Curriculum

MATHEMATICS

Our new third grade program is comprised of 10 Units that cover all of the MA Curriculum standards.  These units will be introduced via daily slides, and students will engage in learning through the use of digital tools, games, manipulatives, and white boards.  

3rd Grade Math Units

• Unit 1: Represent  and Interpret Data -  Students will learn how to read and create multiple types of graphs. Students will analyze the data and problem solve.

• Unit 2: Place Value Within 1,000 -  Topics include place value, rounding, estimation addition and subtraction. Students will apply rounding and estimation in problem solving with addition and subtraction.

• Unit 3: Understand Multiplication - Topics include multiplication facts, the distributive property, and multiplication by multiples of 10. Students will apply these principles in problem solving.

• Unit 4: Multiplication Facts and Strategies - Topics include multiplication facts, the Distributive Property, the Associative  Property, and multiplication by multiples of 10. Students will apply these principles in problem solving including multi-step word problems.

• Unit 5: Understand Division Facts and Strategies - Topics include the relationship of multiplication to division, using multiplication facts to solve division problems, multi-step/multi-operations word problems.

• Unit 6: - Perimeter and Area - Topics include determining area and perimeter, creating figures with a given area or perimeter, calculating the area of irregular figures

• Unit 7: Geometry - Topics include a study of polygons with an emphasis on quadrilaterals.

• Unit 8: Understand Fractions and Line Plots: Topics include understanding the value of a fractional part to a whole. Students will learn to create, read, count, and compare fractions. A major fraction topic is creating and recognizing equivalent fractions.

• Unit 9: Compare Fractions  - Topics include comparing numerators, comparing denominators, equivalent fractions and ordering fractions by size

• Unit 10: Time, Liquid Volume and Mass - Topics include time to the nearest minute, elapsed time, determining the volume or mass of a given object

LANGUAGE ARTS

FUNDATIONS

Students will continue daily practice of encoding and decoding skills using  a program called Fundations.  Fundations Level 3 provides a systematic and explicit approach to reading and spelling with phonics.  In Level 3, emphasis is place on advanced word structure, spelling, vocabulary, and cursive handwriting.  We will combine instruction in these areas with the reading of a wide variety of literature including poetry, narrative, and expository text.

EL Education

The Tewksbury Public School District has adopted the EL Education Reading Program in Grades K-6. The third grade goal is to complete Modules 1-3.  Below, is an overview of Module 1.

Unit Description

In Unit 1, students read literary texts about children who face challenges with access to education. Throughout the course of the unit, students read three literary texts: Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown, Rain School by James Rumford, and Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter. They read each text for gist, recount the text, determine its central message or lesson, and then closely read and answer text-dependent questions designed to help them explain how that central message or lesson is conveyed through details in the text. Students also identify the challenges faced by the characters and how they are able to overcome them.

Throughout the unit, students are introduced to routines and anchor charts that will be used throughout the rest of the module, as well as the rest of the year. In the first half of the unit, students learn about independent reading and discussion norms and receive their independent reading journals and vocabulary logs. For the mid-unit assessment, students discuss what they like about their independent reading books and the things that they have found challenging. In the second half of the unit, after learning how to write short constructed responses, students read a new literary text, answer selected response questions, and write short constructed responses about questions having to do with the text.

Big Ideas & Guiding Questions

Why are education, books, and reading important?

• Education, books, and reading are important because they help us learn about and make sense of the world, and escape into the lives of other people and other worlds.

The 4 T's

• Topic: Overcoming Learning Challenges—School and Education

• Task: For the mid-unit assessment, students meet in small groups to engage in a collaborative discussion, building on one another’s ideas and expressing their own clearly. Students read a new literary text, answer selected response questions, and write short constructed responses about it for the end of unit assessment.

• Targets: 

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

  • 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.

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

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

  • Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.

  • Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).

  • Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.

  • Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.

  • Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.

  • Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

• Texts: Waiting for the Biblioburro; Rain School; Nasreen’s Secret School; Elephant Library

READWORKS

ReadWorks is an online collection of literary and nonfiction articles designed to build student background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading stamina.  The articles are assigned based on student reading level as well as student interest and can be differentiated to offer support to all types of learners.  The goal is to build comprehension and automaticity through passages that target student interest and align with curriculum topics.

WRITING

Writing is highly emphasized in third grade and is present across the curriculum.  Instruction will include writing to entertain, persuade, and inform.  Students begin the year by learning to respond to prompts using R.A.C.E.  (R stands for restate the question. A stands for answer the question. C stands for cite text-based evidence.  E stands for explain your thinking.)

In third grade students  also learn cursive for the first time.  This is a slow and steady process that students typically enjoy.

SOCIAL STUDIES and SCIENCE

During social studies students are introduced to mapping skills and geography, early American history, and local history.   In science we cover a variety of topics, including weather, magnets, and heredity: inheritance and variation of traits.  Material  for both subjects will be presented in the form of videos, articles, and other on-line resources.  Students will participate in project-based learning as well engage in group discussions.