Chapter 13: English Language Arts/Literacy and English Language Development in Grades Two and Three - California Digital Learning Integration and Standards Guidance

Overview of the Span

Grades two and three are exciting years as children become increasingly fluent with written language. They use their knowledge of the alphabetic code and of language in general to achieve their own goals as readers and writers. They engage with progressively more complex, high-quality literary and informational text, expand their knowledge in the content areas, and continue to develop as effective communicators.

The grades two and three span is a pivotal time for children as they acquire more sophisticated comprehension, language, and decoding skills and develop the fluency necessary to propel them into more advanced reading, including independently reading chapter books and grade-appropriate complex texts. Accuracy and automaticity in decoding are high priorities, and children are provided ample opportunities to employ their developing skills as readers and writers. Vocabulary development for meaning making, effective expression, and knowledge acquisition is a significant focus across the disciplines. Children participate in content area investigations, conduct research, and engage in extended academic conversations with diverse others daily.

Content and pedagogy in the grade span include the following:

Meaning Making: Teachers facilitate literal and inferential comprehension, and they teach students to closely read and reread increasingly complex text for different purposes. Children learn to refer explicitly to the text as the basis for answers to questions about the text. They ponder an author’s purpose and characters’ and authors’ points of view. They also learn how images contribute to meaning. Children determine and recount main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats. They have many opportunities to convey meaning in writing, discussions, and presentations.
Language Development: Children continue to be exposed to rich language through teacher modeling and read-aloud texts and engage in purposeful use of language in meaningful, stimulating contexts. Systematic attention is given to vocabulary development. Children use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in all content areas; and they learn morphological units of words (e.g., prefixes). Children increase their awareness of language, describing how words and phrases supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song, and comparing formal and informal uses of English.
Effective Expression: Children build on previous learning to write more detailed and cohesive texts for a variety of purposes across the disciplines. They learn to use feedback to revise and edit their work. They become more skilled in expressing their ideas in discussions. Teachers ensure topics are sufficiently compelling to spark discussion, prepare higher-order questions that prompt deep thinking, ask follow-up questions, and provide opportunities for children to lead discussions. Children plan and deliver presentations. They gain increasing command over oral and written language conventions.
Content Knowledge: All students have full access to science, history/social studies, the arts, and all other content instruction, which is integrated with literacy and language. Students also engage in wide group and independent reading, interact with high-quality and increasingly complex informational texts, and participate in research projects and content investigations, all of which contribute to their literary, cultural, and domain knowledge. They read several texts on the same topic or by the same author and compare and contrast the texts.
Foundational Skills: Foundational skills continue to be systematically taught during the grade span. Children learn to read multisyllabic words and words with complex spelling patterns. The number of high-frequency irregularly spelled words they can recognize effortlessly increases substantially. Fluency is a high priority, and children have many opportunities to engage reading. Teachers act on the knowledge that reading volume contributes to children’s fluency, comprehension, language development, and knowledge acquisition, and they provide instruction to ensure all students can engage with grade-level text.

Students who are English learners engage in equally intellectually stimulating content through careful scaffolding (planned and “just-in-time”) and guidance provided by the ELD standards. At the same time, they are learning English as an additional language and receiving instruction that attends to their steady progress along the ELD continuum. Oral language development continues to be a significant emphasis during this grade span, and children have many opportunities to use language for different purposes in varied, meaningful contexts and engage in extended conversations. Instruction capitalizes on the cultural and language resources each child brings to the classroom.

Synchronous and Asynchronous Instruction. Teachers should carefully consider which learning experiences are given priority during synchronous instruction. Teachers identify lessons that are best conducted when they can make “in-the-moment” decisions about next instructional moves based on children’s performance as they engage in the lesson. For example, teachers provide real-time instruction on decoding two-syllable words. They teach, engage students in guided practice, observe their independent attempts at decoding, and reteach with scaffolding as needed. Teachers know that if instructional support is delayed, progress is slowed considerably, and misunderstandings may persist. Other activities can occur effectively without the teacher available in real-time. For example, some writing activities can occur asynchronously, such as when students provide feedback to the written work of their peers and then the authors make revisions in response to feedback. See the discussions of synchronous and asynchronous instruction in Chapters 10 and 11.

The following vignette features an interview with a third-grade teacher about her implementation of distance learning with her students. Discussions of standards and instructional considerations for each of grades two and three follow the vignette.

Voices from the Field
Lisa Chavez | Kingston Elementary School | Hesperia, CA

The shift to distance learning has pushed all educators to reimagine what teaching and learning might look like. For Lisa Chavez, this has meant coming up with inventive ways to use digital tools while adhering to pedagogical best practices.

Chavez is a 20-year veteran who currently teaches third grade at Kingston Elementary School in the Hesperia Unified School District. Here, she discusses the creative ways she uses technology to engage her young students—tapping into their interests and showing how the content they are learning is relevant to their everyday lives.

How are you using digital tools to enhance learning?

Developing students’ content knowledge through research projects and content investigations is important. Therefore, we’re working on a community-based project right now, and that is going well. For third grade social studies, students have to learn about their local community. So, I talked to our local museum curator, and he took me out to the local landmarks where I recorded short educational videos for the students on Flipgrid [video-based discussion software], which has just been the best tool for me this year. My students are now using it to leave video questions for the museum curator, and he’s leaving video responses back for them. He and the students love the interaction, and it’s getting them to appreciate the history of the town they live in.

Hesperia has been around since the 1880s, so this place has a lot of history. I think it’s important the kids know it. We also made a young authors book about the town landmarks. The kids looked at old black and white pictures and then drew them and sent them to me on ClassDojo [school communications software]. Then, I compiled it all in Google Docs [collaborative online word processing software] and turned it into a class book.

Another program I love is Kami, a text annotation and editing tool that’s integrated with Google Classroom [software for creating, distributing, and grading assignments]. I can share documents for students to read, and they can go through and highlight key passages and annotate main points or questions in text boxes. I love that the tool allows students to work independently to identify important passages. And they can look up any unfamiliar words themselves using the dictionary feature. I can also easily post feedback for them.

It’s pretty amazing and also helpful for teachers when we have to share data with other teachers. For instance, just this last week, I was asked to send student work samples to our school leadership team. That was really easy to pull together for them.

I’ve also been using Jamboard, the digital whiteboard tool, as a way for students to talk to me and each other about their readings. For my more advanced readers, we’ve been doing this for “Charlotte’s Web.” I sent home actual copies of the book because I wanted to give them some time away from the screen. So, they’re reading the physical book asynchronously. But to provide ample opportunities for students to express their ideas through discussion, I use Jamboard during synchronous time to allow students to leave reflections and talk about the reading among themselves.

