+ Language Arts

A set of B-Grade VIII standards provides the framework for our work in language arts. Below are listed some of the goals we have for third grade students in language arts.  

• Read grade-level text fluently and with adequate phrasing and expression 
• Choose books at an appropriate level for independent reading 
• Summarize main points from fictional and informational text 
• Make inferences and predictions
• Communicate fluently in writing
• Use a variety of sentence structures to enhance writing
• Use conventional spelling and punctuation in written work

Reading: Students meet daily in groups to read and discuss a shared text. In their reading groups, they work on decoding, comprehension, vocabulary, and other language skills. They use a variety of literature appropriate to the age and skill level of the groups. 

Partial Bibliography: Grimes, Garvey’s Choice and Words with Wings; Perkins, Tiger Boy; Brown, The Wild Robot; Applegate, The One and Only Ivan; Bulla, The Chalkbox Kid; Creech, Love That Dog; DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie; Lin, Year of the Dog; Roop, Good-bye for Today: The Diary of a Young Girl at Sea; Ryan, Riding Freedom; White, Charlotte’s Web; Buck, The Big Wave; Hesse, The Music of Dolphins; Hill, The Year of Miss Agnes; Walter, Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World; McManis and Sorell, Indian No More; various biographies and poetry books. 

Writing: Across the curriculum, third graders experience many opportunities to practice their writing. Students are expected to plan, draft, revise, and edit their longer pieces of writing. Projects include personal narratives, letters, reading responses, poetry, research reports, short stories, whaling biographies, and journals. Students are taught conventional sentence structure and the rules of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Students use laptop computers for some of the more extensive writing projects. 

Spelling: The third grade program emphasizes phonics and the recognition of word patterns and syllables.  Spelling rules and generalizations are taught and reinforced through small group work, games, dictations, homework and writing assignments, and weekly quizzes.   


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