Standard #: LAFS.3.W.1.2 (Archived Standard)


This document was generated on CPALMS - www.cpalms.org



Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
  1. Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
  2. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
  3. Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.
  4. Provide a concluding statement or section.


Related Courses

Course Number1111 Course Title222
5012050: Grade Three Mathematics (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
5008050: Health - Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
5010010: English for Speakers of Other Languages-Elementary (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022 (course terminated))
5010020: Basic Skills in Reading-K-2 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2021, 2021 and beyond (current))
5010030: Functional Basic Skills in Communications-Elementary (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
5021050: Social Studies Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2023, 2023 and beyond (current))
5010044: Language Arts - Grade Three (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
7712040: Access Mathematics Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
7710014: Access Language Arts - Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
7721014: Access Social Studies - Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2023, 2023 and beyond (current))
5012055: Grade 3 Accelerated Mathematics (Specifically in versions: 2019 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
7708030: Access Health Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2020 - 2023, 2023 and beyond (current))
5010103: Introduction to Debate Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2020 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))


Related Resources

Lesson Plans

Name Description
Gr. 3 Lesson 3-Hurry for a Habitat!

Students will use a relay race activity to reinforce knowledge gained in Lesson One. They will demonstrate understanding of the different habitats of the Everglades and the flora and fauna found in each one.

Gr. 3 Lesson 1-Classifying Everglades Animals and Their Habitats

Students will learn about and become familiar with the different habitats of the Everglades and the flora and fauna found in each one.

Classification of Vertebrates

Students will classify vertebrates into groups based on their characteristics. Students will begin with a galley walk of vertebrates in which they examine images of animals and identify characteristics of each type. Once they determine the characteristics of each they will sort new animals into their groups based on the characteristics they identified.

Chess Wish List

The 3rd grade chess club members will make two wish lists on how to spend $75 on chess related materials. Then they have to make two new wish lists on how to spend $750 on chess related materials.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Amazing Dolphins

In this lesson, students will explore vocabulary, answer questions about the text, and identify the details and the central idea of an informational text about dolphins. Students will demonstrate their new knowledge about this amazing animal by completing an expository paragraph.

Cupid's Carnival Rides

In this lesson, students will look at different carnival rides and will determine which ride will make the most profit by looking at factors such as number of tickets per ride, the cost per ticket, the length of the ride, the number of hours the ride is open and the cost to operate the ride. Students will need to use different operations in order to solve the tasks and will be required to do multi-steps.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

"City, City": A Comparison

In this close reading lesson, students will read 'City, City" by Marci Ridlon and analyze how the poet uses words to describe the city. Students will write a comparison piece to explain what the poet says about the city in stanzas one and two.

Comparing and Contrasting Washington and Lincoln

In this lesson, students will identify the relevant details and central idea of two informational texts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They will then compare and contrast the two presidents using a graphic organizer and write an expository essay to explain the presidents' similarities and differences.

Point of View: Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg

During these lessons, students will delve deep into the text Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. After identifying the point of view in the story, they will answer comprehension questions about the story by playing a small group game. Students will have the opportunity to rewrite the story from a completely different point of view.

A Reading of The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco

In this reading of Patricia Polacco's story The Junkyard Wonders, students will identify and analyze character development to help determine the theme, or underlying message, the author wants readers to understand.

Character Traits: A Close Reading of The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg

In this close reading lesson, students will delve deep into the text, The Sweetest Fig, by Chris Van Allsburg. Students will practice reading comprehension, vocabulary, and identifying character traits. They will determine the traits of a character based off of the character's actions and language. Students will also gain practice responding to text-based questions both orally and in writing, providing evidence from the text to support their claims.

Character Development: Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

In this lesson, students will delve into the text Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg. They will determine the character’s development based upon the character's traits, actions, and language, especially examining character change over the course of the text. Students will also write a narrative ending to the story based on the character’s development.

A Journey with Aesop: The Lion and the Mouse

Students will listen to the teacher read aloud Aesop's fable "The Lion and the Mouse." They will define vocabulary words and discuss the causes and effects of events in the story. These lessons will culuminte with students writing an expository text about how the lion changes throughout the story by providing details and other required components.

Character Traits with 14 Cows for America

The following lesson centers around the book 14 Cows for America. This story is a recount of the events on September 11 told through the eyes of a young man in his village in Kenya. Students will think deeply about the main character and his character traits in the story. A series of discussion questions are provided along with an expository writing prompt.

