English Language Arts Grade

316 Pages·2015·2.63 MB·English

FREEHOLD BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
280 Park Avenue
Freehold, NJ 07728
Monmouth County
Office of Curriculum & Instruction

Course Title: English Language Arts
Grade: 3

Board of Education Adoption Date: June 22, 2015
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Freehold Borough Board of Education
Dr. Michael Lichardi, President Mrs. Susan Greitz, Vice President
Mr. Paul Ceppi
Mrs. Annette Jordan
Mr. James Keelan
Mrs. Maureen MacCutcheon
Mr. Bruce Patrick
Mrs. Margaret Rogers
Mrs. Michele Tennant

District Administration
Rocco Tomazic, Ed. D., Superintendent
Joseph Howe, School Business Administrator
Cheryl Romano, Director of Curriculum & Instruction
Jennifer O‘Shea, Director of Special Programs
Jennifer Donnelly, Supervisor of Assessment & Technology
Cecilia Zimmer, Supervisor of Instruction – ESL, Bilingual & World Languages
Ronnie Dougherty, Principal – Freehold Intermediate School
John Brovak, Assistant Principal – Freehold Intermediate School
Patrick Mulhern, Principal – Park Avenue Elementary School
William Smith, Principal – Freehold Learning Center

Curriculum Committee
Nicolina Harker

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Freehold Borough School District
District Mission
We will inspire the creativity and imagination of all students and empower them as
knowledgeable, skillful, and confident learners who flourish and contribute willingly in a
changing world.
Core Beliefs
We believe that:
 All people have inherent worth.
 Life-long learning is basic to the survival and advancement of society.
 The primary influence on the individual's development is the family in all its forms.
 Valuing diversity is essential to individual growth and the advancement of society.
 All individuals have strengths and human potential has no known limits.
 Democracy thrives when individuals accept responsibility for their choices.
 Being trustworthy builds trust.
 Creativity and imagination are essential for society to flourish.
 A safe environment is essential for the well-being of the individual and for society to
flourish

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Freehold Borough School District
Philosophy
The philosophy for our curriculum is developed with a democratic system of beliefs and values.
Believing that our students deserve the best education, our curriculum is aligned to the most
current New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and current statewide assessments. Our
scope and sequence is vertically and horizontally aligned. The progression of objectives
embraces decades of rigorous research, conducted both independently and at the university level,
and acknowledges that children develop differently and that learning experiences and strategies
for performance are differentiated. Our borough is a diverse community, rich in tradition and
spirit. Knowledge is a fusion balancing authentic experience and content, which language arts
literacy skills are integrated with other content areas. Our curriculum contains common
expectations that are rigorous and student centered, and teachers, who are most proximal to the
children, will use this document as an instrument to ensure student success.
To ensure that our children are successful and receive the best education, this curriculum
document, our staff will continuously collaborate on this living document. We will develop
purposeful and effective formative and summative assessments which measure growth of our
curriculum and inform our instruction. Finally, we will continuously seek to grow professionally
through professional development, which is aligned to statewide regulations, but specifically
geared to benefit our curriculum, school, and children.
General Curriculum & Instruction Objectives
 Teachers will employ lessons that are aligned to our curriculum and framed utilizing
current research-based methods and techniques that focus on student achievement
 Our lessons will be structured according to statewide and district standards and our
teachers will have flexibility to ensure that lessons meet the needs of all learners
 Units and lessons will be differentiated
 Curriculum is be student focused on success and balances developmental theory and
psychometric standards
 Democratically developed benchmarks and assessments will be utilized to gauge student
and curricular growth. Assessment will be multidimensional and developed according to
student need.

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Table of Contents

Unit/Section Page
Educational Outcomes 1
Core Materials 2
Pacing Guide 3
Unit 1—Building a Reading Life 14
Unit 2—Following Characters into Meaning 76
Unit 3—Series Book Clubs 109
Unit 4—Non-fiction Reading 135
Unit 5—Mystery Book Clubs 163
Unit 6—Biography Book Clubs 197
Unit 7—Social Issues Book Clubs 229
Unit 8—Informational Reading: Research and 270
Writing in the Content Areas

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Educational Outcome Goals/Course Overview

Educational Outcome Goals

The students will become life-long learners and will:

