Language Arts

Grade 3: Reading	Planning: Term # Tracking: Ach. Level
Overall Expectations	1	2	3	4
1. read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
3. use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently;
4. reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.
Specific Expectations
1. Reading for Meaning
Variety of Texts: 1.1 read a variety of literary texts (e.g., fables, traditional Aboriginal stories, poetry, chapter books, adventure stories, letters, diaries), graphic texts (e.g., comic books, posters, charts, tables, maps, graphs), and informational texts (e.g., "How to" books, print and electronic reference sources, magazine articles)
Purpose: 1.2 identify a variety of purposes for reading and choose reading materials appropriate for those purposes (e.g., comic books and adventure stories for entertainment and interest, trade books to find information and answer questions, dictionaries to find word meanings and pronunciation, atlases for specific information about the world, newspapers for information on current events)
Comprehension Strategies: 1.3 identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand texts (e.g., activate prior knowledge through brainstorming and/or developing mind maps; ask questions to focus reading and clarify understanding; use visualization to clarify details about such things as homes and clothing of early settlers; use pictures to confirm understanding of printed text)
Demonstrating Understanding: 1.4 demonstrate understanding of a variety of texts by identifying important ideas and some supporting details (e.g., restate important ideas and some related details from an informational text about early settlers; retell a story giving details about specific elements of the text such as setting, characters, and theme)
Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts: 1.5 make inferences about texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts as evidence. Teacher prompts: "Using information from the story opening, what can you infer about the outcome of the game?" "How do you think the other characters will react to the actions of the main character?" "Why do you think early settlers chose wood to build their homes? Is there any evidence in the text to explain this?"
Extending Understanding: 1.6 extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them. Teacher prompts: "How are homes in this book the same as or different from homes today?" "Do you know of other reasons why trees are important besides the reasons mentioned in the book?"
Analysing Texts: 1.7 identify specific elements of texts and explain how they contribute to the meaning of the texts (e.g., narrative: setting, characters, plot, theme; explanation of a procedure: procedure to be explained, sequence of steps). Teacher prompts: "In what way does knowing more about the characters help you to understand the text?" "How does identifying the setting in the text help you as a reader?" "Why is it important to have the steps in a specific sequence?"
Responding to and Evaluating Texts: 1.8 express personal opinions about ideas presented in texts (e.g., identify traits they admire in the characters; comment on actions taken by characters). Teacher prompts: "Do any of the characters in this story remind you of someone you know?" "What do you think about the way this story ends?"
Point of View: 1.9 identify the point of view presented in a text and suggest some possible alternative perspectives (e.g., retell the story from the point of view of someone other than the author). Teacher prompts: "How does the author show his/her point of view on this poster?" "How might the story have been different if the main character had been a girl instead of a boy or a senior instead of a child?"
2. Understanding Form and Style
Text Forms: 2.1 identify and describe the characteristics of a variety of text forms, with a focus on literary texts such as a fable or adventure story (e.g., plot development, characters, setting), graphic texts such as a comic book (e.g., speech bubbles, illustrations, captions), and informational texts such as a nature magazine (e.g., table of contents, diagrams, photographs, labels, captions)
Text Patterns: 2.2 recognize a few organizational patterns in texts of different types, and explain how the patterns help readers understand the texts (e.g., classification/grouping of ideas in a report or a factual recount). Teacher prompt: "How does this pattern help you understand the text?"
Text Features: 2.3 identify a variety of text features and explain how they help readers understand texts (e.g., table of contents, charts and chart titles, headings, an index, a glossary, graphs, illustrations, pictures, diagrams, hyperlinks, a menu). Teacher prompt: "What is the purpose of a glossary in a non-fiction text? How could you use it to help you understand the text?"
Elements of Style: 2.4 identify some elements of style, including voice, word choice, and different types of sentences, and explain how they help readers understand texts (e.g., different sentence types make the text more interesting for the reader and help the author express different kinds of ideas - questions express or stimulate curiosity; exclamations convey emotions such as surprise or excitement)
3. Reading with Fluency
Reading Familiar Words: 3.1 automatically read and understand most high-frequency words, many regularly used words, and words of personal interest or significance, in a variety of reading contexts (e.g., words from grade-level texts; terminology used regularly in discussions and posted on anchor charts; words from shared-, guided-, and independent-reading texts, and some regularly used resource materials in the curriculum subject areas)
Reading Unfamiliar Words: 3.2 predict the meaning of and rapidly solve unfamiliar words using different types of cues, including: • semantic (meaning) cues (e.g., prefixes, suffixes, base words, phrases, sentences, and visuals that activate existing knowledge of oral and written language); • syntactic (language structure) cues (e.g., word order, language patterns, punctuation); • graphophonic (phonological and graphic) cues (e.g., onset and rime; syllables; similarities between words with common spelling patterns and unknown words; words within words) Teacher prompt (for cross-checking of cues): "Does the word sound right and make sense given your understanding of the text?"
Reading Fluently: 3.3 read appropriate texts at a sufficient rate and with sufficient expression to convey the sense of the text readily to the reader and an audience (e.g., read a poem for two voices with a partner, using appropriate phrasing and expression)
4. Reflecting on Reading Skills and Strategies
Metacognition: 4.1 identify, initially with some support and direction, what strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading and how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers. Teacher prompts: "What questions do you ask yourself to make sure you are understanding what you are reading?" "How do you know if you are on the right track?" "When you come to a word or phrase you don't understand, how do you solve it?" "How do you figure out what information is important to remember?" "What do you do when you get confused during reading?"
Interconnected Skills: 4.2 explain, initially with some support and direction, how their skills in listening, speaking, writing, viewing, and representing help them make sense of what they read. Teacher prompts: "How does hearing a similar text read aloud help you when you read a new text independently?" "How does knowing specific words or phrases from speaking or listening help you as a reader?" "How does dialogue with the teacher or peers in conferences help you as a reader?" "What do you know about writing that helps you as a reader?"

Expectations: Copyright The Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2006.  Format: Copyright B.Phillips, 1998.