To facilitate inferential comprehension, kids read the text or look at the pictures in the book and leave notes on the virtual whiteboard about their interpretations of the evidence they see. They get really into it. Some even get creative with the kind of feedback and predictions they want to give, which I encourage because it shows they are engaging with the story.

How do you use technology to motivate students to engage with challenging reading materials or do independent reading across subject areas?

You have to really tune in to your kids’ interests and the things that they love. That’s how you reach all the learning standards and get them excited and motivated to drive their own learning. Like right now, my kids are all about Perseverance, the NASA rover that just landed on Mars. We’re doing NASA’s Mission to Mars Student Challenge, and they’re going to flip when they see the certificates NASA just mailed us. But that’s how you get kids interested in learning more and reading independently across different subject areas.

I find additional readings on Epic [online educator resource] and assign it to them. And they love it because they’re interested in the topic. To promote students’ content knowledge across subject areas, I try to find activities like this that can incorporate science, literacy, and social studies all together so they can find different ways to be engaged.

Another way to bolster engagement is to focus on student choice, but honestly, it’s more difficult virtually because it’s exponentially more work for teachers. And we all have limited time and resources right now. The important thing is to give them a choice in terms of how they want to express their learning, and they get to be creative in the process.

How do you choose the tools you use for your classes? Any advice for other teachers or parents seeking out appropriate education technology for their students?

It has to be easy for me but also easy enough for students to use. If they can’t use the tool, it doesn’t matter how cool the features are or how good I am at using it—it doesn’t work. It’s also important to have a variety of creative and interactive features so students can build skills and learn different ways to express themselves.

We, as teachers, are constantly learning, too. I love to see students and teachers empowered. One of the awesome things about what’s happened this past year is seeing teachers—who felt they couldn’t do technology before—learn new skills and now confidently teach other teachers how to use new programs and tools with their students.

Technology should be used as a way to express your creativity, be connected, and feel empowered. No one should ever feel intimidated about using it. It’s just a tool. You take a risk, and we’ll all learn this together. If it doesn’t work the first time, we’ll try again and work together to figure it out.

What role does social and emotional learning play in your teaching? Can technology help there, too?

I feel like social and emotional learning should be its own subject area but also incorporated into our everyday lessons. For example, every morning, I start with a short check-in activity on Zoom . I created my own version of those “How are you feeling today?” graphics with 10 images of different faces and emotions. I put them in a Google Form [a survey tool], so students can click on the face that represents how they are doing each day. I also include questions like, “Is there something you want me to know?” This way, they can answer those questions privately, and I can check up on them.

Some days, I’ll also play a short video. I got this idea from a teacher named Megan Venezia. She has these daily ClassDojo check-ins with the little Dojo monster talking about being scared or feeling intimidated and things like that. I’ll play the little video, and that becomes a mini social and emotional learning lesson to start the day.

Grade Two

Teachers ensure that children in grade two engage in wide and independent reading and have access to high-quality literary and informational text on a range of topics. Texts that are shared with children are increasingly complex. Teachers model and discuss how to navigate challenging words, sentences, and passages to determine meaning. Children’s knowledge, vocabulary, and syntax grow as they listen and discuss texts read aloud and as they read text independently. Children begin to write well-organized, detailed texts of different genres, especially in response to texts and topics under investigation in different subject matter. They plan and deliver presentations to share stories and knowledge, with increasing attention to detail, sequence and language.

The important work of understanding and using the alphabetic code continues. Teachers give ample instructional time to ensure that children learn the remaining common spelling-sound correspondences and can accurately decode two-syllable words and words with common prefixes. They provide support and practice so children can decode nearly effortlessly.

Standards and instructional considerations for grade two follow. Many can be addressed across the curriculum, that is, as a part of science, social studies, arts, and other subjects. ELA/literacy and content area instruction are mutually supportive, and to treat them as distinctly separate areas of instruction is to miss opportunities to enhance progress in both ELA/literacy and other subjects. The language arts complement and contribute to content instruction; they do not replace inquiry and other content approaches.

In distance learning settings, teachers should carefully consider which learning experiences are given priority during synchronous instruction. Guidelines are presented in Chapter 10 and also addressed in the Overview of the Span in this chapter.

Some key standards are included in more than one theme, or critical area of instructional focus. For example, SL.2.1 is crucial in meaning making, language development, effective expression, and content knowledge. Thus, it is included in the first four charts that follow. In each case, the standard is displayed with a pink background to make the repetition obvious. Likewise, RL/RI.2.10 appears in several charts, and so a different color (in this case, orange) is used to highlight the repetition. Presented first is a chart depicting the standards for grade two at a glance followed by detailed charts for each theme.

Critical Areas of Instructional Focus: At a Glance

Theme	Key Standards	Related Standards
Meaning Making	RL/RI.2.1,10; RF.2.4; W.2.1-3; SL.2.1,3,4 ELD.PI.2.1,5,6,9,10.Ex	RL/RI.2.2,3,5,7,9; L.2.4,5 ELD.PI.2.7,8.Ex; PII.2.1.Ex
Language Development	RL/RI.2.4,10; RF.2.4; SL.2.1,4; L.2.6 ELD.PI.2.1,3,6,12b.Ex; PII.2.3-5	RF.2.3a,b; SL.2.3; L.2.4,5 ELD.PI.2.7,8.Ex
Effective Expression	RL/RI.2.10; RF.2.4; W.2.1-3,4,5; SL.1.1,4 ELD.PI.2.1,4,7-10.Ex	RL.2.4-7; RI.2.8; W.2.4,6; SL.2.3,5; L.2.1-3,6 ELD.PI.2.2,11.Ex; PII.2.1-7.Ex
Content Knowledge	RL/RI.2.1,10; RI.2.4; W.2.2,7; SL.2.1,3;L.2.4,5 ELD.PI.2.1,5,6,10,12b.Ex	RI.2.5,7-9; RF.2.3,4 ELD.PI.2.7.Ex; PII.2.1.Ex
Foundational Skills	RF.2.3a,b,c,d,e,f,4; L.2.2b,d; W.2.1-3 ELD.PI.2.10.Ex	RL/RI.2.10; SL.2.5