Our United States Government: What's the Central Idea?

In this lesson, students will learn to identify the central idea and explain how key details support that idea in an informational text. They will use that information to create trading cards about the three levels of government and write a paragraph summarizing the text and what they've learned.

The Journey of a Tiny Turtle

In this lesson, students will read texts about the life cycle of sea turtles. They will gather facts and research sea turtles from various texts in order to write an expository essay and create a brochure about sea turtles.

Animal Habitat MEA

Animal Habitat MEA is where the students will help a pet store choose which habitat they should buy to house their snake and lizard families. The students will solve an open-ended problem and give details on the process that they used to solve the problem.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Fertilizing Fun!

Students are selected to develop procedures for conducting a study on plant fertilizers. They are given data to determine which fertilizer is best for school gardens based on growth rate, size of vegetables, amount of vegetables, taste, and color. They will reassess these fertilizers during the twist incorporating safety ratings.

Students may arrange the criteria based on their team's interpretation of most important to least important. Students may have to make trade-offs based on these interpretations.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Dream Skates

A student engineering team is asked by a wheel manufacturer to investigate and develop a plan to select the best model of roller blades.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Rocking through the Regions (of the United States)

Rocking through the Regions (of the United States) is a 27-day third grade research project on the five regions of the United States and the states that are located within the regions. Students will begin by writing letters to states" Departments of Tourism requesting information about their state. Then, students will work in groups to use the information received along with other print and digital resources they locate to gather information about their region. Once all information is gathered, students will begin writing an informative report and publish their report in an engaging presentation. By the end of this unit, students will be able to identify all five regions on a blank map of the United States and label all 50 states.

Parts of a Plant - Dissection and Diagram

In this lesson,students will watch two videos about and read an article on flowering plant parts and their functions. Students will then dissect their own plants, draw a diagram, and write an informative structured paragraph describing the plant parts and their functions. Good lesson to use in science journals!

Close Reading Exemplar: "Because of Winn-Dixie"

The goal of this one day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to absorb deep lessons from Kate DiCamillo's story. By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will identify how and why the three main characters became friends.

Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) STEM Lessons

Name Description
Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation Lesson 17 Beat the Heat MEA Part 4: Ranking Procedure

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about describing
the changes water undergoes when it changes state through heating and cooling. This MEA
is divided into four parts. In part 1, students will develop their hypothesis and receive
information on how to set up the cooler experiment. In part 2, students will be asked to use
ice to test the coolers they designed in Beat the Heat Engineering Design Lessons.
Students will take measurements and collect data on their cooler. In part 3, students will
analyze the data they collected. Finally, in part 4 they will develop a procedure for selecting
the best cooler to keep water frozen the longest at the beach. They will communicate their
findings and procedure via a letter to next year’s class. In the optional twist, students will
need to take the mass of the cooler into account.

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Water. This is a themed unit of SaM-1's adventures while on a Beach Vacation.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation Lesson 9 Cool Cooler Design Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA)

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about describing
the changes water undergoes when it changes state through heating and cooling. Students
will be asked to rank coolers based on data to solve an open-ended, realistic problem, while
considering constraints and tradeoffs. In the optional twist, students will need to take the
mass of the cooler into account.

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Water. This is a themed unit ofSaM-1's adventures while on a Beach Vacation.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

 

Physical Science Unit: Properties Lesson 23 Model Eliciting Activity: Researching Sea Turtle Nesting Temperatures

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge of investigating the natural world, sources of energy, measuring, keeping records, graphing, and communicating information. Students will develop a hypothesis, design an experiment, and support their reasoning to determine how to best study different methods for cooling sea turtle nesting areas. In the optional part 2, students will carry out the experiment that they designed in part 1 and collect data to determine if their hypotheses are supported. 

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Properties. This is a themed unit of SaM-1's adventures at the CPALMS Rehabilitation and Conservation Center.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx .

Physical Science Unit: Properties Lesson 21 Model Eliciting Activity: Entertaining Animals

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about physical properties and measuring linear lengths to a realistic problem. Students will be asked to design a prototype toy for Florida panthers housed at the CPALMS Rehabilitation and Conservation Center. Students will need to describe the physical properties (color, shape, texture, hardness, length) of the toy while explaining the rationale behind their design choices. In the optional twist, students will need to design a prototype toy suitable for a Florida panther with an injured leg. 

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Properties. This is a themed unit of SaM-1's adventures at the CPALMS Rehabilitation and Conservation Center.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx .

