Descriptions of the Reporting Categories Grade 3

The following descriptions outline what your child should know and be able to do at this grade level.

Comprehension and Reading Skills

This topic includes basic skills necessary for successful reading, like vocabulary and word recognition. When reading, it is important to identify main ideas, make inferences, and draw conclusions. When reading fiction, students should think about how the author’s choices add to the impact of a text. When reading nonfiction, students should consider how word choice contributes to the purpose of the text.

While reading with your child, find a word that he or she doesn't know and make it the Word of the Week. Look it up in the dictionary; then write the word and its definition on a card that you post on the refrigerator. Use the word as much as possible to help your child learn it. After a few weeks, your child will have a list of new words that he or she knows and uses.

Interpretation and Analysis of Fiction and Nonfiction Texts

This topic involves many skills. It requires students to analyze elements of fiction texts such as character, setting, plot, theme, topic, tone and style, and content. Also included in this topic are literary devices like foreshadowing and flashback, point of view, and figurative language. One of the most important things to consider about nonfiction texts is their organization. Students need to distinguish between fact and opinion and essential and nonessential information. Students must also determine an author’s purpose.

Set a monthly date with your child for library visits. During each visit, look for a different type of book and explore together the features of each type. Help your child discover the elements that make each type of book interesting and unique. One week you might explore a piece of fiction, another week you might pursue biographies. Continue with this tradition and move into everything from poems to autobiographies to nonfiction on topics that particularly interest your child. Ask the librarian for suggestions of different types of books to read.