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Meaning Making

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RL/RI.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. SL.2.3 Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue. ELD.PI.2.5.Ex Demonstrate active listening to read-alouds and oral presentations by asking and answering questions, with oral sentence frames and occasional prompting and support.	Every child regularly engages with grade-level text, with scaffolds (planned and “just-in-time”) provided and adjusted in accordance with the strengths and the needs of the learner. Text-dependent questions prompt children to attend closely to texts. Questions are developed to support children’s understanding of the central message, lesson, or moral and characters’ responses to major events and challenges in stories (RL.2.2,3,7,9) and the main topic or purpose and connection between events, ideas or concepts, and steps in technical procedures in informational text (RI.2.2,3,6,7). Questions also guide children to compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story or on the same topic (RL/RI.2.9). (ELD.PI.2.6.Ex). Children not only answer questions posed by the teacher, but they are also encouraged to ask different types of questions about a text or information presented through other media. Comprehension monitoring is evident when they ask questions to clarify meaning; engagement is evident when they question a character’s behavior or ask about information provided in a text or otherwise presented. All children participate in teacher read-aloud experiences with increasingly complex texts (i.e., those in the grades 3-4 complexity band). Questions and instructions guide children to navigate the language and concepts of challenging text. Children engage as listeners, discussants, and readers with a range of text types. Exposure to a broad range of texts contributes to literary knowledge, cultural knowledge, domain knowledge, as well as familiarity with various text structures and features (RL/RI.2.5; ELD.PII.2.1.Ex)—all of which contribute to meaning making efforts.
RL/RI.2.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend texts in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the band. ELD.PI.2.6.Ex Describe ideas, phenomena, and text elements in greater detail based on understanding of a variety of grade-level texts and viewing of multimedia, with moderate support.	Children read and discuss texts of different types, and they begin in this grade to read appropriately-leveled complex literary and informational texts with considerable support. Teachers ensure that all students participate and read daily. Volume of reading contributes to reading development. Teachers support children in meaning making, teaching children how to navigate unfamiliar concepts and vocabulary and complex language structures (L.2.4,5; ELD.PI.2.7,8.Ex; ELD.PII.2.1,2) and interpret images (RI.2.7). Children at times are prompted to reread a text for different purposes, such as to examine organization, word choice, sentence structures, or development of an idea. Teachers create opportunities for all children to select texts to read for study and enjoyment. Teachers ensure that all children see themselves in texts.
RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Attention is given to meaning making as the reason for continuing to develop accurate word recognition and building fluency. This is also the reason that students use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
W.2.1-3 Write opinion pieces, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. ELD.PI.2.10.Ex Write short literary texts and informational texts, collaboratively and with an adult, with peers, and with increasing independence.	Children write routinely about a range of topics, particularly those they care about. They write in a variety of contexts, including in response to learning activities across the curriculum. Some pieces developed over an extended time period as children engage in research, reflection, and revision, and other pieces are written in a short time. The focus is on conveying meaning with a purpose and audience in mind. Writing about texts enhances reading comprehension. Children also write in response to learning activities across the curriculum.
SL.2.1,4 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups; plan and deliver presentations. ELD.PI.2.1,9.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions; plan and deliver brief oral presentations.	Children have multiple daily opportunities to engage in conversations with a range of others in a range of contexts for a range of purposes. Conversations include sharing opinions, experiences, and information; responding to texts and learning experiences; and listening to and asking questions of others. Children’s understandings of topics and texts are enhanced through engagement with others. Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, and feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions), and teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions.

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Language Development

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RI.2.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area. ELD.PI.2.12b Use a growing number of general academic and domain-specific words.	Words and phrases are drawn from texts (or other media) with which the children are engaged rather than a list divorced of any context. Increasingly complex text (including read-alouds in the grades 3–4 complexity band) and rich content curriculum (e.g., science, social studies, the arts) provide opportunities to learn new words and phrases. Teachers guide children to notice words and their impact on meaning (ELD.PI.2.7,8.Ex) and model and prompt an enthusiastic interest in learning and sharing new words. Teachers support children to use new words in novel contexts (L.2.6; ELD.PII.2.3-5.Ex). Teachers guide children in understanding nuances in word meanings (L.2.5; ELD.PI.2.8). When addressing multiple-meaning words (L.2.4), meaning making is crucial as it is the context in which a multiple-meaning word occurs that determines its meaning (e.g., to tie a bow on a gift vs. to tie a rope to the bow of the boat). Children learn to use different strategies to determine word meanings, including sentence-level context and word parts, such as affixes and roots (L.2.4). Teachers leverage all children’s experiences and EL students’ native language where possible (e.g., highlighting cognates) to support vocabulary development.
RL/RI.2.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend texts in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the band. ELD.PI.2.6.Ex Describe ideas, phenomena, and text elements in greater detail based on understanding of a variety of grade-level texts and viewing of multimedia, with moderate support.	Texts, including those read independently, by groups of children, and read aloud by a teacher, are a key source of language. Teachers ensure that all children engage with language-rich print or digital texts daily, whether in virtual or in-class settings. Discussions related to texts provide opportunities to talk about and use new vocabulary and sentence structures.
RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Text is a rich source of academic vocabulary and complex linguistic structures. Teachers should ensure that students have strong word analysis skills and sufficient fluency to support voluminous reading, which in turn contributes to students’ language development.
SL.2.1,4 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups; plan and deliver presentations. ELD.PI.2.1,3.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions, including sustained dialog, and offer opinions and negotiate with others in conversations using an expanded set of learned phrases as well as open responses.	Opportunities to use language contribute to language development. Children engage in brief and extended conversations daily with a range of others in a range of contexts for a range of purposes. Conversations include sharing opinions, experiences, and information; responding to texts and learning experiences; and listening to and asking questions of others. Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, and feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions), and teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions.
L.2.6 Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe. ELD.PII.2.3-5.Ex Use a growing number of verb types and tenses, noun phrases, and adverbials with increasing independence.	Teachers provide language rich contexts to ensure students’ exposure to and opportunities to use an increasingly broad vocabulary. They read aloud books from the grades 4–5 complexity band, provide a wide choice of texts for students to read individually or in groups that will expand their language, and they engage students in coherent and stimulating subject area instruction that introduces them to new concepts and accompanying language. Teachers model, scaffold (planned and “just-in-time”), and prompt the use of target words and phrases in multiple contexts. Opportunities to use language are crucial for language development.

