Skip Navigation

Utah Core  •  Curriculum Search  •  All Language Arts - Elementary Lesson Plans  •  USBE Language Arts - Elementary website

Language Arts - Elementary Curriculum English Language Arts Grade 3
Educational Links

Speaking and Listening Standard 2

Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
  • Alaska Native Stories: Using Narrative to Introduce Expository Text
    This lesson uses traditional stories of the Native peoples (i.e., narrative text) to introduce students to the study of animals in Alaska (i.e., expository text).
  • American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
    After completing these activities, students will be able to: identify the original thirteen British colonies on a map; understand how physical geography affected settlement; understand how settlers' backgrounds influenced their values, priorities, and daily lives; examine artifacts and make inferences about the people and the historical periods that they represent; imagine typical daily life for different families in colonial America in the late 1700s; write a letter from the viewpoint of someone who lived in a different time and place.
  • Balancing Three Branches at Once
    This page contains 4 EDSITEment lessons in which students use primary source documents to investigate of how the three branches of the American government can check each other.
  • Biographies: Creating Timelines of a Life
    Studying biographies is of interest and value to young learners. This lesson from ReadWriteThink supports students' exploration of sources to create a timeline about the life of a person. The experience requires students work together and research and resolve conflicting information. Extension activities include developing essays from the research.
  • Can You Convince Me?: Persuasive Writing
    In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students are introduced to the basic concepts of lobbying for something that is important to them and making persuasive arguments. Through a classroom game and resource handouts, students become aware of the techniques used in persuasive oral arguments and apply them to independent persuasive writing activities.
  • Can You Haiku?
    Haiku show us the world in a water drop, providing a tiny lens through which to glimpse the miracle and mystery of life. Combining close observation with a moment of reflection, this simple yet highly sophisticated form of poetry can help sharpen students' response to language and enhance their powers of self-expression. In this lesson, students learn the rules and conventions of haiku, study examples by Japanese masters, and create haiku of their own.
  • Comprehension Strategies Using Graphic Organizers
    In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, collaborative strategic reading (CSR) is initially presented to students through modeling and whole-class instruction. To facilitate comprehension during and after reading, students apply four reading strategies: preview, click and clunk, get the gist, and wrap-up. Graphic organizers are used for scaffolding of these strategies while students work together in cooperative groups. NOTE: This is useful for struggling readers but does not tie directly to the CCSS.
  • Critical Perspectives: Reading and Writing About Slavery
    In this lesson, students critically examine the perspectives of slaves and slave owners.
  • Declare the Causes:The Declaration of Independence
    This unit from EDSITEment capitalizes on the propensity to complain to increase student awareness of the precedents behind the Declaration of Independence. By the completion of this unit, students will be able to describe and list the sections of the Declaration of Independence and explain the basic purpose of each. They will also be able to give an example of a document that served as a precedent for the Declaration, list and explain one or more of the colonists' complaints included in the Declaration, and demonstrate an awareness of the Declaration of Independence as a historical process developed in protest of unfair conditions.
  • Developing a Living Definition of Reading in the Elementary Classroom
    Students investigate the reading process and end up with a working definition of reading using different types of books. Each student brainstorms what it means to be a successful reader. Based upon shared findings and discussions, students then create a living definition of reading. This definition can be posted and revised as more is learned about reading during the year.
  • Earth Verse: Using Science in Poetry
    This lesson is a great way to teach both scientific and English content to a class, although the teacher can easily choose another book and subject area. In this lesson, students listen to poems in the book Science Verse by Jon Scieszka.
  • Engaging Students in a Collaborative Exploration of the Gettysburg Address
    This lesson plan invites groups of students to learn more about the historical significance of President Abraham Lincoln's famous speech as well as the time period and people involved. Students will work together, participating in inquiry projects based on the speech, using the words and phrases of the speech itself.
  • Exploring Compare and Contrast Structure in Expository Texts
