LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 3
Topic: Reading Informational Text
Key Learning: Students read and respond to informational text – with emphasis on comprehension,
making connections among ideas and between texts, and textual evidence.
Unit Essential Questions:
1. How do I read, understand and respond to informational text?
2. How do I make connections among ideas and between texts?
3. How do I use textual evidence effectively?
Concept:
1 Informational
Concept:
Preview, Predict and Set Purpose
Key Ideas and Details
CC 1.2.3.E, CC 1.2.3.L
CC 1.2.3.A, CC 1.2.3.B, CC 1.2.3.C
Lesson Essential Questions:
Main Idea
Lesson Essential Questions:
What is an effective text preview in informational text?
2
Informational
How do I determine the main idea of a text?

How can I use text features (title, table of contents,
headings, graphs, charts, tables, glossary,
illustrations, photographs) to help me gather key
details?
How do I recount the key details and explain how they
support the main idea?

How does determining the text structure help me
gather key details?
What questions are important to ask as I read this
informational text?

How do I use a preview to determine my purpose for
reading?
How do I monitor and modify my predictions as I read?
Text Analysis
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I refer explicitly to the text when asking and
answering questions?
How do I answer questions to demonstrate understanding
of key details from informational texts?
How do I use the key details to make inferences in the
informational text?
How can I explain the connection between a series of
events, concepts or steps in a procedure in an
informational text?
What language do I use to refer to time, sequence and
cause and effect?
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
Text feature, text structure
Recount, explicit, series of events, steps in a procedure,
Time signal words – first, next, last, etc.
Cause and effect words – because, since, so, as a result,
then
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LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 3
Concept:
4
Informational
Concept:
5 Informational
CC 1.2.3.D, CC 1.2.3.E, CC 1.2.3.F
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CC 1.2.3.G, CC 1.2.3.H, CC 1.2.3.I
Point of View:
Lesson Essential Question:
Diverse Media
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I identify and explain the point of view of the
author in an informational text?
How do I demonstrate understanding of text using
information gained from illustrations, maps, photographs
and words?
Craft and Structure
Text Structure
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I use text features and search tools to efficiently
locate and interpret information on a topic?
Vocabulary
Lesson Essential Questions:
Evaluating Arguments
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I identify and describe the connections the author
makes between sentences and paragraphs to support
particular points?
How do I determine and clarify the meaning of unknown
words and multiple meaning words and phrases as they
are used in grade level text?
How did the organization of the text support the authors’
specific points? (comparison, cause/effect,
first/second/third in sequence)
How do I use context as a clue to understand the
meaning of a word or a phrase?
Analysis Across Texts
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I determine the literal and nonliteral meanings of
words and phrases on context? (e.g., take steps)
How do I compare and contrast the most important points
and key details presented by two texts on the same
topic?
How do I recognize the shades of meaning among
related words? (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard,
wondered)
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
recount, search tools (key words, side bars, hyperlinks),
text features (headings, graphs, charts, illustrations),
shades of meaning, literal and nonliteral meanings
comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in sequence
Concept:
5 Informational
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
CC 1.2.3.J, CC 1.2.3.K
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I acquire new vocabulary (grade appropriate academic, conversational and general academic, domain
specific, including those that signal spatial and temporal realtionships)?
How do I accurately use new vocabulary (grade appropriate academic, conversational and general academic, domain
specific , including those that signal spatial and temporal realtionships)?
What tools and strategies can I use to determine or clarify the meaning of a word I don’t know?
Vocabulary:
Academic, conversational, domain specific, spatial and temporal relationships
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LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 3
Topic: Reading Literature
Key Learning: Students read and respond to works of literature – with emphasis on comprehension,
making connections among ideas and between texts, and textual evidence.
Unit Essential Questions:
1. How do I read, understand and respond to literature?
2. How do I make connections among ideas and between texts?
3. How do I use textual evidence effectively?
Concept:
1 Literature
Concept:
2
Literature
Preview, Predict and Set Purpose
Key Ideas and Details
CC 1.3.3.D, CC 1.3.3.K
CC 1.3.3.A, CC 1.3.3.B, CC 1.3.3.C
Lesson Essential Questions:
Theme
Lesson Essential Questions:
What is an effective text preview in literature?
How do I use key details from the text to determine the
central message, lesson or moral?

How can I use text features (title, author, illustrator,
cover, illustrations/photographs, captions, table of
contents, chapter titles) to make predictions about
literary elements?

How does identifying the genre of the story help me
understand what I read?

How do I use a preview to determine my purpose for
reading?
How do I monitor and modify my predictions as I read?
How do I summarize literary text to include the central
message, lesson or moral?
Text Analysis
Lesson Essential Questions:
Why is it important that I ask and answer questions as I
read?
How do I refer explicitly to the text when asking and
answering questions?
How do I make inferences using what I already know
and information from the text?
Literary Eleme nts
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I determine and describe a character’s traits,
motivations and feelings in a story?
How do a character’s words and actions contribute to the
sequence of events in a story?
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
purpose, preview, caption
Key details, central message, lesson, moral, recount
(poems, dramas, stories), fables,folk tales, myths,
diverse cultures, inference, traits, motivations, sequence
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LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 3
Concept:
3 Literature
Concept:
4 Literature
Craft and Structure
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CC 1.3.3.D, CC 1.3.3.E, CC 1.3.3.F
CC 1.3.3.G, CC 1.3.3.H
Point of View
Lesson Essential Question:
Sources of Information
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I explain the point of view from which a story is
narrated? (first-person, third-person)
How do the illustrations support the story? (mood, setting,
character)
Text Structure
Lesson Essential Questions:
Text Analysis
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I refer to parts of texts when speaking about a
text? (chapter, scene, stanza)
How do I compare and contrast the themes, settings and
plot of stories written by the same author?
How does each part of the text build upon earlier
sections?
How does the author’s purpose change the way I read a
text?
Vocabulary
Lesson Essential Questions:
How does the author’s word choice support the central
message, lesson, or moral?
How do I determine and clarify the meaning of unknown words
and multiple meaning words and phrases as they are used in
grade level text?
How do I use context as a clue to understand the meaning of a
word or a phrase?
How do I determine the literal and nonliteral meaning of words
and phrases in context? (e.g., take steps)
How do I recognize the shades of meaning among related
words? (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered)
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
Chapter, scene, stanza, first person, third person, literal,
non-literal, shades of meaning
Clarify, mood
Concept:
5 Literature
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
CC 1.3.3.I, CC 1.3.3.J
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I build new vocabulary including content-specific words and phrases?
How do I use new vocabulary in daily conversation and writing?
How do I build and use prepositional phrases and time-order words accurately?
How do I use context clues to understand the meaning of a word or a phrase?
What tools and strategies can I use to find the meaning of a word I do not know?
Vocabulary:
Prepositional phrases, time-order words,concept-specific
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