3rd Grade Core Standards Guide- Unit 2- Instructional Period 1
What Do We Know About Characters?
Narrative-Elements of Literature- Plot
Rationale: By comparing character traits to outcome of events and by comparing characters
between texts, we gain a greater understand of themes in literature and how those themes can
teach us lessons about life.
Big Idea: Characters in stories teach us lessons about life.
Unit Outcome: TSW rewrite part of a narrative with a character from another narrative.
Learner Evidence: 1. TSW identify traits of a character in narrative text and reformat into
graphic organize. 2. TSW identify sequence of events in the story and reformat into graphic
organizer. 3. TSW answer guiding questions that facilitate making connections between
character traits and events. 4. TSW justify how a character’s traits affected the outcome of the
story. 5. TSW draw conclusion from character traits and sequence of event to determine the
lesson learned. 6. TSW make connections between character traits, what lesson was learned and
how the lesson might change the character. 7. TSW create a graphic organizer comparing and
contrasting the character of one narrative text to another narrative text. 8. TSW compare and
contrast the outcome of events (lesson learned) of both narratives and relate to the traits of each
character. 9. TSW rewrite a section of one of the narratives with a character from another
narrative (i.e. Sarah from Sarah Plain and Tall in The Treasure).
Performance Based Assessment:
Approximate Length of Unit: Introduction 15-20 days
Continue to spiral for mastery through-out year.
Year-Long Components:
Sequential Processing: affixes, syllabication, rules of reading
Vocabulary: Ayres List leveled for class and content related words
Fluency: Read for fluency daily
Stamina: Increase length and complexity
Comprehension strategies
Unit Specific Components:
Making Connections-text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world
Summarizing-Retell
Elements of literature-characters, setting, plot, author’s purpose, and point of view
Reformatting-graphic organizer
Inferring-character traits/feelings
Write narrative stories
Lexile Level 3: 600 - 790
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3rd Grade Core Standards Guide- Unit 2- Instructional Period 1
See appendix B page 37 - 61 for recommended and exemplar text
Fluency Rate: 124 WPM
Academic Vocabulary:
Making connections-text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world, summarizing-retell,
elements of literature-characters, setting, plot, author’s purpose, and point of view, reformattinggraphic organizer, inferring-character traits/feeling,write narrative stories.
Integrated Text Usage Component:
This unit requires students to toggle all text types and lengths flexibly. Provide students with
narrative, informative, poetry, and functional text. Students should use comprehension strategies
on all types of text.
Assessment Strategy:
Read the questions before reading the text
Common Core Standards:
3.RF.3 Know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
a. Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes.
b. Decode words with common Latin suffixes.
c. Decode multi-syllable words.
d. Read grade appropriate irregularly spelled words.
3.RF.4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
b. Read on-level prose orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive
readings.
c. Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as
necessary.
3.SL.5 Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an
understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts
or details.
3.SL.6 Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide
requested detail or clarification.
3.RL.7. Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustration contribute to what is conveyed by
the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).
3.RL.1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to
the text as the basis for the answers.
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3rd Grade Core Standards Guide- Unit 2- Instructional Period 1
3.SL.3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate
elaboration and detail.
3.RL.10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
3.RL.5. Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text,
using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on
earlier sections.
3.RL.9. Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same
author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).
3.RL.3. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain
how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
3.RL.6. Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.
3.RL.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.
3.W.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
a. Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and /or characters; organize an event sequence
that unfolds naturally.
b. Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and
events or show the response of characters to situations.
c. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
d. Provide a sense of closure.
3.W.4. With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and
organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
3.W.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day to two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks,
purposes, and audiences.
Arizona State Standards:
S1C3PO1 Read multi-syllabic words fluently, using letter-sound knowledge.
S1C3PO2 Apply knowledge of basic syllabication rules when decoding four or five syllable
written words.
S1C3PO5 Recognize high-frequency words and irregular sight words.
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3rd Grade Core Standards Guide- Unit 2- Instructional Period 1
S1C4PO1 Use knowledge of prefixes (un- re- in- dis-)
S1C4PO2 Use knowledge of suffixes (-ful –ly –less)
S1C5PO1 Consistently read grade level text with at least 90 percent accuracy
S1C5PO2 Read aloud from familiar prose with fluency and appropriate rhythm, pacing,
intonation, and vocal patterns.
S2C1PO1 Compare literary elements across stories, including plot, setting and character.
S2C1PO2 Describe characters within a literary selection.
S2C1PO3 Sequence a series of events in a literary selection
S2C1PO4 Make relevant connections between earlier events and later events in text.
S2C1PO5 Identify the speaker or narrator in a literary selection.
S2C2PO1 Compare events, characters, and conflicts in literary selections from a variety of
cultures to their experiences.
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