Reading

Reading has several strands of standards that are all inter-woven to build reading comprehension. Here are some of the strands that we will be focusing on in 3rd grade this year:

FLUENCY

ACCURACY

COMPREHENSION

PLEASE - continue to encourage your child to read every day for at least 20 minutes a day. This can be with you or by themselves. You can talk to your teacher about finding books and/or topics that your child may be interested in and would be third-grade appropriate.

FLUENCY - This is how quickly your 3rd grader is able to process the words that are on the page. 3rd graders will be taking the Acadience state test three times a year to assess how quickly they read the words out loud. By the end of the year, your child should be able to read a third-grade text at 100 correct words per minute.

ACCURACY - This is how your 3rd grader pronounces the words on the page. This is also referred to as "phonics" or "phonemic awareness". We will use the 95% phonics program to help your child learn to break apart words based on syllable types. This will help them to learn whether the syllable has a short vowel, long vowel, or silent letter. This will be tested using both the Acadience state test and the 95% group PSI. By the end of the year, your child should be able to read a third-grade text at 98% accuracy.

COMPREHENSION - This is how well your 3rd grader understands and can make connections with the text that they are reading. The state of Utah has several standards that address comprehension. Because reporting grades on all of the Utah state standards (there are over 20 of them) would be overwhelming, Alpine School District has asked us to focus on 4 main standards listed below:

In literature (fiction) - asking and answering questions while referring directly to the text to support the answer

In literature (fiction) - finding the theme, moral, or lesson while referring directly to the text to support the answer

In informational (nonfiction) - asking and answering questions while referring directly to the text to support the answer

In informational (nonfiction) - finding the main idea while referring directly to the text to support the answer

You should notice that all four of the standards chosen by Alpine School District ask the student to refer directly to the text to support the answer. This is often asked by the question, "How do you know?" or "show the evidence in your answer".