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Effective Expression

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RL/RI.2.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend texts in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the band. ELD.PI.2.7,8.Ex Describe the language writers or speakers use to present or support an idea, with prompting and moderate support; distinguish how two different words with similar meaning produce shades of meaning and different effects on the audience.	Children read and are read stories, poetry, and informational texts that are models of effective expression. Teachers guide children in identifying language or structures that evoke responses and emotions (e.g., laughter, surprise) or vivid mental images, provide clear explanations or interesting organization, or in some way capture readers’ or listeners’ attention (e.g., use of alliterations). They become increasingly aware of the author’s craft (RL.2.4-7).
RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Teachers model reading aloud fluently a variety of text types. They vary their pace and use expression appropriate for the text. They also share other effective models of fluent reading using different media sources. Children have regular opportunities to read aloud individually or chorally after rehearsal. Reading aloud is treated as a joyful process, as children share their own work or engage in a performance (e.g., readers theatre) for peers in the classroom or virtually. Children have opportunities to create audio recordings (SL.2.5).
W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, and provide a concluding statement or section. W.2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section. W.2.3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, included details, and provide a sense of closure. ELD.PI.2.10.Ex Write short literary texts and informational texts, collaboratively and with an adult, with peers, and with increasing independence.	Students use writing for different purposes: to convey their opinions, information, and narratives. New to this grade are attention to details and use of linking words to connect ideas (ELD.PI.2.11.Ex; PII.2.2.Ex). As appropriate, they add drawings or other visual displays to their writing to clarify their ideas, thoughts, and feelings (SL.2.5). Students write daily and are given explicit guidance on how to effectively organize different types of text to suit their purpose (W.2.4; ELD.PII.2.1.Ex). Exemplar texts are shared as models. Sharing writing with an audience contributes to children’s understanding of the clarity and impact of their written communication. Motivation is crucial; students write about what interests them, and teachers create learning contexts that expand their interests. Teachers prompt children to use new vocabulary they are acquiring to communicate their thoughts more effectively and with increasing precision (L.2.6). Children become more skilled at writing as volume and range of writing increase. Children use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers (W.2.6). Opportunities to orally read their work—or any text—to others provide an authentic reason for rehearsal, which supports fluent presentation (RF.2.4).
W.2.4,5 With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to the task and purpose; focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.	Children’s writing receives regular, specific feedback, so children become increasingly effective at expressing opinions, information, and narratives. Feedback focuses—as appropriate for the context and with consideration of the learner’s purpose, skills, and English proficiency—on organization and topic development as well as word choice and conventions (L.2.1-3; ELD.PII.2.1-7.Ex). Children use feedback to evaluate and analyze language choices and revise writing products. Feedback is expressed in positive, encouraging ways to ensure motivation and enthusiasm for creating written work are maintained. Teachers engage students in self-assessment and goal setting.
SL.2.1,4 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups; plan and deliver presentations. ELD.PI.2.1,9.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions; plan and deliver brief oral presentations. ELD.PI.2.4.Ex Adjust language choices according to the purpose, task, and audience, with moderate support.	Children have multiple daily opportunities to engage in conversations with a range of others in a range of contexts for a range of purposes. Children follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and build on one another’s comments. They ask for and provide clarification as needed, and teachers support them in producing complete sentences to ensure clarity and provide detail (SL.2.3; L.2.6). Children learn that how they (and others) express themselves impacts communication. Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, and feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions). Teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions. Children plan and deliver presentations that include attention to relevant, descriptive details, reflects a logical sequence, and provides a conclusion. As appropriate, they add drawings or other visual displays to clarify their ideas, thoughts, and feelings and may create audio recordings of stories or poems (SL.2.5).

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Content Knowledge

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RL/RI.2.1 Ask and answer questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text (RI.1.1). SL.2.3 Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue. ELD.PI.2.5.Ex Demonstrate active listening to read-alouds and oral presentations by asking and answering questions, with oral sentence frames and occasional prompting and support.	Texts and other sources of information that build children’s knowledge are a crucial component of every grade level, including the primary grades. Texts sets on a given topic situated in coherent subject area instruction contribute to building knowledge. Moreover, text sets provide opportunities for children to compare and contrast important points presented in different texts on the same topic and describe how authors support specific points made in a text (RI.2.8,9; ELD.PI.2.7.Ex). Text-dependent questions guide children’s comprehension of text as well as their understanding of specific images in the text and how they contribute to meaning (RI.2.7). They ensure that children attend to and learn how to interpret different types of images included in texts. Children not only answer questions posed by the teacher, but they are also encouraged to ask questions about a text or information presented through other media. They also ask questions of speakers to gather more information or deepen understanding of a topic. Expressions of interest and curiosity—when encouraged and pursued—lead to more knowledge building. Reading volume contributes to knowledge; children read independently and in collaboration with peers and adults daily, including books of their own choosing.
RI.2.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area. L.2.4,5 Determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases; demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. ELD.PI.2.12b.Ex Use a growing number of general academic and domain-specific words.	Many words in informational text, in particular, are domain-specific; as children learn this vocabulary, they build knowledge. Importantly, vocabulary is learned in a meaningful context, and children have opportunities to use newly acquired vocabulary as they engage in content-related activities and investigations.
RL/RI.2.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the band. ELD.PI.2.6.Ex Describe ideas, phenomena, and text elements in greater detail based on understanding of a variety of grade-level texts and viewing of multimedia, with moderate support.	Children independently and with others read and discuss texts of different types daily, including a high volume of content-rich texts. Importantly, independent engagement with texts is enabled by their progress in foundational skills (RF.2.3,4). Reading expands their knowledge of the natural and social world, language (especially vocabulary), and familiarity with various text structures and features (RI.2.5; ELD.PII.2.1.Ex). Children have access to informational text in their home languages to amplify domain knowledge and support meaning making.
W.2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section. W.2.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations). ELD.PI.2.10.Ex Write short literary texts and informational texts, collaboratively and with an adult, with peers, and with increasing independence.	Children have many opportunities to convey what they are learning about topics of their choosing and topics under study in grade-level investigations. Children pursue their interests and build content knowledge. Instruction also piques children’s interest in new topics. Teachers ensure that children experience a coherent curriculum in science, social studies, the arts, and all content areas. Children are guided and supported to recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question (W.2.8). Children work cooperatively, in both virtual and in-class settings, to explore topics of common interest. They build knowledge and increasingly effective communication skills as they have many opportunities to share their ideas with one another.
SL.2.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. ELD.PI.2.1.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions.	Conversations contribute to knowledge building. Children regularly share existing and new knowledge with one another in discussions before, during, and after engaging with texts and participating in investigations. Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, and feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions), and teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions.