Original Student Tutorials

Name Description
Diving into Expository Writing

Learn how to write a topic sentence to introduce a topic, group related information together, develop a topic by adding details, and add an image to support the text with this ocean-themed, interactive tutorial.

Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation Lesson 17 Video

This SaM-1 video provides the students with the optional "twist" for Lesson 17 and the Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) they have been working on in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation. 

 

To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

Lesson 23 Video: MEA Researching Sea Turtle Nesting Temperatures

In this video Sam-1 introduces a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge. Students will take their prior experiences from the properties unit and apply their knowledge of investigating sea turtle nesting temperatures.  

Students will develop a hypothesis, design an experiment, and support their reasoning to determine how to best study different methods for cooling sea turtle nesting areas.

Lesson 21 Video: MEA Entertaining Animals Part 2

In this video, SaM-1 introduces a part 2 twist to the  Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge. In the optional twist, students will need to design a prototype toy suitable for a Florida panther with an injured leg. This first video provides background information on why and how animals need to be entertained. 

Lesson 21 Video: MEA Entertaining Animals

In this video, SaM-1 introduces a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge for the students. This video provides background information on why and how animals need to be entertained. Students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about physical properties and measuring linear lengths as they are asked to design a prototype toy for Florida panthers housed at the CPALMS Rehabilitation and Conservation Center. 

In the optional twist, students will need to design a prototype toy suitable for a Florida panther with an injured leg. The optional twist also has a SaM-1 video to introduce the twist challenge.

 

 

Diving into Informative Writing

Learn how to write a topic sentence to introduce a topic, group related information together, develop a topic by adding details, and add an image to support the text with this ocean-themed, interactive tutorial.

Teaching Ideas

Name Description
Native American Living Then and Now

This teaching idea describes a project third grade students participated in after studying Native Americans. Students created their own illustration page and described the artwork with descriptive paragraphs.

Space Illustrated

This teaching idea describes a project for third graders integrating science and writing. After studying astronomy, students created a magazine with articles about astronomy, crossword and word search puzzles, comics, stories, etc.

National Symbols This teaching idea from the California Court's "California on My Honor" lesson plan program supports the introduction of national symbols, landmarks and monuments and what they stand for. The teaching idea calls for students to be given the task of developing a flag to represent their classroom.once they begin to understand the abstract representation of symbols.

Text Resources

Name Description
Plants Responding to Different Factors

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is a description of how a plant responds to light, gravity, and heat.

Parts of a Plant

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes the function of the different parts of a plant.

Can You Read a Tree?

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how tree rings are used to determine the Earth's climate many years ago.

Student Resources

Original Student Tutorials

Name Description
Diving into Expository Writing:

Learn how to write a topic sentence to introduce a topic, group related information together, develop a topic by adding details, and add an image to support the text with this ocean-themed, interactive tutorial.

Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation Lesson 17 Video:

This SaM-1 video provides the students with the optional "twist" for Lesson 17 and the Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) they have been working on in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation. 

 

To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

Lesson 23 Video: MEA Researching Sea Turtle Nesting Temperatures :

In this video Sam-1 introduces a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge. Students will take their prior experiences from the properties unit and apply their knowledge of investigating sea turtle nesting temperatures.  

Students will develop a hypothesis, design an experiment, and support their reasoning to determine how to best study different methods for cooling sea turtle nesting areas.

Lesson 21 Video: MEA Entertaining Animals Part 2:

In this video, SaM-1 introduces a part 2 twist to the  Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge. In the optional twist, students will need to design a prototype toy suitable for a Florida panther with an injured leg. This first video provides background information on why and how animals need to be entertained. 

Lesson 21 Video: MEA Entertaining Animals:

In this video, SaM-1 introduces a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge for the students. This video provides background information on why and how animals need to be entertained. Students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about physical properties and measuring linear lengths as they are asked to design a prototype toy for Florida panthers housed at the CPALMS Rehabilitation and Conservation Center. 

In the optional twist, students will need to design a prototype toy suitable for a Florida panther with an injured leg. The optional twist also has a SaM-1 video to introduce the twist challenge.

 

 

Diving into Informative Writing:

Learn how to write a topic sentence to introduce a topic, group related information together, develop a topic by adding details, and add an image to support the text with this ocean-themed, interactive tutorial.



Printed On:3/29/2024 7:25:25 AM
Print Page | Close this window