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Status

Open

Estimated Completion Time

36 weeks

Overview

In Language Arts Grade 3, students will engage in a variety of topics as they explore the world of reading and writing. Students will learn foundational skills, cursive writing, vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar, and the writing process as they write narratives, informational, and opinion essays. In this course, students will participate in engaging lessons that include interactive parts, informational and literature based texts, graphic organizers, videos, and various practice activities. Topics range from healthy habits and overcoming obstacles to mysteries. Students will meet an astronaut, earn badges for the Junior Astronaut Training Handbook, and draw a space academy recruit in this Space-themed course.

Please view the Elementary Parents’ Survival Guide: The First Four Weeks of Online Learning for guidance on helping your student in the transition to online learning.

Course Requirements

To achieve success, students are expected to submit work in each course weekly. Students can learn at their own pace; however, “any pace” still means that students must make progress in the course every week. To measure learning, students complete self-checks, practice lessons, multiple choice questions, projects, discussion-based assessments, and discussions. Students and families are expected to maintain regular contact with teachers because, when teachers, students, and parents work together, students are successful.

Required Materials – Please view the list of materials before registering.

Major Topics and Concepts

Segment One

  • Apply strategies for decoding, context clues, and spelling
  • Ask and Answer questions
  • Identify character traits
  • Determine the central message
  • Determine literal and nonliteral meanings
  • Use the past, present, and future verb tenses
  • Identify the subject and predicate in a complete sentence
  • Use the writing process to write an informative, narrative, and opinion text
  • Use strategies to find the meaning of unknown words
  • Identify the main idea in an informative text
  • Recognize the different text structures
  • Read with accuracy, rate, and expression
  • Form simple sentences
  • Use quotation marks and commas in dialogue
  • Learn to use correct capitalization in titles
  • Recognize how chapters, scenes, and stanzas build on each other
  • Use possessive nouns, plural nouns, and pronouns
  • Practice cursive writing skills
  • Determine the meaning of unknown words
  • Determine the connections between sentences and paragraphs in a text
  • Identify the point of view of the author and the reader
  • Use nouns as subject and object in a sentence
  • Use different type of sentences
  • Understand that illustrations give meaning to a story
  • Compare and contrast the settings, plots, and themes of two stories
  • Use and explain the functions of adjectives and adverbs
  • Write compound sentences
  • Use text features to locate information
  • Explain the connection between illustrations and words and phrases to show understanding of a text
  • Compare and contrast the most important points and key details
  • Use the articles “a” and “an” correctly
  • Write complex sentences

Segment Two

  • Apply strategies for decoding, context clues, and spelling
  • Practice cursive writing skills
  • Explain how characters’ actions contribute to the sequence of events
  • Explain the point of view of the characters, narrator, and reader
  • Recount a story and determine the central message
  • Use punctuation correctly
  • Use compound words and contractions
  • Use the writing process to write an informative, narrative, and opinion text
  • Recount key details and explain how they support the main idea
  • Use language to show time, sequence, or cause and effect to describe the relationship in a text
  • Explain the point of view of the author and the reader
  • Recognize how to write sentences with subjects and verbs that agree
  • Describe the connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text
  • Determine the shades of meaning of words
  • Use the writing process to conduct a short research project about a topic
  • Explain how illustrations contribute to the mood or parts of a story
  • Compare and contrast the settings, plots, and themes of two stories
  • Recount stories and determine the central message
  • Use prepositional phrases
  • Use text features to search for information on a topic
  • Describe the connection between sentences and paragraphs in a text
  • Compare and contrast the most important points and key details in two texts on the same topic
  • Use irregular verbs
  • Use verb tenses correctly in sentences
  • Explain how the reader’s point of view is similar or different from the narrator or characters
  • Describe how chapters, scenes, and stanzas build
  • Write and expand sentences
  • Apply strategies for decoding, context clues, and spelling
  • Use root words and affixes to learn the meaning of words
  • Evaluate the author’s point of view

Credits 1

Competencies

  • Comparing Narratives
    I can compare two stories. I can create a compound sentence using a coordinating conjunction. I can explain the use of illustrations to support a story’s meaning. I can identify adverbs and adjectives. I can write a narrative using adverbs and adjectives.
  • Sentence Structures
    I can identify nouns as subjects and objects. I can explain the point of view of the author. I can differentiate types of sentences.
  • Text Features
    I can explain the function of text features. I can create a complex sentence using a subordinating conjunction. I can write sentences that use the articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ correctly.
  • The Decoding Process
    I can develop a response, supported by textual evidence, to my questions about a text. I can identify nouns and explain their functions. I can identify verbs and explain their functions. I can retell a story and use key details.
  • Understanding Text
    I can infer the meaning of literal and nonliteral words and phrases. I can explain the functions of pronouns. I can write an opinion piece using plural nouns, possessive nouns, and pronouns correctly. I can interpret the point of view of characters.
  • Writing Foundations
    I can analyze context clues to determine the meaning of new words. I can write a piece using spelling strategies to spell words correctly. I can identify the sequence of events in a text.
  • Decoding Words
    I can explain the function of prepositions. I can identify word parts. I can explain the use of word parts to determine word meaning. I can develop my opinion using textual evidence.
  • Informative Writing
    I can identify irregular verbs. I can explain the use of text features and supporting details in informational writing. I can write an informative text following a structure.
  • Interpreting a Text
    I can explain a character’s actions. I can interpret a text and its meaning. I can select correct punctuation. I can create sentences with contractions and compound words.
  • Main Ideas and Supporting Details
    I can explain how key details support the main idea. I can create sentences with subject-verb agreement. I can describe how ideas connect in a text.
  • Narrative Writing
    I can identify the narrative elements of a story. I can develop sentences using transition and description words. I can write a narrative following a structure.
  • Opinion Writing
    I can identify textual evidence to support an idea. I can explain the structure of a paragraph. I can write an opinion text supported by reasons, examples, and evidence.

Pre-Requisites

None

Attend a virtual open house

We offer regular online open house webinars where VLACS staff members provide parents and students with an overview of our programs and answer questions about online learning.