    This lesson from ReadWriteThink focuses on the strategy of compare and contrast. Students use graphic organizers and clue words to evaluate nonfiction text, and they participate in a variety of other activities.
  • Fables and Trickster Tales Around the World
    This lesson plan from EDSITEment introduces students to folktales, such as fables and trickster tales, from around the world. Students become familiar with different folklore traditions and genres, as well as the process of the oral transmission of culture and history. This lesson plan comprises a series of activities that include reading, writing, and literary analysis. Also included is an internet research activity, as well as a list of links to related resources.
  • Fairy Tales From Life
    In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will read fairy tales and identify common elements. Choosing common situations and working in small groups, students will draw storyboards of their fairy tale and then write the fairy tale. Project will conclude with class presentations.
  • Full Lesson on Finding the Main Idea
    This Teaching Channel video shows a lesson plan that has students identify and write the main idea of a story in one sentence. (27 minutes)
  • Helpful Animals and Compassionate Humans in Folklore
    Students will learn to define a folktale, understand the characteristics of helpful animal folktales, explain the roles humans play in helpful animal stories (human in distress, compassionate hunter, seeker/companion), and the conditions for animal transformation.
  • History in Quilts
    Throughout history, women and sometimes men have used the art of quilting for many diverse purposes: to keep warm, to decorate their homes, to express their political views, to remember a loved one. Heighten your students' awareness of how quilts have reflected and continue to reflect the lives of the people who create them, and of how quilts record the cultural history of a particular place and time. This theme of History in Quilts contains two separate lessons that can stand alone or be taught in conjunction with one another.
  • How Big Are Martin's Big Words? Thinking Big about the Future
    Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Caldecott Honor book, Coretta Scott King Honor book, and an Orbis Pictus Award winner, tells of King's childhood determination to use "big words" through biographical information and quotations. Using this book as well as other resources on Dr. King, students explore information on King's "big" words. They discuss both the literal and figurative meanings of the word "big" and how they apply to Dr. King's words. They read an excerpt from Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech and note the "big" words. Students then choose one of two options: (1) they write about their own "big" words and dreams in stapled or stitched books, or (2) they construct found poems using an excerpt from one of King's speeches.
  • Integrating Literacy Into the Study of the Earth's Surface
    Science trade books are an invaluable tool for supporting science learning with literacy. This lesson introduces third through fifth grade students to the bodies of water on the Earth's surface, including ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans.
  • It Came From Greek Mythology
    This page contains 6 EDSITEment lessons based around teaching Greek mythology. Students will study basic plots of three Greek myths and discuss three types of themes in Greek myths. They will also explore contemporary uses of terms from Greek mythology and analyze artistic and literary works based on or inspired by Greek myths.
  • Learning to Learn with Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster
    After a read-aloud of the picture book Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster, students combine vocabulary exploration with word play by planning their own vocabulary parade, modeled on the activities in the text. Students brainstorm a list of vocabulary terms from a recent unit of study and then design concrete ways to illustrate the terms. The presentation of terms can be in the form of a parade (an appropriate substitute for Halloween activities), or a video, which might play during parent conferences or open house.
  • Literature Circles: Getting Started
    This lesson from ReadWriteThink explores Literature Circles, a great way to supplement a reading program in a literature-based classroom. Students create and answer comprehension questions, discover new vocabulary, and examine elements of literature.
  • Native Americans Today
    In this lesson plan, teachers use photo essays and other texts to introduce students to Native American children and their families, thereby countering the idea that Native people no longer exist.
  • On the Home Front
    This page contains 4 EDSITEment lessons in which students investigate how non-combatants contributed to the war effort during World War II and are then invited to reflect on how young people can contribute to the solution of contemporary national problems. Students will also investigate how posters were used to encourage home front efforts during World War II.
  • On This Day With Lewis and Clark
