Literacy       

Reading

Our Grade 3 Reading Program helps students grow into independent, strategic, and confident readers who engage deeply with texts. Grounded in the Science of Reading, our instruction supports students’ development of both word recognition (decoding and fluency) and language comprehension (vocabulary, background knowledge, syntax, and discourse). Students learn to read accurately and fluently while building the skills to understand increasingly complex texts.

Each unit integrates systematic instruction in decoding and fluency, vocabulary building, comprehension strategies, and higher-level thinking. Students engage in rich discussions, develop background knowledge, and learn how to monitor their own reading to solve problems and build stamina.

Our yearlong program includes four thoughtfully sequenced units:

Unit 1: Building a Reading Life

This unit sets the foundation for lifelong reading habits. Students learn how to choose “just-right” books, read across a variety of genres, and build their reading stamina. They develop essential decoding and word-solving strategies, learn how to retell, make predictions, and envision stories, and practice monitoring comprehension. Students also reflect on their reading identities, tracking their progress and learning how to navigate challenges with confidence.

Unit 2: Reading to Learn

Students shift their focus to nonfiction reading, learning that informational texts require different strategies. They learn to identify main ideas and supporting details, use text features like diagrams and headings to gain a broader understanding, and synthesize information across sections of text. This builds background knowledge, academic vocabulary, and the ability to read critically—skills that support comprehension in all subjects.

Unit 3: Character Studies

This unit deepens comprehension by helping students analyze characters’ motivations, actions, and responses to challenges. Students learn to make inferences and predictions based on character behavior, supporting their thinking with text evidence. They also explore story structure, identifying patterns across stories and comparing books by the same author to deepen understanding of themes, settings, and plots.

Unit 4: Research Clubs: Animal Life Cycles

In this collaborative unit, students read nonfiction texts about animals and focus on identifying key ideas, supporting details, and important vocabulary. They learn to synthesize information from across different sections of a text and compare and contrast information across multiple texts. This unit emphasizes critical reading skills, collaboration, and oral language development—all essential for building comprehension and knowledge.

Throughout the year, students engage in systematic vocabulary instruction, develop fluency through repeated reading and phrasing practice, and receive explicit instruction in comprehension strategies such as predicting, retelling, questioning, and summarizing. By connecting reading, writing, speaking, and listening, we ensure students are well-prepared to tackle the increasingly complex texts they will encounter in Grade 3 and beyond.

Writing

Our Grade 3 Writing Program empowers students to become confident, skilled, and purposeful writers across a variety of genres. Rooted in the Science of Reading and Writing, our approach emphasizes the strong connection between reading and writing, ensuring that students learn to generate ideas, organize information, and use language effectively to communicate with an audience.

Throughout the year, students develop foundational writing skills including phonics knowledge for spelling, sentence structure, grammar conventions, and the use of precise vocabulary—all essential for conveying meaning clearly and accurately. Students also learn how to revise and edit their own work, building metacognitive awareness and taking ownership of their writing process.

Our program is organized into four units:

Unit 1: Crafting True Stories

In this narrative writing unit, students learn to craft personal narratives by zooming in on meaningful small moments and structuring them with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Students gather ideas in their writer’s notebooks, select seed ideas to develop, and revise their drafts by studying mentor texts and learning from published authors. They learn to use precise language, dialogue, and details to make their writing come alive, while also applying foundational mechanics of writing such as paragraphing, punctuation, and spelling.

Unit 2: The Art of Information Writing

This unit teaches students to organize and explain information clearly, using nonfiction text features such as headings, diagrams, and definitions. Students learn how to gather facts, synthesize information, and teach their readers, developing academic vocabulary and domain-specific knowledge. They practice using transition words to connect ideas, attend to text structure, and consider their audience and purpose as they prepare their work for publication.

Unit 3: Once Upon a Time (Writing Fairy Tales)

Students explore traditional literature by writing original and adapted fairy tales. They develop a storyteller’s voice by crafting strong leads, dialogue, and descriptive language that create vivid worlds and characters. Students also study story structure—how problems build, how characters respond, and how stories resolve—while learning to elaborate their ideas through actions, thoughts, and feelings.

Unit 4: Persuasive Writing: Writing to Make a Difference

In this opinion and persuasive writing unit, students learn that their voices matter and that writing can inspire real-world change. They study mentor texts to see how writers persuade an audience, learning how to state opinions clearly, defend them with reasons and examples, and use transition words to create logical flow. Students write persuasive pieces about topics they care about, using writing strategies to engage readers, build empathy, and advocate for change.

Throughout the year, we integrate the Science of Writing by teaching students how to move through the writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. We emphasize sentence construction, cohesion, and transitions to support their ability to write with fluency and clarity. Writing is treated as a process of thinking, helping students develop strong communication skills that they will use across disciplines and throughout their lives.           

Inquiry

Grade 3 Inquiry units are designed to offer students authentic experiences where they generate questions and tackle complex issues, as individuals and teams.  Social Studies based units are aligned to the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) standards, and they address concepts of citizenship, leadership, and governance.  Throughout the year, students will research and discuss the role of citizens in a community, different government systems, and how they can make a positive impact in their communities.  

Science phenomenon-based units are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In Grade 3, students engage in a study of movement and the interaction of objects, investigate weather and climate, and explore inheritance and variation of traits in organisms. 

In all units, students develop conceptual understanding around core ideas and practice the skills of the disciplines, including:

AERO Social Studies Practices

1. Develop Questions and Plan Inquiries

2. Evaluate the Credibility of the Sources and Relevance of the Information to the Inquiry

3. Construct Coherent, Reasoned Arguments and Explanations

4. Communicate Conclusions From an Inquiry

5. Take Informed Action for the Common Good

NGSS Science and Engineering Practices

1. Asking Questions and Defining Problems

2. Developing and Using Models

3. Planning and Carrying out Investigations

4. Analyzing and Interpreting Data

5. Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

6. Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

7. Engaging in Argument from Evidence

8. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information