Language Arts

Grade 3: Reading

Overall Expectations

•read a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials (e.g., chapter books, children's reference books) for different purposes;

•read aloud, speaking clearly and with expression;

•read independently, using a variety of reading strategies;

•express clear responses to written materials, relating the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience and to ideas in other materials that they have read;

•select material that they need from a variety of sources;

•understand the vocabulary and language structures appropriate for this grade level;

•use conventions of written materials to help them understand and use the materials. 

Specific Expectations

Reasoning and Critical Thinking

•identify and restate the main idea in a piece of writing, and cite supporting details;

•identify and describe some elements of stories (e.g., plot, central idea, characters, setting);

•distinguish between fact and fiction;

•begin to make inferences while reading;

•use familiar vocabulary and the context to determine the meaning of a passage containing unfamiliar words;

•begin to develop their own opinions by considering some ideas from various written materials;

Understanding of Form and Style

•identify and describe different forms of writing (e.g., poems, stories, plays);

•use their knowledge of the organization and characteristics of different forms of writing as a guide before and during reading (e.g., chapters in an adventure story often end with a cliffhanger; menus usually list the items of food on the left and the price of each item on the right);

Knowledge of Language Structures

•use their knowledge of word order in oral and written language to determine the meaning of sentences;

•use basic grammatical relationships to help them understand what they read (e.g., the relationship between nouns and pronouns and between nouns and verbs);

Vocabulary Building

•use a variety of strategies to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words (e.g., use the context, break the word into syllables or other recognizable units, use a dictionary, use phonics);

•understand frequently used specialized terms in different subject areas (e.g., science, mathematics);

Use of Conventions

•use punctuation to help them understand what they read (e.g., exclamation mark, quotation marks);

•identify various conventions of formal texts and use them to find information (e.g., table of contents, chapter titles, headings, index, glossary, charts, graphs).

Expectations: Copyright The Queen's Printer for Ontario, 1997.  With thanks to B.Phillips, 1998.

---