Literacy

Our 3rd grade ELA curriculum is composed of:

Reading

Reading strategies and topics we explore through the year include using visualizing, using context clues, making connections (to self, other books, and the world), summarizing, inferring, identifying the main idea and supporting details, character traits, and story sequence. Students visit the classroom library center to have the opportunity to read a variety of genres and author series. The reading curriculum is composed of:

Harcourt Trophies anthology

Molly's Pilgrim novel study

Charlotte's Web novel study

The Chocolate Touch novel study

The Transcontinental Railroad book study

Coolies book study

Writing

Writing Workshop is a student-centered framework where students write frequently, for extended periods of time, on topics of their own choice based on the writing genres we study. The steps of writing we engage during Writing Workshop are:

• prewriting (brainstorming ideas using graphic organizers such as bubble maps)
• drafting (rough draft)
• revising (teacher conference, self/peer editing)
• editing (final draft)
• publishing (sharing our writing)

Tools we use during our daily writing are our journals and the Writing Fundamentals Program. Mini lessons to build our writing skills include "Stoplight Paragraphs" to learn how to compose a paragraph, "Stretch a Sentence" to practice adding details, and "Show Don't Tell" to create descriptive writing. The Writing Fundamentals Program topics are a Patricia Polacco author study, biographies, and personal narratives. Students write about themes Polacco did (i.e a special person in our lives). Next, students write biographies about Theodor Giesel aka Dr. Seuss, Rosa Parks, Jacques Cousteau, and Amelia Earhart as well as completing a biography project of their choice. Then, students write personal narratives that become part of personal narrative books they make. Every topic is introduced using a mentor text that we read, followed by a discussion of writing methods the author used and ways the writer made the story interesting for readers.

Grammar

Topics include types of sentences, subjects and predicates, punctuation marks, and parts of speech.

We use the Harcourt Language Program, anchor charts, graphic organizers, interactive notebook activities, academic games, and the Smartboard during our exploration of these topics.