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Foundational Skills

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RF.2.3a Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words. RF.2.3b Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams. L.2.2.d Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words.	Children have many opportunities to use what they are learning to generate spellings of words. Decoding and encoding are reciprocal processes with progress in one supporting progress in the other. It is productive to teach them in tandem.
RF.2.3c Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.	A strong foundation in spelling-sound correspondences and decoding regularly spelled one-syllable words is ensured. Children have many opportunities to use what they are learning in a variety of contexts. Instruction in English for EL students capitalizes on similarities between the native language and English and highlights differences between the languages. Pronunciation differences due to native language, dialect influences, or regional accent should not be misunderstood as decoding difficulties.
RF.2.3d Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes. L.2.4b Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word.	Becoming aware of word parts contributes to decoding and meaning.
RF.2.3.e Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound correspondences.	Children become comfortable with orthographic diversity—that is, the variation in letter-sound and spelling-sound correspondences (e.g., the vowel combination “ea” may be pronounced as a long or short e sound as in bead and bread). Children are taught to try different pronunciations and determine which one makes sense in the context.
RF.2.3f Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.	Teachers help children identify the spellings in these words that are regular (e.g., “sh” and “d” in should) and those that are not (e.g., the “oul” in should). Few words are entirely irregularly spelled; “of” is one of them. Multiple exposures in a variety of contexts are needed for children to build rapid recognition of these words. Where possible, children learn the logic of the spellings of words that do not conform to conventional spellings (e.g., words of foreign origin).
RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Teachers model fluent reading, and children are given ample time to practice reading with attention to accuracy in order to develop automaticity with decoding (RL/RI.2.10). Teachers identify texts that children find worth reading, maintaining children’s interest and motivation to read. Volume of reading contributes significantly to progress. Even when accuracy and fluency are the primary focus of a lesson or activity, teachers ensure meaning making and understanding of vocabulary. Children create audio recordings of stories or poems (SL.2.5), which provide an authentic reason to rehearse for accurate, expressive, and appropriately paced renderings of the text for an audience (e.g., peers, families, communities, themselves). Teachers ensure positive, motivating experiences. Pronunciation differences due to native language, dialect influences, or regional accent should not be misunderstood as decoding difficulties.
W.2.1-3 Write opinion pieces, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. ELD.PI.2.10.Ex Write longer literary and informational texts collaboratively and with increasing independence.	Children are provided ample writing opportunities to use their developing knowledge of the code to convey their opinions, knowledge, and narratives. Writing volume contributes to skill development.

Class Spotlight

The students in Hector Alvarez’s second grade class are working on building fluency, an important foundational skill. Mr. Alvarez knows that fluency includes accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. Although fluency is often assessed by determining a child’s rate of reading, he knows that rate should vary with the text and reflect its meaning. He shares his screen to display a poem he had read aloud to students and discussed the prior day. His students had found it humorous. Today, he is going to focus on having the students read it. He selected the poem because he anticipated that his students would enjoy it and because it includes several words containing recently learned prefixes. He reads the poem aloud and asks his students to follow along. Then, he asks them to locate words that contain one of the new prefixes. “Does anyone see a word containing the prefix “mis” that we’ve been talking about?” Rudy signals that he has a response and is called on. “I see misplace and mis- mis-misunderstand.” “Excellent, Rudy!” Mr. Alvarez replies, and he reviews the meaning of the prefix in this context. Mr. Alvarez knows that teaching prefixes supports both decoding and language development. He highlights those words on the screen and asks everyone to say the two words. At the same time, a few students have used their emerging keyboarding skills to type one or both of the words into the chat box. Mr. Alvarez acknowledges this and says that next year keyboarding will start in earnest! He reads the poem aloud again using dramatic pauses and appropriate expression that reflects the message of the poem. Then, he invites students to read aloud along with him. Students turn on their microphones and a cacophony of voices are heard. Next, Mr. Alvarez places the students into small breakout rooms, giving each group access to the poem. Mr. Alvarez has carefully organized the groupings so that EL students are engaged with peers at more advanced levels of English proficiency. Their task is to practice reading the poem as a group. When they return to the full class, each group will give its choral rendition of the poem. He checks in on each group to see their progress, provides feedback, and encourages rehearsal. He knows that repeated readings for authentic reasons supports fluency development.

Prominent ELA/Literacy/ELD Themes: Foundational Skills, Language Development, Effective Expression

Associated Standards: RF.2.3,4; L.2.4b; ELD.PIII

Grade Three

Students in grade three engage in a high volume of reading, which solidifies their phonics and word analysis skills; expands their vocabulary, syntax, and knowledge; exposes them to effective language, visual information, and text structures. At the same time, volume of reading contributes to students finding personal value in text and a growing appreciation of a range of human experience.

Teachers ensure that all students engage meaningfully with complex text, and they provide instruction, model thinking, and develop questions and tasks that support students’ progress. As readers and listeners, students in grade three learn to distinguish their own point of view from that of the author, narrator, or characters. They also distinguish shades of meaning and literal from nonliteral language, and they describe the logical connection between sentences and paragraphs in a text. They prepare for discussions, presentations, and writing, and they choose words and phrases for effect. Students begin to develop skill in keyboarding and cursive.

Instruction in phonics and word analysis continues. Prior learning is reinforced, and new learning includes identifying and knowing the meaning of common prefixes and derivational suffixes and decoding multisyllabic words, including those with Latin suffixes.

Standards and instructional considerations for grade three follow. Many can be addressed across the curriculum, that is, as a part of science, social studies, arts, and other subjects. ELA/literacy and content area instruction are mutually supportive, and to treat them as distinctly separate areas of instruction is to miss opportunities to enhance progress in both ELA/literacy and other subjects. The language arts complement and contribute to content instruction; they do not replace inquiry and other content approaches.

Some key standards are included in more than one theme, or critical area of instructional focus. For example, SL.3.1 is crucial in meaning making, language development, effective expression, and content knowledge. Thus, it is included in the first four charts that follow. In each case, the standard is displayed with a pink background to make the repetition obvious. Likewise, RL/RI.3.10 appears in several charts, and so a different color (in this case, orange) is used to highlight the repetition. Presented first is a chart depicting the standards for grade three at a glance followed by detailed charts for each theme.

