English Language Arts — Grade 3

The Big, Bad, Red Wolf: Fact and Fantasy

This lesson will explore the myths and legends surrounding wolves. We will also investigate factual information about the endangered red wolf.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 Information Skills, English Language Arts, and Computer Technology Skills)

By steven sather.

The Birchbark House

This study guide was created by a group of third grade enrichment students. They were planning to read this book but could find no published guide to go with it. They decided to create their own as they read.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Carolyn Ridgway.

Cause and effect

Students will identify and interpret cause and effect as expressed in poetry.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts)

By Rochelle Mullis.

Cloudy with a chance of...what?

Students will enjoy reading about a town where no one ever goes hungry because the sky provides food while learning about weather, healthy and unhealthy foods, and creating a database.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–4 Healthful Living Education, English Language Arts, Computer Technology Skills, and Science)

By BJ Larson and Paula Sharpe.

Comparing and contrasting Little Red Riding Hood stories

This lesson will introduce the Venn diagram to students. They will read two versions of the story "Little Red Riding Hood" and list details from each in separate diagrams.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–3 English Language Arts)

By Amber Miller.

Description as Mind Control: Using Details to Help Readers Visualize Your Story

Good writers help their readers visualize their stories by including vivid details. Students will listen to passages from Gary Paulsen's novel Hatchet, draw one of the images from the passage, and identify which details Paulsen uses to create these images.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Figurative Language: Similes

Students will define and identify similes as well as evaluate the use of similes in the poem, "The Base Stealer" by Robert Francis.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts)

By Kimberly Conville.

Go Figure! The Origin and Use of Idioms

Students will identify idioms and relate their meanings.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts)

By Martha Cain.

Let's hunt for vivid vocabulary!

This activity will be used to encourage students to focus on using an enriched vocabulary. During an oral reading of the book A Bad Case of Stripes, the students will search and identify various nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, dialogue tags, and transition words.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)

By Susan Byrd.

A Million Fish....Serving up Exaggeration

Students will become familiar with the term "exaggeration" and how it can be used in stories to catch the reader's attention. Students will create narrative stories of their own using exaggeration.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts and Mathematics)

By Jennie McGuire.

Pigs and Wolf on a Map!

The students will construct a Double Bubble Map (Venn Diagram) to compare and contrast two versions of a familiar fairytale.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–4 English Language Arts and Computer Technology Skills)

By Cherry Randall.

Similes

"The Talking Eggs" by Robert San Souci is used to introduce and illustrate an author's use of language to paint a picture in the reader's mind. Students will draw a picture to show what this author meant, create similes to describe themselves, and finally use a simile in their next story in Writer's Workshop.

Format: lesson plan (grade 1–3 English Language Arts)

By jennifer lettieri.

"Write On!!!" --"Hooking the Reader"

Students will recognize new and innovative ways to write a narrative by discovering various ways to "hook" the reader with catchy beginnings and using figurative language and writing components to write an interesting story.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts and Computer Technology Skills)

By Tina Duckwall.

Lesson plans on the web

Be a reading detective: Finding similarities and differences in ideas

In this lesson, students use graphic organizers and clue words to compare and contrast items in nonfiction writing. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Behind the scenes with Cinderella

Students use literature and the Internet to research and learn about the geography, architecture, and weather that are associated with the setting of Moss Gown. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Blending fiction and nonfiction to improve comprehension and writing skills

Introduces text sets to increase student interest in and understanding of content area material and to develop critical writing skills. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–6 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Book clubs: Reading for fun

In this lesson, small groups of students create, organize, and run book clubs in order to promote reading for fun. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Book report alternative: Examining story elements using story map comic strips

Students use a six-paneled comic strip to create a story map, summarizing a book or story that they've either read as a class or independently. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Book report alternative: The elements of fiction

Students review the elements of fiction and the key components of a book report. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Born on a mountaintop? Davy Crockett, tall tales, and history

Students explore Tall Tales and create one of their own. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provider: National Endowment for the Humanities