Grade 3 English

By third grade, students focus almost exclusively on reading to learn. Teachers help third-grade readers zero in on the main ideas and supporting details of paragraphs, and children learn how to use chapter headings, tables of contents, and indexes. When reading fiction, third-graders begin to make predictions and inferences, and to think about characters' motivations. Teachers show students how to use small charts known as "graphic organizers" to help track the main ideas, characters, and themes in their reading. In writing lessons, teachers concentrate on the mechanics: grammar, spelling, and handwriting. Students are evaluated based on how they write (including proper sentence structure and correct use of the parts of speech) and on what they write (including well-organized thoughts, descriptive language, and clear dialogue). Teachers also expect students to stay on their main point throughout a piece of writing, which is often a challenge for very young writers. To practice these skills, third-graders will create outlines to write stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they will be asked to edit and correct their own work. As part of their daily homework, third-graders study weekly spelling and vocabulary lists, and keep a record of their personal reading selections.

Teaching to the Test? Since the federal No Child Left Behind Act became law in 2002, schools have put increased emphasis on standardized tests, especially in English and math, and teachers have sometimes feel pressured to forgo "outside the box" methods in favor of preparing their students for the high-stakes, end-of-the-year tests. English teachers have noted that many of these tests are featuring more easier-to-grade multiple-choice questions and fewer short-answer essay questions. Critics say this shift has been detrimental for kids who are better at expressing what they have learned in writing than at answering a question with only one right answer. They also complain that focusing on the test, and the kind of questions it asks, pigeonholes young students into a single, rigid way of learning.

* The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury (Knopf, 1999) was compiled by the country's first Children’s Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky, and contains 211 poems from 137 writers, including Langston Hughes, Ogden Nash, and Karla Kuskin. This exhaustive anthology will introduce grandchildren to many types of poetry.
* Stone Soup magazine offers 48 pages of stories, poems, book reviews, and artwork, all created by kids for kids. Inspire your grandchildren to strive for publication at an early age by sharing this one-of-a-kind publication with them.
* Reading a 500-page novel may seem too daunting for some third-graders, not to mention plenty of time-challenged adults. But Caldecott Award winner Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret, (Scholastic, 2007) an engrossing mystery set in 1930s Paris, contains enough full-page charcoal drawings to make the task manageable for ambitious, advanced students.
* Third-graders become comfortable using a thesaurus to help them find just the right word for their writing assignments. Joshua Kendall's The Man Who Made Lists (Putnam, 2008) is a historian’s glimpse into the life of Peter Mark Roget, the man who created the famous thesaurus that still bears his name. Kendall's book is for adults, but grandchildren fascinated by words will be eager to hear what you learn from it.

For Young Puzzlers. Wordsmiths young and old love a good crossword challenge. Doing a crossword together on the couch or at the park is a great way to bond with grandchildren, and a great way to build their vocabulary. There are plenty of crossword anthologies for young people on bookstore shelves, but you can make a special crossword puzzle for them, or create one with them, at a free website like this one.

It's Okay to Act Out. "Reader's Theater," in which students act out short plays in their classrooms, is a popular elementary-school activity. But now that your grandchildren are a little older, and doing more writing in school, they may be ready to write a short play of their own. It could be about your family, a vacation memory, a favorite athlete, or a comic-book hero. Help the kids assemble costumes from clothes around the house, do a couple of rehearsals, then put on a show for family and friends.

Thank You So Much. Appreciation goes a long way, especially where gifts are concerned. Teach your grandchildren the importance of gratitude and proper etiquette, and help them boost their writing skills, by having them write thank-you notes after their birthdays. Before the kids start writing, take a trip to a card shop so they can choose their own stationery and pens.

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