Critical Areas of Instructional Focus: At a Glance

Theme	Key Standards	Related Standards
Meaning Making	RL/RI.3. 1,10; RF.3.4; W.3.1-3; SL.3.1,3,4 ELD.PI.3.1,6,9,10a,11.Ex	RL/RI.3.2,3,5,7,9; RI.3.6; W.3.10; SL.3.2,5; L.3.3-5 ELD.PI.3.7,8; PII.3.1,2.Ex
Language Development	RL/RI.3.4,10; RF.3.4; SL.3.1,4; L.3.4,5,6 ELD.PI.3.1,3,6,9,12.Ex	RF.3.3a,b; SL.3.3; L.3.4,5 ELD.PI.3.5,8.Ex; PII.3.3-5.Ex
Effective Expression	RL/RI.3.10; RF.3.4; W.3.1-3,5; SL.3.1,4 ELD.PI.3.1,4,7-10.Ex	RL3.4-7; RI.3.8; W.3.4,6; SL.3.5; L.3.1-6 ELD.PI.3.8; PII.3.1-7.Ex
Content Knowledge	RL/RI.3.1,10; RI.3.4; W.3.2,7,8,9; SL.3.1,3,4; L.3.4,5 ELD.PI.3.1,5,6,9,10,12.Ex	RI.3.5,6,7,9; RF.3.3,4; W.3.7,8; SL.3.4a ELD.PII.3.1.Ex
Foundational Skills	RF.3.3a,b,c,d,4; L.3.2f,3.4b; W.3.1-3 ELD.PI.3.10.Ex	RL/RI.3.10; SL.3.5

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Meaning Making

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RL/RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. SL.3.3 Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail. ELD.PI.3.11.Ex Offer opinions and provide good reasons and some textual evidence or relevant background knowledge.	Every student regularly engages with grade-level text, with scaffolds (planned and “just-in-time”) provided and adjusted in accordance with the strengths and needs of the learner. Text-dependent questions prompt students to attend closely to texts of information shared by a speaker. Questions guide students’ understanding of central message, lesson, or moral (RL.3.2), characters (RL.3.3,7,9) and the main idea (RI.3.2; SL.3.2) and connection between events, ideas, and steps in technical procedures in informational text (RI.3.3,7,9). New to this grade are students’ explanations of their thinking and their explicit reference to the text as the basis for responses and attention to distinguishing their own point of view from that of the author of a text (RI.3.6). Children not only answer questions posed by the teacher, but they are also encouraged to ask questions about a text or information presented through other media. Comprehension monitoring is evident when they ask questions to clarify meaning; engagement is evident when they question a character’s behavior or ask about information provided in a text or otherwise presented. All children participate in teacher read-aloud experiences with increasingly complex texts (i.e., those in the grades 4-5 complexity band). Questions and instructions guide children to navigate the language and concepts of challenging text. Children engage as listeners, discussants, and readers with a range of text types, including an equal balance of narrative and informational texts, as well as other text types and media. Exposure to a broad range of texts contributes to literary knowledge, cultural knowledge, and domain knowledge as well as familiarity with various text structures and features (RL/RI.3.5; ELD.PII.3.1.Ex)—all of which contribute to meaning making efforts.
RL/RI.3.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and informational texts in the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently . ELD.PI.3.6.Ex Describe ideas, phenomena, and text elements in greater detail based on understanding of a variety of grade-level texts and viewing of multimedia, with moderate support.	Children read and discuss increasingly complex texts of different types regularly, with special attention given to books with appropriate complexity for grade three. Teachers ensure that all students read daily; volume of reading contributes to reading development. Teachers provide access to compelling works of literature that spark discussions worth having. Teachers support children in meaning making, teaching them how to navigate unfamiliar concepts and vocabulary and complex language structures (L.3.4,5; ELD.PI.3.7,8.Ex; ELD.PII.3.1,2) and interpret illustrations (RI.3.7). Teachers guide deconstruction of complex sentences and paragraphs for understanding their structures and meaning making. Teachers create opportunities for all children to select texts to read for study and enjoyment. Teachers ensure that all children see themselves in texts.
RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Attention is given to meaning making as the reason for continuing to develop accurate word recognition and building fluency. This is also the reason that learners use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
W.3.1-3 Write opinion pieces, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. ELD.PI.3.10a.Ex Write short literary texts and informational texts, collaboratively and with an adult, with peers, and with increasing independence.	Children write routinely about a range of topics, particularly those they care about, with some pieces developed over an extended time period as children engage in research, reflection, and revision, and other pieces written in a short time. Children focus on conveying meaning with a purpose and audience in mind. (W.3.10) Writing about texts enhances reading comprehension. Children also write in response to learning activities across the curriculum.
SL.3.1,4 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 3 topics and texts; plan and deliver presentations. ELD.PI.3.1,9.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions; plan and deliver brief oral presentations.	Children have daily opportunities to engage in conversations with a range of others in a range of contexts for a range of purposes. Conversations include sharing opinions, experiences, and information; responding to texts and learning experiences; and listening to and asking questions of others for clarification or more detail. Children’s understandings of topics and texts are enhanced through engagement with others. Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, and feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions). Teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions. Children plan and deliver presentations with attention to conveying meaning to an audience. They consider organization, sequence, supporting details, and vocabulary to ensure effective communication. They add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details (SL.3.5).

