English Language Arts — Grade 3

Writing with Koala Lou: Sequencing and BME

After reading the story Koala Lou aloud, students practice sequencing the events of the story and identifying the beginning, middle, and end. Upon completing this activity in cooperative groups they write using a teacher given prompt, including proper sequence and beginning, middle, and end. They also share the final product with their cooperative group.

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

By Jenifer Lewis.

Novel study: Lucky Charms and Birthday Wishes

Although this is a unit developed for instruction in language arts, it has a curriculum focus for healthful living. The unit usually takes about 4–5 weeks to complete. A major piece of this unit focuses on identifying and listing characteristics of people.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts)

By Michael Miller.

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)

By Jennie McGuire.

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.

Go Figure! The Origin and Use of Idioms

Students will identify idioms and relate their meanings.

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

By Martha Cain.

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 3–4 English Language Arts)

By Kimberly Conville.

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.

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 English Language Arts, Healthful Living, and Science)

By BJ Larson and Paula Sharpe.

Cause and effect

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

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

By Rochelle Mullis.

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 3–4 English Language Arts)

By Carolyn Ridgway.

Resources on the web

Writing poetry like pros

This set of four lesson plans from EDSITEment utilizes poetry to serve as the inspiration for some terrific writing. Using poems available through EDSITEment resources, educators can make poetry an exciting teaching and learning tool in the classroom. ... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: EDSITEment

Writing and assessing an autobiographical incident

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will build upon their knowledge of biographies to write their own autobiographical incident. Students will be given a rubric and shown several examples. They will then complete the writing process and share their... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Writing ABC books to enhance reading comprehension

After reading a piece of literature, students explore the text, searching for literary elements such as characters, setting, figures of speech, and themes. They use the alphabet to organize their findings and publish their work in ABC books, using the Alphabet... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

What's in a mystery? Exploring and identifying mystery elements

This lesson teaches students about plot structure, character, and setting through an exploration of mystery books. Prior to reading a mystery book to the class, the teacher engages students in a brainstorming activity about the characteristics of the mystery... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

What makes poetry? Exploring line breaks

In this lesson, students read several poems and experiment with line breaks and how they affect rhythm, sound, meaning, appearance, and can substitute for punctuation in poetry. After students brainstorm and discuss characteristics of poetry, they look... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Voting! What's it all about?

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students both listen to information read aloud from a variety of sources and read from fiction and nonfiction books. Students explore information from current sources including child-oriented websites, newspapers, and... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 Computer/Technology Skills, English Language Arts, and Social Studies)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using writing and role-play to engage the reluctant writer

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students explore the different characters in the story The Three Little Javalinas and then select one of the characters to write a letter to the author in role. Writing in role allows students to understand... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using picture books to teach setting development in writing workshop

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students examine the craft of developing the setting of a story through focused experiences with picture books. Students carefully analyze setting portrayal using the text and illustrations as cues, and tools including... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using picture books to teach plot development and conflict resolution

In this lesson, students examine story books as an introduction to plot and conflict. After students have a working definition of conflict in literature, they identify the conflict in several children’s books. Then, as a class, students present the conflict... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using picture books to teach characterization in writing workshop

The teacher introduces this activity with a mini-lesson on how to revise a piece of writing. Through the careful analysis of character portrayal and the use of online tools such as the ReadWriteThink Story Map, students work in collaborative groups to identify... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink