In this lesson, students explore their towns using a variety of print and nonprint resources. By looking at brochures and other informational tools, students learn about some of the purposes for which people read and write. They also practice writing for a specific audience, revising their writing, and working collaboratively to create a brochure for new students just moving into town.

In this lesson, collaborative groups will read a variety of American tall tales, then report elements of their story to the whole class. Students add story information to a collaborative, whole-class character study matrix that summarizes all the stories. In a writing activity, students compare two characters of their choice. The lesson process is applicable to any set of related texts.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science created this resource as part of an online workshop series, but you are welcome to use or modify it for your classroom. It includes a video and written directions for creating nature journals and tips for incorporating them into your classroom. For information on taking any the Nature Neighborhood online workshops for CEUs or EE credit, visit: https://naturalsciences.org/learn/educators/online-workshops.

In this lesson from Expeditionary Learning, students will write an informative/explanatory text on Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown. This is Lesson 5 of 17 from the Grade 3 Curriculum Map Unit 3, Module 1: http://engageny.org/resource/grade-3-ela-module-1-unit-3 .

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 3rd Grade ELA.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 3rd Grade ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning.  

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 3rd Grade English Language Arts. 

Per the ReadWriteThink website: In this collaborative inquiry unit, the real gold is the inquiry skills and content area knowledge that students develop. The class works in small groups, each focusing on one aspect of the same big topic, such as the Gold Rush. After skimming related texts, the class brainstorms people, places and things associated with the topic and develops a list of five or six main subtopics. Students then work in small groups to research one of the subtopics, practicing specific research skills as they work. Finally, students choose an activity, such as an oral report, trivia game, or newspaper, to teach what they have learned to the rest of the class. Group accountability and individual responsibility are built in to this lesson process. While this unit uses the Gold Rush as an example, any event or geographical area could be substituted.

Using this student reproducible, from a ReadWriteThink lesson, students explain what friendship means to them by finishing a series of statements.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as a culminating activity of part of a larger social studies unit or an English language arts unit centered on the concept of culture.  Students will take part in close readings of a variety of fiction (folktales, myths, historical fiction, etc.) and non-fiction (informational books, reference books/materials, maps, magazines articles, original documents, websites, etc.) throughout the unit.   As they read, they will pay attention to the different sections of the books (e.g., - nationalities, religions, languages, etc.) and take notes on what applies to them/where they fit in regard to that topic/category, thus comparing  & contrasting where they stand when considering their place in America & their place in the world. They will then work to create a “self portrait” by crafting their research into a portrait that conveys who they are in America, in the world, and in their own head & heart and present that information to the class.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will use thematically related texts, organized from least to most complex, to gather a word bank of supporting details and content vocabulary about a concept. Then they use these words as a basis for writing acrostic poems, which support organization of information around a central idea, as the lines of an acrostic poem are held together by the topic or main idea spelled vertically.