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Language Development

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RL/RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of literal and nonliteral language and general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text. L.3.4,5 Determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases; demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. ELD.PI.3.12 Use a growing number of general academic and domain-specific words.	Words and phrases are drawn from texts (or other media) with which the children are engaged rather than a list divorced from any context. Increasingly complex text and rich content curriculum (e.g., science, social studies, the arts) provide opportunities to expand language. Read-alouds especially can provide opportunities to broaden children’s vocabulary and are selected, in part, on the basis of the richness of the language. Read-alouds include books in the grade 4–5 band or higher. Teachers model an enthusiasm for words and prompt children’s interest in words, as well as their use of new words in novel contexts (L.3.6; ELD.PII.3.3-5). Teachers guide children in understanding nuances in word meanings (L.3.5; ELD.PI.3.8). When addressing multiple-meaning words (L.3.4), meaning making is crucial as it is the context in which a multiple-meaning word occurs that determines its meaning (e.g., to tie a bow on a gift vs. to tie a rope to the bow of the boat). Children learn to use different strategies to determine word meanings, including sentence-level context and word parts, such as affixes and roots, and they use resources to clarify precise meanings (L.3.4; RF.3.3a,b). Teachers leverage all children’s experiences and EL students’ native language where possible (e.g., highlighting cognates) to support vocabulary development.
RL/RI.3.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and informational texts in the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently. ELD.PI.3.6.Ex Describe ideas, phenomena, and text elements in greater detail based on understanding of a variety of grade-level texts and viewing of multimedia, with moderate support.	Texts, including those read independently, by groups of children, and read aloud by a teacher, are a key source of language. Teachers ensure that all children engage with language-rich print or digital texts daily, whether in virtual or in-class settings. Discussions related to texts provide opportunities to talk about and use new vocabulary and sentence structures.
RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Text is a rich source of academic vocabulary and complex linguistic structures. Teachers should ensure that students have strong word analysis skills and sufficient fluency to support voluminous reading, which in turn contributes to students’ language development.
SL.3.1,4 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 3 topics and texts; plan and deliver presentations. ELD.PI.3.1,3,9.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions; offer opinions and negotiate with others in conversations using an expanded set of learned phrases as well as open responses; and plan and deliver brief oral presentations.	Opportunities to use language contribute to language development. Children engage in brief and extended conversations daily with a range of others in a range of contexts for a range of purposes. Conversations include sharing opinions, experiences, and information; responding to texts and learning experiences; and listening to and asking questions of others. Children in this grade come to discussions prepared, and they become more skilled at staying on topic, asking relevant questions, gaining or holding the floor, and providing counterarguments. They offer elaboration and detail while asking and answering questions (SL.3.3; ELD.PII.3.3-5.Ex). Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions). Teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions. Children plan and deliver presentations with attention to descriptive details and clear and specific vocabulary.
L.3.6 Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases. ELD.PI.3.12.Ex Use a growing number of general academic and domain-specific words while speaking and writing.	Teachers provide language rich contexts to ensure learners’ exposure to and opportunities to use an increasingly broad vocabulary. They read aloud books from the grades 4-5 complexity band or higher, provide a wide choice of texts for children to read individually or in groups that will expand their language, and engage children in coherent and stimulating subject area instruction that introduces them to new concepts and accompanying language. Teachers model, scaffold (planned and “just-in-time”), and prompt the use of target words and phrases in multiple contexts. Opportunities to use language are crucial for language development.

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Effective Expression

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RL/RI.3.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and informational texts in the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently. ELD.PI.3.7,8.Ex Describe specific language writers or speakers use to present or support an idea, with prompting and moderate support; distinguish how different words with similar means produce shades of meaning and different effects on the audience.	Children read and are read stories, poetry, and informational texts that are models of effective expression. Teachers guide children in identifying language or structures that evoke responses and emotions or vivid mental images, establish mood, provide clear explanations or interesting organization, or in some way capture readers’ or listeners’ attention (e.g., use of alliterations).They guide children to identify the logical connections between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (RI.3.8). Children become increasingly aware of the author’s craft (RL.3.4-7).
RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Teachers model reading aloud fluently a variety of text types. They vary their pace and use expression appropriate for the text. They also share other effective models of fluent reading using different media sources. Children have regular opportunities to read aloud individually and chorally after rehearsal. Reading aloud is treated as a joyful, community-building process, as children share their own work or engage in a performance (e.g., readers theatre) for others live in the classroom or virtually or shared as an audio recording (SL.3.5).
W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons. W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. ELD.PI.3.10.Ex Write short literary texts and informational texts, collaboratively and with an adult, with peers, and with increasing independence.	Children regularly use writing for different purposes: to convey their opinions, information, and narratives. They become more skilled at writing as volume and range of writing increase. Children are given explicit guidance on how to effectively organize different types of texts (W.3.4; ELD.PII.3.1) and choose words and phrases for effect (L.3.3,4; ELD.PI.3.8). Teachers share models of effective writing. Motivation is crucial; children write about what interests them, and teachers create learning contexts that expand their interests. Teachers prompt children to use new vocabulary they are acquiring to communicate their thoughts more effectively and with increasing precision (L.3.6). Opportunities for children to orally read their work—or any text—to others provide an authentic reason for rehearsal, which supports fluent presentation (RF.3.4). Children learn to use cursive to write as well as to use technology (with guidance) to produce and publish writing, including using keyboarding skills (W.3.6).
W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.	Children’s writing receives regular, specific feedback, so children become increasingly effective at expressing opinions, information, and narratives. Feedback focuses—as appropriate for the context and with consideration of the writer’s motivation, skills, and English proficiency—on topic development, word choice and conventions (L.3.1-3; ELD.PII.3.1-7). Primary attention is given to communicating meaningfully. Feedback is expressed in positive, encouraging ways to ensure motivation and enthusiasm for creating written work are maintained. Teachers engage students in self-assessment and goal setting.
SL.3.1,4 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 3 topics and texts; plan and deliver presentations. ELD.PI.3.1,9.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions; plan and deliver brief oral presentations. ELD.PI.3.4.Ex Adjust language choices according to the purpose, task, and audience, with moderate support.	Children have daily opportunities to engage in conversations with a range of others in a range of contexts for a range of purposes. Conversations include sharing opinions, experiences, and information; responding to texts and learning experiences; and listening to and asking questions of others for clarification or more detail. Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, and feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions). Teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions. Children plan and deliver presentations with attention to conveying meaning to an audience. They consider organization, sequence, supporting details, and vocabulary to ensure effective communication. They add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details (SL.3.5).

