Third Grade City/State Focused Standards: Reading Literature, Grade 3 What the Standards Say… In other words… Text-Based Example (Questions based on Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting paired with A Train to Somewhere by Eve Bunting) How Else Might These Questions Be Worded… 3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. Students can ask and answer questions about what is happening in a story and whom it is happening to. They can also ask questions about where and why events happen. (Details will be literal, inferential, and interpretative—answer will not always be an exact word/phrase which students can point to.) Students might… ask questions about how the characters are revealed through what they say, think, and do, as well as through what others say about them. ask questions about the complex plot and theme of the book. ask questions about why the character is How does living in an airport make the boy feel? Support your answers with at least two details from the story. Why does the author include this line of dialogue: “Don’t stop trying,” I told it silently. “Don’t! You can get out!” Why does the author have the characters dress in blue? Why did the character say what he/she said? Why does the character do ________? Why is the character in ____(place) in the ___(specific part of text)? Which sentence tells what ____ feels when _____? Which detail in the first part of the story explains why __________? How does ______’s action affect the story? Which of these would most likely happen in the beginning/ end/middle? What are most of the characters representing?
feeling a certain way. ask questions about the place and time of the story. ask questions about the clues left by the author. Which words best describe_____? 3.2 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. Students will be able to tell what happened in a story in their own words. They will be able to tell the most important key details of what happened in the story in order. Students will be able to use the most important events in the story, or the key details, to think about and explain what lesson (or big idea or “central message”) the author might be trying to teach the reader. Students might… notice details around text structures. notice details around what the author is doing and why. notice details around the moral and the lesson learned. notice details around the main meaning of the text and why. notice details around the author’s use of complex language structures and how he/she is using them and why. What do you think the central message of “Fly Away Home” might be? Which detail about the bird is the most important to the central message of the story? Based on the story, which two words best describe the _________ (character/object)? What is the central message? Which is the best recounting of _________? Which detail about ________ is most important to the central message of the story? What is the central message of the passage? Recount the most important events in the folktale. What is the lesson learned in this fable? Which detail about _________ is the most important to the central message?
similar characters (e.g., in books from a series). from one text to another and how they might contrast as well. compare & contrast setting within one text and across multiple texts. compare and contrast plots across texts. compare and contrast across texts in a series. belong just like the boy is doing in Fly Away Home. How does Eve Bunting create similar characters in both books and how do their journeys seem similar and different? How are the main ideas of ______ and _____ different? How is the central message of both texts similar even though the settings are different? Which sentence from _____ best shows how the _____ is different? 3.11 Recognize and make connections in narratives, poetry, and drama to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, personal events, and situations. . Students will be able to compare and make connections across texts from a variety of cultures and genres. Students will also be able to compare and make connections from texts to personal events and situations. Students might… describe similarities and differences between cultural customs presented in a variety of texts. compare and contrast events in texts with the events in his/her life. compare and contrast situations presented in a text with personal experiences. In Fly Away Home, how does the story of the boy and his father help us understand more about homelessness? What are the similarities and differences between these two characters? Compare and contrast. Which of the following is a key detail found in both texts? How do the two texts from different countries represent the same cultural ideas?
City/State Focused Standards: Reading Informational Texts, Grade 3 What the Standards Say… In other words… Text-Based Example Questions based on The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett Fisher (first five pages) paired with You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Great Wall of China: Defenses You’d Rather Not Build by Jacqueline Morley (first page) How Else Might These Questions Be Worded… 3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. Students will ask questions as they read to pay closer attention to what they are reading. They will ask and answer questions to get more information and they will show how and where they found the answer. They will build on the work of last year when they were expected to ask and answer questions such as “who, what, where, when, why, or how.” Students may not be able to locate the What is one problem that King Cheng faces when he becomes the first Emperor of China? What happened first that made it possible for King Cheng to become the first emperor of China? On the second page of the text, what do we learn about why the man has come to see King What’s the main idea of this part of the text? According to the text and photos in the passage what do the photos show about the difference in the _______ (place/body features/objects/activity/…) from _____ and ______? Which question could be answered by reading the first couple of paragraphs?
3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. Students will find the most important details in a passage (the key details) and put them together to find a main idea, or what the passage is mostly about. They will retell key details in order to show how they support the main idea. Students might… discuss the importance and significance of reoccurring details. explain how text features add to the understanding of a topic or an idea. locate the main ideas within parts of the text rather than locating one main idea across the whole text. discuss how the main idea connects to why the author wrote the text in the first place. identify the important details that led to the main idea of the text through understanding the structure of that text. use important ideas, concepts and perspectives to identify the main idea. use signal words that point to important details and information in the text. Explain what the author is trying to say about the topic and why. What main idea about King Cheng do you get from the first page? How does the illustration at the bottom of page one help support the main idea about King Cheng? How do _________? Which detail in paragraph __ best supports the main idea of the passage? In which part of the text does the main idea begin? The main idea of section __ could be…? A detail that supports the main idea is _______? Which sentence from the passage explains what the author most wants readers to understand about ________? Which detail in paragraph __ supports the main idea? How do the details about the _______ help you understand the main idea of paragraph __? 3.3 Describe the relationship between a Students will pay attention to time, order, and sequence of events to keep track of when events happened. They will use signal words to get clues about What best explains why King Cheng made everyone in China wear black? Read the two sentences in the passage. Which question could be answered after reading them?
relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area. Students might… use context clues to determine the meaning of academic vocabulary. use context clues to determine the meaning of domain-specific vocabulary. use context clues to determine the meaning of figurative phrases and language. use context clues to determine the meaning of dialogue. use context clues to determine the meaning of words with prefixes and suffixes. horseman raided Chinese villages.” The author uses the word “fierce” to show_____? What clues in the passage can help you to figure out the meaning of the word “raided”? What is the meaning of “______”as it is used in this passage? Use clues in the first paragraph to find the meaning of this word. Read the sentence from the article. “___” (Paragraph 3). How does Paragraph 7 support this sentence? Paragraph _ of the passage states, “___.” What does the word _____ mean? Support your response with two details from the passage. Three clues from the passage can help you figure out the meaning of ____________. The first two clues are listed below. Write the third clue in the “Clues” column and fill in the blank under the “What the Words Mean” heading. Which word from the passage best tells what the word ____ means? Look at the answer you chose above. Explain how the clue words in the passage helped you figure out the meaning of _____. Choose another word or a group of words in the passage that helps you figure out the meaning of ______. Discuss how they help you figure out the meaning of “____.”
Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a sequence). connected and think about relationships such as sequence, cause-effect, and comparison. To do this, they will pay attention to signal words (first/next or as a result/since or alike/both/different/however). Students might… notice transitions and describe how they help a text flow from beginning to the end. describe details around the structure of the paragraphs. describe details around the way the paragraphs or sentences transition. “China was difficult to manage.” “But the emperor brought order to his unwieldy lands” What is the relationship between these two sentences? Read these two sentences from paragraph “____”. Which of the following describes the relationship between these two sentences? How are the ideas in this sentence connected? Answer choices might include connections such as: sentences shows steps in a process compares two events first part of sentence explains reason for the second part of the sentence second part of the sentence gives the cause of the first part) Paragraph ___ tells that _______. How does paragraph (earlier paragraph) explain why this happened? Which sentence from paragraph ____ tells how the two ________ were alike? Which sentence from the passage best tells a way that the ________were different? What two things are being compared in these sentences? How is _____ like the _____?