Third Grade Language Standards

Third Grade Standards, Third Grade Reading Standards, Third Grade Language Standards, Third Grade Skills, Standards Third Grade

Third Grade Language  Standards

Conventions of Standard English

  • L.3.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
    • Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
    • Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.
    • Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).
    • Form and use regular and irregular verbs.
    • Form and use the simple (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb tenses.
    • Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.*
    • Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
    • Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
    • Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.
  • L.3.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
    • Capitalize appropriate words in titles.
    • Use commas in addresses.
    • Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
    • Form and use possessives.
    • Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries, happiness).
    • Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.
    • Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.

Knowledge of Language

  • L.3.3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
    • Choose words and phrases for effect.*
    • Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English.

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

  • L.3.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
    • Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
    • Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word (e.g., agreeable/disagreeable, comfortable/uncomfortable, care/careless, heat/preheat).
    • Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., company, companion).
    • Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.
  • L.3.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
    • Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (e.g., take steps).
    • Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe people who are friendly or helpful).
    • Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered).
  • L.3.6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that night we went looking for them).