This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 3rd grade English Language Arts content.

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.

In this lesson, students will research a specific chromebook troubleshooting technique, write a short script, and perform a skit in person or via flip grid to share with the class.

n this lesson, students explore a historic event in depth by reading fiction and nonfiction literature. Then, to enhance and extend the reading experience, students participate in website exploration and virtual field trips. Throughout the process, students gather facts and relevant information, which they later organize and present to the class. This lesson is easily adaptable to accommodate a wide range of historic events, instructional objectives, and grade levels.

In this lesson, students will explore the creation of repetitive designs using variables in the Artist environment. Students will learn how variables can be used to make code easier to write and easier to read, even when the values don't change at runtime.

In this online activity, students will have the opportunity to push their understanding of loops to a whole new level. Playing with the Bee and Plants vs Zombies, students will learn how to program a loop to be inside of another loop. They will also be encouraged to figure out how little changes in either loop will affect their program when they click `Run`.

In this lesson, students will see how artistic materials can extend knowledge. This lesson provides opportunities for students to explore and experience the meaning potential of everyday writing and drawing tools in their own writing. The lesson can adapted for older students.

Students will choose a landform to research. Using NC Wise Owl they will complete the Research form.They will use the information they learned to write an oral report as if they are a newscaster reporting from the landform.  They will record the report using Do Ink (Greenscreen app). Next they will create a diorama of the landform in a shoebox. Using the ipad, they will take a picture of the diorama and use Do Ink to make the greenscreen video.

In this lesson, students summarize biographies of leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Lydia Maria Child, William Lloyd Garrison, Claudette Colvin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

 Using Wonders Literature Anthology and students Reading/Writing Companion, students will learn “What are different kinds of energy?”.  Students will complete a pre and post assessment for data collection. Students will read about solar energy, wind energy, and fossil fuels. Using information from the text, students will create a poster board to present information about each form of energy and will code a Dash Robot. Students will code Dash to move to the different types of energy, and students will voice record themselves describing and giving detail of each energy form.  

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

In the second part of reading informational text students give their poster presentations in teams from GEDB Tchr Capstone: Lesson 4. Students will spend the second part of this lesson moving through rotations to record all new learning from the posters onto a process grid. By recording information on a grid students continue to practice classifying key details about four different poverty cases and points of view of different groups living in poverty around the world. As they rotate to each poster students also practice academic language, posititve interdependence and create a pre-write organizer for informative writing (see resource link) ("OCDE Project GLAD 2-day Research and Theory Workshop" 2015). This lesson was developed by Karie Gregory as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

In this lesson, students will access their school- or district-approved search engine to research ways to help an African community. Prior to the research class period, the teacher should model the process using a template (see attached example) that will guide the students in gathering information. During the research class period, the teacher will monitor the students' research and assist as necessary with finding sites, writing down important information, etc. Students will then create a persuasive essay outlining reasons the rest of their third grade classmates should help support a fundraising project in support of that community. Throughout the writing process, the teacher will provide feedback as necessary (see lesson plan below) and monitor the students' progress. This lesson was developed by Amber Honeycutt as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

All students in the class will be introduced to various historical figures (from their community, state, nation, and the world).  The teacher will read books and find videos from the internet that explain the contributions that these historical figures made to our world, and she will guide students to discuss what life would be like today without their contributions.  Then higher-level students will be asked to complete analogies connecting historical figures to their contributions.  Students will need to research via books and the internet the historical figures and their contributions to be able to complete the analogies.  Students will also write their own analogies with good relationships.  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.

This cross-curricular lesson combines Social Studies and Language Arts to demonstrate how the study of an historical topic can be developed to make learning nonfiction more exciting, and also improve fluency and comprehension. This project about Benjamin Franklin includes a series of lessons in which the students: 1) read for information from multiple texts, 2) write a script for a Readers Theater play, 3) read for expression and fluency by using their script, 4) enhance their reading with visual arts, and 5) demonstrate dramatic interpretation through role-play. This approach engages students throughout in active participation and collaboration. Included are many supporting resources, such as a read-aloud rubric, an audition sheet, and ideas for student assessment and reflection.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit.  This research project should be assigned to students who demonstrate solid understanding of poetry (figurative language, structure, meaning) and are ready for a challenge as they work individually, or with a partner, to close read “Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field and then investigate…What is the “something”?  Using the information they discover in their research, they will create a complementary poem to “Something Told the Wild Geese,” explaining the scientific principal behind each stanza in verse which they will read 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 comprehensive lesson, students work collaboratively to learn about the eight planets. They will research a planet's size, its comparison to other planets and its characteristics and use the information they find to publish an acrostic poem to share with their classmates. They will also produce a poster and create a technology presentation such as a Prezi or a PowerPoint.

This activity for gifted learners follows close reading of Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan.  At the end of the reading of Sarah, Plain and Tall, all students will complete a timeline of events & characters throughout the novel that is differentiated based on readiness.  This project should be assigned to students who not only demonstrate a solid understanding of the novel, but also show keen insight into the main characters’ development (traits, motivations, feelings, etc.) throughout the novel.  Students will analyze the characters’ development through the lens of the American frontier/pioneer period in our nation’s history, determining possible relationships between events during this time period and character development in the novel, through both research and careful reflection of characters/events in the novel.  This will culminate in the creation of a dual timeline.  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.