Washington Township Public Schools
COURSE OF STUDY – CURRICULUM GUIDE
Course: / Reading – Grade 3Written By: / Valerie Cline
Under the Direction of: / Gretchen Gerber, Supervisor of Elementary Education
Description: / The intermediate-level reading curriculum encompasses a developmental Language Arts Literacy/ Reading Program which uses the Balanced Literacy Four-Block Model to integrate reading with writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. The reading block incorporates the gradual release of responsibility model as students are engaged in modeled reading, shared reading, and interactive reading experiences. The texts expose students to a variety of genres representative of a variety of periods, cultures, and world views. Instruction primarily focuses on comprehension strategies, vocabulary, word, study, fluency, and speaking/listening skills that are applicable to the grade level. Students are introduced to skills and strategies as a whole class. They then transition into practicing these skills and strategies through text at their instructional level during guided reading/small group instruction. Ultimately, the students apply the skills and strategies as they read independently. This all happens in a caring community. Students learn and act on the values that govern the community. The lessons aim to create a classroom writing community where students feel empowered, supported in taking risks, and responsible to themselves and the group. The lessons weave cooperative learning, social skill instruction, and discussion of values throughout the curriculum.
Joseph A. Vandenberg: / Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
Barbara E. Marciano: / Director of Elementary Education
Jack McGee: / Director of Secondary Education
Written: / September 2010
Revised: / August 2012
BOE Approval:
Making Meaning: Lesson Design
The weekly Making Meaning lessons include the following components.
Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 530 min. / Read Aloud / Strategy Lesson / Guided Strategy
Practice / Guided Strategy Practice
* Optional committee
selected text
(Harcourt or Daybooks) / Independent Strategy Practice
15
min. / IDR / IDR / IDR / IDR
/ Word Study / IDR /
Word Study
MAJOR UNITS OF STUDY
Course Title: / Reading – Grade 3I. The Reading Life
II. Visualizing
III. Making Inferences
IV. Wondering/Questioning (Fiction)
V. Wondering/Questioning (Narrative Nonfiction: Biography)
VI. Analyzing Text Features
VII. Wondering/Questioning (Expository Nonfiction)
VIII. Determining Important Ideas
IX. Revisiting the Reading Life
X. Genre Units (on-going)
UNIT 1 OVERVIEW
Course Title: / Reading – Grade 3Unit #: / UNIT 1 OVERVIEW / Unit Title: / The Reading Life
Unit Description and Objectives:
During this unit, the students and teacher share their reading lives and the students make text-to-self connections. They also begin Individualized Daily Reading (IDR). Socially, they learn the procedures for read-alouds, “Turn to Your Partner,” “Think, Pair, Share,” class meetings, and IDR. As they build a reading community and take responsibility for their learning and behavior, they develop the group skill of listening to one another.
Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings:
Essential Questions: / Enduring Understandings/GeneralizationsStudents will understand that: / Guiding Questions
1. What do good readers do when they read that helps them to comprehend text? / 1. Understanding of a text’s features, structures, and characteristics facilitate the reader’s ability to make meaning of the text. / 1.1 How does understanding a text’s structure help me better understand its meaning?
2. How does a making personal connection to the text improve reading comprehension? / 2. Readers use language structure and context clues to identify the intended meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text. / 2.1 How do I figure out a word I do not know?
3. How can discussing a text with others develop stronger reading skills and strategies? / 3. Fluent readers group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. / 3.1 How does fluency affect comprehension?
4. Good readers employ strategies to help them understand text. / 4.1 What do readers do when they do not understand everything in a text?
5. Strategic readers can develop, select, and apply strategies to enhance their comprehension.
Words powerfully affect meaning. / 5.1 How do readers construct meaning from text?
6. Words powerfully affect meaning. / 6.1 Why do readers need to pay attention to a writer’s choice of words?
7. Good readers compare, infer, synthesize, and make connections (text to text, text to world, text to self) to make text personally relevant and useful.
