1: Classic Tales: The Wind in the Willows

Anchor Text: Classic Tales 

  • Review short and long vowel sounds, rcontrolled vowels, alternate spellings, and syllables with ‘le’

  • Analyze characters, perspective, and point of view

  • Demonstrate understanding of plot and sequence

  • Identify themes

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Write an opinion paragraph


Unit 2: Animal Classification

Anchor Text: Rattenborough’s Guide to Animals

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Record observations and reflections based on informational reading

  • Review suffixes and root words

  • Alphabetization to the 2nd and 3rd letter

  • Developing sentence structure and parts of speech

  • Understanding concrete and abstract nouns

  • Identifying and applying prefixes

  • Writing an informational paragraph

2nd Quarter- 

Unit 3: The Human Body: Systems and Senses

Anchor Text: How Does Your Body Work?

  • Use a K-W-L chart to organize information

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Demonstrate ability to pluralize regular and irregular nouns

  • Create sentences with subject-verb agreement

  • Develop and order topic, detail, and concluding sentences in a paragraph with a title

  • Identify and use pronouns and prefixes dis- and mis-


Unit 4: The Ancient Roman Civilization

Anchor Text: Stories of Ancient Rome

  • Identify the point of view of a text

  • Demonstrate understanding of main idea and key vocabulary

  • Review r-controlled vowels and learn spelling patterns for the /ee/ sound

  • Continue developing subject-verb agreement and correct verb tense usage

  • Suffixes -y, -al, -ist, and -ian

  • Write an opinion essay


Unit 5: Light and Sound

Anchor Text: Adventures of Light and Sound

  • Identify characteristics of biography genre, that biographies are nonfiction accounts of peoples’ lives

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Review previous spellings for /ee/ and /ae/ and learn new spellings for the /ae/ sound

  • Acquire dictionary skills, particularly guide words

  • Demonstrate understanding of adverbs indicating when and where and conjunctions

  • Review previously learned suffixes and identify meaning and usage of -ous and -ly

3rd Quarter- 

Unit 6: The Viking Age

Anchor Text: Gods, Giants, and Dwarves

  • Make predictions about a text

  • Describe, compare and assign actions to characters

  • Write informational piece on character description

  • Review spelling patterns for /k/ and /s/

  • Identify conjunction “because” as the signal of an answer to a “why” question

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Apply suffixes -ive and -ly to root words


Unit 7: Astronomy: Our Solar System and Beyond 

Anchor Text: What’s in Our Universe?

  • Compare and contrast two people, things or ideas

  • Write an informative piece about the life of an astronaut

  • Identify cause and effect in a text

  • Demonstrate proficiency in dictionary skills using guide words

  • Demonstrate understanding of singular and plural possessive nouns

  • Apply knowledge of suffixes to unfamiliar words in text and content

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary


Unit 8: Native Americans: Regions and Cultures

Anchor Text: Native American Stories

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Review various spelling patterns for mastery

  • Identify possessive nouns and pronouns

  • Understanding of suffixes -ish, -ness, -able, and -ible

  • Strengthen dictionary skills by determining key words, the function of entry words, and the meaning of different homographs

4th Quarter -  

Unit 9: Early Explorations of North America

Anchor Text: The Age of Exploration

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Determine the meaning of a word in context

  • Identify linking words and regular and irregular comparative and superlative adjectives

  • Further proficiency with dictionary skills including pronunciation, part of speech, and various meanings

  • Understand and use prefixes pro- and anti-

  • Write an opinion piece


Unit 10: Colonial America

Anchor Text: Living in Colonial America

  • Produce a polished, narrative piece

  • Identify the similarities and differences between the thirteen colonies

  • Identify the entry word, definition, part of speech and affixed root word in a dictionary and determine the correct form

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Demonstrate understanding of subject and object pronouns and their antecedents 


Unit 11: Ecology

Anchor Text: Introduction to Ecology

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Review and apply dictionary skills

  • Identify subject and object pronouns and comparative and superlative adjectives and

adverbs

  • Review and apply prefix and suffix skills

  • Annotate an Ecologist Journal to summarize and apply unit learning

Last Updated:

September, 2023