    This set of 5 lesson plans from EDSITEment is designed to help students appreciate the immensity and mystery of the mission Lewis and Clark accepted. As "experts" investigating specific subjects assigned to Lewis by President Jefferson, students will conduct careful research. Reading brief diary entries of the men of the Corps will spark the interest of students as they relive the discoveries of the original participants.
  • Peace Poems and Picasso Doves
    This lesson, from ReadWriteThink, supports third-grade students as they apply think-aloud strategies to reading, as well as to the composition of artwork and poetry. Activities include collaborative as well as individual work. Technology tools are integrated as students research symbols of peace and as they prewrite, compose, and publish their poetry.
  • Plot Diagram (Student Interactive)
    The Plot Diagram is an organizational tool focusing on a pyramid or triangular shape, which is used to map the events in a story. This mapping of plot structure allows readers and writers to visualize the key features of stories.
  • Research Building Blocks: "Organize This!"
    Research skills can help students find answers for themselves. In this mini lesson, students organize the information they have compiled through the research process by using sentence strips.
  • Research Building Blocks: Skim, Scan, and Scroll
    Research skills can help students find answers for themselves. This lesson teaches students the skill of "Skim, Scan, and Scroll," which is taken from a research - skills unit and is one step of successfully completing a written research report.
  • Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources
    In these activities, students research narratives from the Federal Writers' Project and describe the lives of former African slaves in the U.S. - both before and after emancipation.
  • Teaching Point of View With Two Bad Ants
    This lesson provides students with the opportunity to use illustrations and text to develop an understanding of the point of view of the characters.
  • The Aztecs: Mighty Warriors of Mexico
    After completing this lesson, students will be able to: identify the Aztecs as the builders of a great city and rich civilization in what is now Mexico; locate the Aztec Empire and its capital on a map; describe several aspects of Aztec culture; and understand the causes of the Aztec civilization's downfall.
  • The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad
    Analyzing archival material such as photos, documents, and posters, students can truly appreciate the phenomenon of the Transcontinental Railroad. They can begin to answer some important questions: Why was the Transcontinental Railroad built? How did it affect Native Americans? Other minorities? How was the environment affected? What were the advantages of railroad travel? Who used the railroads, and why? Who built the railroad?
  • Using Historical Fiction to Learn About the Civil War
    This lesson uses the book Meet Addy by Connie Porter to teach the characteristics of historical fiction, the making of inferences, the use of visualization, and Civil War history.
  • Using Picture Books to Teach Characterization
    This ReadWriteThink lesson invites students to examine the craft of developing characters through focused experiences with pictures books. Through the careful analysis of character portrayal using the text and illustrations as cues, and online tools such as the ReadWriteThink Story Map, students have the opportunity to build bridges from their own experiences as readers to those skills needed as writers.
  • Voting! What's It All About?
    Students explore a variety of sources for information about voting. They evaluate the information to determine if it is fact or opinion, and then create a graffiti wall.
  • We Must Not Be Enemies: Lincoln's First Inaugural
    This unit, consisting of six separate lessons, will help your students understand the historical context and significance of Lincoln's inaugural address through archival documents such as campaign posters, sheet music, vintage photographs and documents. Students will be able to answer the following questions: How did Lincoln's first inaugural address reflect the events that preceded it? How well did it presage events to follow? How did subsequent actions by Lincoln reflect the responsibilities enumerated in the Presidential Oath of Office?
  • What Makes a Hero?
    In this unit from EDSITEment, students will explore heroes and the traits that make them heroic. Students begin by thinking about their own heroes and list the character traits their heroes possess. Students then explore kid heroes, adults' heroes, local heroes, and heroes from history, before completing one of several suggested culminating activities.
  • Where I Come From
    In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students take research into their heritage a step beyond the construction of a family tree, traveling through cyberspace to find out what's happening in their ancestral homelands today and explore their sense of connection to these places in their past.


UEN logo http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Sara  Wiebke and see the Language Arts - Elementary website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.