Based on 3rd grade common core standards, students will improve their reading and language skills.

READING LITURATURE -
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2 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.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.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

Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7 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)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.9 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:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.10 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.

READING INFORMATIONAL TEXT -
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3 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:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.7 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).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.8 Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a sequence).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.9 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:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.10 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.

READING FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS -
Phonics and Word Recognition:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3.A Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3.D Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Fluency:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.A Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.C Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

WRITING -
Text Types and Purposes:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.A Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure that lists reasons.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.B Provide reasons that support the opinion.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.C Use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and reasons.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.D Provide a concluding statement or section.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.A Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.B Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.C Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.D Provide a concluding statement or section.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.A Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.B Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.C Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.D Provide a sense of closure.

LANGUAGE -
Conventions of Standard English:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.A Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.B Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.C Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.D Form and use regular and irregular verbs.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.E Form and use the simple (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb tenses.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.F Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.*
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.G Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.H Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.I Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.A Capitalize appropriate words in titles.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.C Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2.D Form and use possessives.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.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).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.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.

Knowledge of Language:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.3.A Choose words and phrases for effect.*
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.3.B Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English.

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.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.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.A Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.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).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.C Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., company, companion).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.5.A Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (e.g., take steps).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.5.B Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe people who are friendly or helpful).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.6 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).