CURRICULUM UNIT 1 PLAN
Unit Number/Title: / 1 / RL 3.1 / RI 3.1 / SL 3.1b / SL 3.5 SL 3.6
Conceptual Lens: / The Reading Life / RL 3.6 / RI 3.2 / SL 3.1c / W3.4 W3.10
Appropriate Time Allocation (# of Days): / 2 weeks (10 days) / RL 3.7 / SL 3.1a / SL 3.1d
Topics/Concepts
(Incl. time / # days per topic) / Critical Content
(Students Will Know:) / Skill Objectives
(Students Will Be Able To:) / Instructional/Learning Activities & Interdisciplinary Connections / Instructional Resources / Technology & 21st C Skills Integration (Specify) / NJCCCS w/ CPI Reference / Evaluation/ Assessment: /
The Reading Life:
Fiction & Narrative Nonfiction / Comprehension Strategies
Speaking & Listening Strategies
Vocabulary & Concept Development
Text Structure
(Throughout Unit)
Reading Strategies
Fluency / Make text-to-self connections.
Learn the procedures for “Turn to Your Partner” and “Think, Pair, Share.”
Develop the group skill of listening to one another.
Use the prefix un- to determine word meanings.
Recognize antonyms.
Understand characteristics of fiction
Understand characteristics of narrative nonfiction
Begin Individualized Daily Reading (IDR).
After Reading
Write an opinion piece about a text, supporting a point of view with reasons.
Read with accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. / Share personal experiences that pertain to stories read aloud.
Hear and discuss stories.
Class Meetings
Games & Activities:
· “Whizzing or Not Whizzing?”
· Act It Out
· “Which Word Goes With?”
· “Imagine That”
Start and add words to an antonym chart.
Discuss characteristics of fiction.
Read independently for up to 15 minutes.
Small Group Instruction / Guided Reading / Genre Units
Review stories and explain the purpose for rereading.
Write an opinion paper after reading or listening to a story (e.g., “I like this story because…”)
Drama Center: skits, puppet shows.
Poetry Center: Practice and recite selected poems.
Create audio recordings of students reading text aloud.
Take turns reading aloud with a partner. / Making Meaning Volume 1, Unit 1,
Weeks 1 & 2, p.1 – 35.
Making Meaning
Volume 1, p. 24 – 25 & 27.
Making Meaning
Volume 1,Unit 1,
Week 2, p. 20 - 23
Student Response Book, p. 2
Vocabulary for Making Meaning, Week 1,
p. 1 – 23
Rigby Leveled Readers
Making Meaning
Volume 1, Unit 1
(Throughout Unit)
Making Meaning
Volume 1, Unit 1, Week 2, p. 29 – 32.
Reading Logs, IDR journals
Mentor text, IDR book, leveled reader or article.
Reader’s Theater scripts, plays
Books of poems, posters or charts of poems
Cassette player & cassettes or digital recorder & storage devices.
Classroom library books / Participate in brainstorming sessions to seek information, ideas, and strategies that foster creative thinking.
Use effective oral and written communication in face-to-face and online interactions and when presenting to an audience.
Demonstrate an awareness of one’s own culture and other cultures during interactions within and outside of the classroom.
Establish and follow performance goals to guide progress in assigned areas of responsibility and accountability during classroom projects and extra-curricular activities.
Explain the importance of understanding and following rules in the family, classroom, and community settings. / 9.4.1.B.1
9.1.4.D.1
9.1.4.D.3
9.1.4.F.2
9.1.4.F.3 / Formative Assessments:
Unit 1 Assessment – Daybook Pretest
Rigby – Conclusions Organizer
Rigby – Predictions Organizer
Making Meaning, Volume 1, Unit1
Week 2, p. 35 – Social Skills Assessment
*See Assessment Resource Book, p. iv for information about administering the Social Skills Assessment.
Summative Assessment(s)
none
Unit Modifications for Special Population Students:
Struggling Learners / Gifted and Talented Students(Challenge Activities) / English Language Learners / Special Education Students
Struggling learners will benefit from hearing the story and seeing the illustrations before you read aloud to the class. / Encourage Gifted and Talented students to further explore topics of interest that arise during instruction using the internet, classroom library, school and local libraries, and resources they have at home. / English Language Learners will benefit from hearing the story and seeing the illustrations before you read aloud to the class. / Special Education students will benefit from hearing the story and seeing the illustrations before you read aloud to the class.
Struggling learners will benefit from repeating lessons as needed using Alternative Books cited at the beginning of each unit. / Create assignments and projects for Gifted and Talented students which require them to apply reading strategies with a variety of texts. / English Language Learners may benefit from more frequent stops and discussions during the read aloud. / Special Education students will benefit from repeating lessons as needed using Alternative Books cited at the beginning of each unit.