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Content Knowledge

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RL/RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for answers. SL.3.3 Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail. ELD.PI.3.5.Ex Demonstrate active listening to read-alouds and oral presentations by asking and answering detailed questions, with occasional prompting and moderate support.	Teachers ensure that all children have many opportunities to engage with information presented in texts and through other sources, which contribute to children’s knowledge of the natural and social world. Text sets on a given topic situated in coherent subject area instruction contribute to building knowledge. Moreover, text sets provide opportunities for children to compare and contrast important points presented in different texts on the same topic. (RI.3.9; ELD.PI.3.7.Ex). Teachers pose text-dependent questions that prompt children’s close attention to the text as the source for responses, including as they compare and contrast important points presented by different texts on the same topic and use information presented in illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) (RI.3.7,9). Questions also guide students to distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text (RI.3.6). Children not only answer questions posed by the teacher, but they are also encouraged to ask questions about a text or information presented through other media. They also ask questions of speakers to gather more information or deepen understanding of a topic. Expressions of interest and curiosity—when pursued—lead to more knowledge building. Reading volume contributes to knowledge; children read independently and in collaboration with others daily, including books of their own choosing.
RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text. L.3.4,5 Determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases; demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. ELD.PI.3.12 Use a growing number of general academic and domain-specific words.	Many words in informational text, in particular, are domain-specific; as students learn this vocabulary, they build knowledge. Importantly, vocabulary is learned in a meaningful context, and students have opportunities to use newly acquired vocabulary as they engage in content-related activities and investigations.
RL/RI.3.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature and informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently independently and proficiently. ELD.PI.3.6.Ex Describe ideas, phenomena, and text elements in greater detail based on understanding of a variety of grade-level texts and viewing of multimedia, with moderate support.	Children independently and with others read and discuss texts daily, including a range of content-rich texts. Reading expands their knowledge of the natural and social world, language, and familiarity with various text structures and features (RI.3.5; ELD.PII.3.1.Ex). Reading volume contributes to knowledge; children read independently and in collaboration with others daily, including books of their own choosing. Importantly, independent engagement with texts is enabled by their continuing progress in foundational skills (RF.3.3,4). Children have access to informational text in their home languages to amplify domain knowledge and support meaning making.
W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. W.3.7,8 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories. ELD.PI.3.10.Ex Write longer informational texts collaboratively and with increasing independence using appropriate text organization; paraphrase texts and recount experiences.	Children have many opportunities to convey what they are learning about topics of their own choosing and topics under study in grade-level subject area investigations. Children pursue their interests, conducting research that builds knowledge about a topic. Instruction also piques children’s interest in new topics. Children are provided guidance on gathering and organizing information on topics. Models of effective informational text are shared with students (ELD.PII.3.1.Ex). Children share what they have learned by planning and delivering a well-organized presentation on a topic.
SL.3.1,4 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 3 topics and texts; plan and deliver presentations. ELD.PI.3.1,9.Ex Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions; plan and deliver brief oral presentations.	Conversations contribute to knowledge building. Children regularly share existing and new knowledge with one another in discussions before, during, and after engaging with texts and participating in investigations. Teachers ensure a community culture in which all children feel comfortable contributing to conversations, are encouraged to do so, and feel heard and respected by others. Agreed-upon discussion norms are established (e.g., listening with care, valuing contributions, speaking one at a time, asking questions). Teachers ensure equitable opportunities for all learners to contribute to discussions. Children plan and deliver presentations to share knowledge with others, sometimes after gathering relevant information or engaging in research projects (W.3.7,8). They carefully consider organization, key ideas, and relevant details.

Critical Area of Instructional Focus: Foundational Skills

Key ELA/Literacy & ELD Standard(s)	Related Standards and Instructional Considerations
RF.3.3a Identify and know the meaning of the most prefixes and derivational suffixes. L.3.4b Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word. RF.3.3b Decode words with common Latin suffixes.	Attention to word parts contributes to decoding and meaning.
RF.3.3c Decode multisyllable words. L.3.2f Use spelling patterns and generalizations (word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.	A strong foundation in decoding regularly spelled one-syllable words is ensured. Decoding and encoding are reciprocal processes with progress in one supporting progress in the other. They are often taught in tandem. Children have many opportunities to use what they are learning in a variety of contexts. Instruction in English for EL students capitalizes on similarities between the native language and English and highlights differences between the languages. Pronunciation differences due to native language, dialect influences, or regional accent should not be misunderstood as decoding difficulties.
RF.3.3d Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.	Teachers help children identify the spellings in the words that are regular. Few words are entirely irregularly spelled. Multiple exposures in a variety of contexts are needed for children to build rapid recognition of these words. Where possible, children learn the logic of the spellings of words that do not conform to conventional spellings (e.g., words of foreign origin).
RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.	Time to practice reading is crucial for developing automaticity with decoding. All students must be provided opportunities to read grade-level texts; some will need more support than others (RL/RI.3.10). Teachers identify texts that children find worth reading, maintaining children’s interest and motivation to read. Volume of reading contributes significantly to progress. Even when accuracy and fluency are the primary focus of a lesson or activity, teachers ensure meaning making and understanding of vocabulary. Students create audio recordings of stories or poems (SL.3.5), which provide an authentic reason to rehearse for accurate, expressive, and appropriately paced renderings of the text for an audience (e.g., peers, families, communities, themselves). Teachers ensure positive, motivating experiences for such performances. Pronunciation differences due to native language, dialect influences, or regional accent should not be misunderstood as decoding difficulties.
W.3.1-3 Write opinion pieces, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. ELD.PI.3.10.Ex Write longer literary and informational texts collaboratively and with increasing independence.	Children are provided ample writing opportunities to use their expanding knowledge of the code to convey their opinions, knowledge, and narratives. Writing volume contributes to skill development.

Class Spotlight

The students in Brandi Henry’s third-grade class are in Web breakout rooms engaging in an activity that supports their language development and meaning making as well as builds their content knowledge. In preparation, Ms. Henry had posted on the class learning management system visuals and diagrams with labels of high utility, discipline-specific words the class generated previously. Before students moved into their breakout rooms, she reminded them of those resources. She also invited students to use their home language, adding that she expects someone in the group to write them in English as well. Each breakout room has a topic, and the students have to read two different texts about that topic. For example, Nicole, Blanca, Adam, and Sergio are focused on earthquakes. They have accessed a Google slide that contains a Venn diagram. They are currently discussing how the two texts they read are similar, and they are recording information in the area that overlaps the two circles. They have written their names on the bottom of the slide and chosen a font color so that their teacher knows who added what to the diagram. They talk about many things that are the same in the two texts including the average number of earthquakes in the state, the way that earthquakes are measured, the person who developed the scale, and the use of words like fault, after-shock, tremor, and epicenter. The teacher makes comments on their slide as they work. For example, next to the note about the number of earthquakes she wrote, “Maybe you want to label these as key details versus important points.” Near their list of vocabulary, she wrote, “I appreciate your word detective skills. Want to define these on the bottom of the page if you have time?” The students keep working, now focused on the differences that they found. As Blanca said, “The first one was more about what happens to people. We should add notes about the problems with buildings in those places and what can happen to the water.” Their conversation continues as they explore the differences between the two texts. Their teacher arrives in the breakout room, and Adam greets her, saying “This is really fun. We give ourselves a rating of 5 because our group is taking turns, and everybody is sharing.” Ms. Henry asks if they need any clarification and reminds them that they have two minutes before they all come back into the main room to hear more of the instructions. As she says, “I know that you’ll all need more time, but I want us to check in as a class so that we can help each other and make sure we understand the next step.”

Prominent ELA/Literacy/ELD Themes: Content Knowledge, Language Development, Meaning Making

Associated Standards: RI.3.2,4,9; W.3.6,7,8; SL.3.1,2; ELD.PI.3.1,6,10b,12.Ex