 Become fluent readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and viewers with comprehension and
critical thinking skills.
 Acquire the mathematical skills, understandings, and attitudes that are needed to be
successful in their careers and everyday life.
 Understand fundamental scientific principles, develop critical thinking skills, and demonstrate
safe practices, skepticism, and open-mindedness when collecting, analyzing, and interpreting
information.
 Become technologically literate.
 Demonstrate proficiency in all New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJCCCS)
and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
 Develop the ability to understand their world and to have an appreciation for the heritage of
America with a high degree of literacy in civics, history, economics and geography.
 Develop a respect for different cultures and demonstrate trustworthiness, responsibility,
fairness, caring, and citizenship.
 Become culturally literate by being aware of the historical, societal, and multicultural aspects
and implications of the arts.
 Demonstrate skills in decision-making, goal setting, and effective communication, with a
focus on character development.
 Understand and practice the skills of family living, health, wellness and safety for their
physical, mental, emotional, and social development.
 Develop consumer, family, and life skills necessary to be a functioning member of society.
 Develop the ability to be creative, inventive decision-makers with skills in communicating
ideas, thoughts and feelings.
 Develop career awareness and essential technical and workplace readiness skills, which are
significant to many aspects of life and work.

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Core Materials
Suggested Literature
Unit 1: Unit 5:
Esperanza Rising Honey, I Love
Stone Fox This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort
Crew‘s Shortcut Hey World, Here I Am!
Donovan‘s Jar A Writing Kind of Day
Invention of Solitude Multiple chapter mystery books
Saturdays and Teacakes
How to Steal a Dog
Al Capone Does My Shirts
Tale of Despereaux
Unit 2: Unit 6:
The Memory String Wilma Unlimited
A Bad Road for Cats Wangari‘s Tree of Peace
Sometimes Friend Ruby Bridges
The Sword of Damocles Martin‘s Big Words
King Midas and the Golden Touch Lou Gehrig
Jason and the Golden Fleece Michelle
Peanut-Butter Sandwich My Brother Martin
Greek Everywhere, Greek Democracy and Us, The Snowflake Bentley
Magic of Myth Harvesting Hope
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs Salt in His Shoes
Life Doesn‘t Frighten Me Barack Obama
Honest Abe
Harvesting Hope
A Picture Book of Helen Keller
How Many Days to America?
Cactus Hotel
Check, Please!
Oil Spill
Unit 3: Unit 7:
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher Something Beautiful
Grandpa‘s Teeth Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type
Dog Breath Fly Away Home
The Tortoise and the Hare My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother
Fairy Tale News The Great Gilly Hopkins
Aesop‘s Fables Ruby the Copycat
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Skippyjon Jones
Tight Times
Chrysanthemum

Unit 4: Unit 8:
Nonfiction and fiction books on the same topic Amelia Earhart
Conjunction Junction (Schoolhouse Rock) The Life Cycle of an Emperor Penguin
The Eagle Has Landed The Penguin
My Love For You and My Love For You All Year
Round
Animal Ears: Adaptations for Hearing
Wings in Water
The Horse Close Up
Chicken Sunday

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Pacing Guide
Unit 1 ( 4 weeks)
RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to
the text as the basis for the answers.
RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how
their actions contribute to the sequence of events
W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
W.3.3a Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event
sequence that unfolds naturally.
W.3.3b Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences
and events or show the response of characters to situations.
W.3.3c Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
Literacy.W.3.3d Provide a sense of closure.
RF.3.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
RF.3.3c Decode multisyllable words.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L.3.4 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.
L.3.4a Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
L.3.4b 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).
L.3.4c Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root
(e.g., company, companion).
L.3.4d Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the
precise meaning of key words and phrases.
L.3.5a Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (e.g., take
steps).
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L.3.5b Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe people who are
friendly or helpful).
L.3.5c Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or
degrees of certainty (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered).
Comprehension and Collaboration SP.3.1a, b, c, d
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.
Unit 2 (4 weeks)
RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text; referring explicitly to
the text as the basis for the answers.
RL3.2 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.
RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how
their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
RL.3.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of characters.
RI.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support
the main idea.
W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
W.3.3a Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event
sequence that unfolds naturally.
W.3.3b Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences
and events or show the response of characters to situations.
W.3.3c Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as
needed by planning, revising, and editing.
Literacy.W.3.3d Provide a sense of closure.
L.3.5 Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
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a. Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (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).
L.3.1a Explain the functions of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and
their functions in particular sentences.

L.3.1d Form and use regular and irregular verbs.
L.3.2.e. Use conventional spelling for high frequency and other studied words and for adding
suffixes to base words (e.g. sitting, smiled, cries, happiness).
L.3.2.f. Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings,
syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L.3.4 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.
L.3.4a Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
L.3.4b 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).
L.3.4c Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root
(e.g., company, companion).
L.3.4d Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the
precise meaning of key words and phrases.
L.3.1c Use abstract nouns (e.g. childhood)
L.3.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their
functions in particular sentences.
Unit 3 (4 weeks)
RL.3.1 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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