Third Grade California Common Core Standards: ELA
CALIFORNIA COMMON CORE STANDARDS: ELA
GRADE 3
RL: READING STANDARDS LITERATURE
Key Ideas and Details
1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text,
referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
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. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or
feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of
events.
Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a
text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language. (See grade 3
Language standards 4-6 for additional expectations.)
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.
6. Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of
the characters.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what
is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize
aspects of a character or setting).
8. (Not applicable to literature)
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).
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
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.
RI: READING STANDARDS FOR INFORMATIONAL TEXT
Key Ideas and Details
1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text,
referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
2. Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain
how they support the main idea.
3. Describe the relationship between a series of historical events,
scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text,
using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific
words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject
area. (See grade 3 Language standards 4-6 for additional
expectations.)
5. Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars,
hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
6. Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs)
and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g.,
where, when, why, and how key events occur).
8. Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and
paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third
in a sequence).
9. Compare and contrast the most important points and key details
presented in two texts on the same topic.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts,
including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the
high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and
proficiently.
RF: READING STANDARDS: FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS K-5
Phonics and Word Recognition
(No standards 1 and 2)
3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in
decoding words both in isolation and in text.
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.
Fluency
4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
b. Read on-level prose and poetry 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.
W: WRITING STANDARDS
Text Types and Purposes
1. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with
reasons.
a. Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion,
and create an organizational structure that lists reasons.
b. Provide reasons that support the opinion.
c. Use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since,
for example) to connect opinion and reasons.
d. Provide a concluding statement or section.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey
ideas and information clearly.
a. Introduce a topic and group related information together; include
illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
c. Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more,
but) to connect ideas within categories of information.
d. Provide a concluding statement or section.
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.
Production and Distribution of Writing
4. With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the
development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
(Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in
standards 1–3 above.)
5. With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and
strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
(Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language
standards 1–3 up to and including grade 3.)
6. With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce
and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact
and collaborate with others.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.
8. Recall information from experiences or gather information from print
and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence
into provided categories.
9. (Begins in grade 4)
Range of Writing
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research,
reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a
day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and
audiences.
SL: SPEAKING AND LISTENING
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-
one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 3
topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own
clearly.
a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required
material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information
known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.
b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in
respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a
time about the topics and texts under discussion).
c. Ask questions to check understanding of information presented,
stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.
d. Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the
discussion.
2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud
or information presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually, quantitatively, and orally.
3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering
appropriate elaboration and detail.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with
appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at
an understandable pace.
a. Plan and deliver an informative/ explanatory presentation on a
topic that: organizes ideas around major points of information,
follows a logical sequence, includes supporting details, uses clear
and specific vocabulary, and provides a strong conclusion.
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.
6. Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation
in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 3
Language standards 1 and 3 for specific expectations.)
L: LANGUAGE STANDARDS
Conventions of Standard English
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
a. Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
b. Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.
c. Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).
d. Form and use regular and irregular verbs.
e. Form and use the simple (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb
tenses.
f. Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.
g. Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and
adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be
modified.
h. Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
i. Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.
j. Write legibly in cursive or joined italics, allowing margins and
correct spacing between letters in a word and words in a
sentence.
k. Use reciprocal pronouns correctly.
2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
a. Capitalize appropriate words in titles.
b. Use commas in addresses.
c. Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
d. Form and use possessives.
e. Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied
words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled,
cries, happiness).
f. Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families,
position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules,
meaningful word parts) in writing words.
g. Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as
needed to check and correct spellings.
Knowledge of Language
3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing,
speaking, reading, or listening.
a. Choose words and phrases for effect.
b. Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of
spoken and written standard English.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning
word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of strategies.
a. Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or
phrase.
b. Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known
affix is added to a known word (e.g., agreeable/disagreeable,
comfortable/uncomfortable, care/careless, heat/preheat).
c. Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown
word with the same root (e.g., company, companion).
d. Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to
determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and
phrases in all content areas.
5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in
word meanings.
a. Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and
phrases in context (e.g., take steps).
b. Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g.,
describe people who are friendly or helpful).
c. Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe
states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g., knew, believed,
suspected, heard, wondered).
6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general
academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those
that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that
night we went looking for them).
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