Struggling learners may benefit from previewing vocabulary. / Challenge Gifted and Talented students to create visuals explaining or demonstrating how to apply comprehension strategies to present to the class. / Support ELL students with limited proficiency in English by providing them with prompts for responding to questions during instruction and partner activities. / Special Education students may benefit from more frequent stops and discussions during the read aloud.
Use multiple modalities such as drama, drawing, realia, and writing to practice comprehension strategies. / English Language Learners will benefit from discussing additional vocabulary, as noted in the teacher’s manual within each unit. / Assist Special Education students in selecting appropriately leveled materials for IDR.
Create visual aids to record important points during whole-class discussions. / You may want to help your English Language Learners choose books at their appropriate reading level. Providing them with a limited number of teacher-selected texts will help them make good choices. / When necessary, review or reread sections of the read aloud texts prior to guided strategy practice.
Provide books on tape or compact disc for students to listen to stories, hear standard pronunciation, develop story language, and increase understanding. / When necessary, review or reread sections of the read aloud texts prior to guided strategy practice to confirm what students remember. / Modify unit tests as needed, according to IEP guidelines.
Offer one-on-one support by enlisting instructional assistants, student teachers, and parents to read with students during IDR and at home. / For more information about supporting EL students, see pages xxxiii – xxxv of the Making Meaning teacher’s manual.
Consider including struggling learners in small group guided reading during independent reading time.
Conference more frequently with struggling learners to check progress and set new reading goals.
UNIT 2 OVERVIEW
Unit #: / UNIT 2 OVERVIEW / Unit Title: / Visualizing
Unit Description and Objectives:
During this unit, the students use schema and inference informally as they visualize to make sense of text. During IDR, they read independently and write in their IDR Journals about what they are reading. Socially, they relate the values of respect, responsibility, and caring to their behavior and analyze the effect of their behavior on others and on the group work.
Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings:
Essential Questions: / Enduring Understandings/GeneralizationsStudents will understand that: / Guiding Questions
1. How do good readers use schema to help them visualize while reading? / 1. Understanding of a text’s features, structures, and characteristics facilitate the reader’s ability to make meaning of the text. / 1.1 How does understanding a text’s structure help me better understand its meaning?
2. How do good readers make inferences while reading to make sense of text? / 2. Readers use language structure and context clues to identify the intended meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text. / 2.1 How do I figure out a word I do not know?
3. How can discussing a text with others develop stronger reading skills and strategies? / 3. Fluent readers group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. / 3.1 How does fluency affect comprehension?
4. How can writing about text improve comprehension? / 4. Good readers employ strategies to help them understand text. / 4.1 What do readers do when they do not understand everything in a text?
5. Strategic readers can develop, select, and apply strategies to enhance their comprehension.
Words powerfully affect meaning. / 5.1 How do readers construct meaning from text?
6. Words powerfully affect meaning. / 6.1 Why do readers need to pay attention to a writer’s choice of words?
7. Good readers compare, infer, synthesize, and make connections (text to text, text to world, text to self) to make text personally relevant and useful.
CURRICULUM UNIT 2 PLAN
Unit Number/Title: / 2 / RL 3.1 / RL 3.7 / RI 3.7 / RF3.4c SL 3.1c SL 3.5
Conceptual Lens: / Visualizing / RL 3.3 / RI 3.1 / RF 3.3 / SL 3.1a SL 3.1d SL 3.6
Appropriate Time Allocation (# of Days): / 3 weeks (15 days) / RL 3.4 / RI 3.2 / RF3.4a / SL 3.1b SL 3.4 W 3.4
Topics/Concepts
(Incl. time / # days per topic) / Critical Content
(Students Will Know:) / Skill Objectives
(Students Will Be Able To:) / Instructional/Learning Activities & Interdisciplinary Connections / Instructional Resources / Technology & 21st C Skills Integration (Specify) / NJCCCS w/ CPI Reference / Evaluation/ Assessment: /
Visualizing:
Narrative Nonfiction &
Fiction / Comprehension Strategies
Speaking & Listening Strategies
Vocabulary & Concept Development
Text Structure
(Throughout Unit)
Reading Strategies
Fluency / Visualize to enjoy and understand a text.
Use schema & inference informally while visualizing.
Participate and understand the expectations of cooperative structures.
Use context to determine word meaning.
Recognize synonyms.