Language Arts Standards

GRADE 3

(MCA-III, 40 ITEMS TOTAL ~ 4-7 passages)

Literature and Informational Text

• Standard 1:

  • Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

    • Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. (3.1.1.1 & 3.2.1.1)

      • Textual evidence may be either explicitly stated or implied.

      • Students may be required to cite specific textual evidence literally or to identify such evidence generally.

      • Items include, but are not limited to, making inferences, generalizations, and predictions; drawing conclusions; recognizing cause/effect relationships; comparing and contrasting; identifying relevant details; distinguishing between fact and opinion.

      • Writing and speaking will be assessed at the classroom level only.

• Standard 2

  • Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

    • 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. (3.1.2.1)

    • Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. (3.2.2.1)

      • Items may encompass either parts of a text (e.g., determine the central or main idea of one or more paragraphs, a section, a verse, etc.) or an entire text.

      • Items may assess central idea, theme, central message or main idea. Any of these terms may be used when referencing an entire text or an extended section of a text.

      • Items may also assess identification of topic and/or subject.

      • Items may use the term author’s message when assessing the central or main idea the author intended to convey to the reading audience. (Items may also use this term in conjunction with and/or when assessing author’s point-of-view. See Standard 6).

      • Key supporting details are considered relevant, or specific, details.

      • Items may require summarizing or paraphrasing.

      • Items may require distinguishing fact from opinion.

      • Item may require recognizing similarities and differences in ideas or themes.

      • Recount means retell

• Standard 3

  • Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text

    • Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events

• Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

  • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language, including figurative language such as similes.

• Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

  • 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.

• Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text

  • Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters

• Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

  • 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).

• Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

  • 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).

• Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently

  • By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently: (a) Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks.

Informational Text

I. READING AND LITERATURE

The student will read and understand grade-appropriate English language text.

A. Word Recognition, Analysis and Fluency

Standard: The student will apply word recognition strategies to decode unfamiliar multisyllabic words and will read grade-appropriate text with accuracy and fluency.

The student will:

1. Read unfamiliar complex and multi-syllabic words using advanced phonetic and structural analysis.

2. Read aloud narrative and expository text with fluency, accuracy, and appropriate pacing, intonation and expression

3. Notice when reading breaks down, reread and use phonetic and other strategies to self-correct.

B. Vocabulary Expansion (MCA-II, 6-8 items)

Standard: The student will use a variety of strategies to expand reading, listening and speaking vocabularies.

The student will:

1. Acquire, understand and use new vocabulary through explicit instruction and independent reading.

2. Identify and correctly use antonyms, synonyms, homonyms and multiple-meaning words. (MCA-II, 1-2 items)

• • • • • Multiple-meaning words are the same as synonyms for this benchmark.

        • Only one concept may be assessed in an item.

        • Items do not require definition of the specific literary terms.

3. Use context and word structure to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. (MCA-II, 4-6 items)

4. Use knowledge of prefixes and suffixes to determine the meaning of unknown words.

• • • • • Vocabulary items require context clues from a passage to determine word meanings (i.e., word structure may provide support but not the sole basis for the item).

        • Word structure may only assist in determining meaning and may include prefixes and suffixes.

5. Use dictionaries and glossaries to understand the meaning of new words

Standard: The student will apply standard English conventions when writing.

(Use of standard English conventions is necessary to help a writer convey meaning to the reader. Spelling, grammar, and usage may be taught as a separate unit as well as integrated into teaching writing processes.)

The student will:

1. Compose complete sentences when writing.

2. Recognize and correct spelling errors when writing.

3. Spell correctly one-syllable and two-syllable words that have blends, contractions and compounds.

4. Spell common homophones correctly.

5. Apply grammar conventions correctly in writing, including:

a. nouns

b. verbs

c. adjectives

d. pronouns.

6. Apply punctuation conventions correctly in writing, including:

a. periods, question marks, exclamation points

b. capitalization of proper nouns

c. abbreviations

d. sentence beginnings

e. commas in a series.

2003