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Common Core ELA3rd GradeReading: Informational

RI.3.10: Read Grade 3 Nonfiction Independently

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.10 · Cluster: Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity.

Get the Sequence OrganizerAll 42 3rd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 3, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.3.10 Means in Plain English

By year’s end, third graders read history, science and how-to texts at the hard end of the grades 2 to 3 range on their own. A passage on how a water tower uses gravity to push water into homes is one they follow alone and explain afterward.

In second grade (RI.2.10) the same range is read with help on the hardest texts. Third grade takes the help away. Fourth grade (RI.4.10) moves up to the grades 4 to 5 range, with scaffolding again at its high end.

RI.3.10 I Can Statements

  • I can read a grade 3 science or how-to text on my own.
  • I can stop and reread when a sentence confuses me.
  • I can explain how something works in my own words.

RI.3.10 Worked Example

The passage is a how-it-works text at the top of the 3rd-grade range, and the question checks whether the reader followed the hard middle or only skimmed it.

Read the Story
Many towns store their drinking water high in the air, in a giant tank on tall legs called a water tower.Pumps push clean water from a treatment plant up into the tank. They do most of this work at night, when people are asleep and use less water.When you turn on a faucet, gravity does the rest. The water in the tank presses down on the water in the pipes below, and that pressure pushes it all the way into your home.The higher the tank, the harder the water pushes. That is why water towers stand on tall legs or on top of hills.Because the water is already stored up high, it keeps flowing for a while even if the power goes out and the pumps stop.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Why does a water tower need to be tall? And why can water keep coming out of your faucet for a while during a power outage?
Not Yet“Water towers are tall so people can see them from far away. The water keeps coming because it’s in the pipes.”Both parts are guesses. The reader skipped the sentences about pressure, the hardest part of the passage, and so missed the reason for both answers.
Meets the Standard“The higher the water is, the harder it pushes down into the pipes, and that push is what gets water into homes, so the tank has to be up high. When the power goes out, the pumps stop, but the tank is already full and high up. Gravity keeps pushing that water through the pipes until the tank runs low.”Both answers come from the same idea, the push of water from up high, explained in the student’s own words. That shows the reader followed the passage, not just its first and last lines.
Question Stems to Use
What did that paragraph say, in your own words?Which sentence was hard? Read it again slowly.What does “gravity does the rest” mean here?Can you sketch the water’s trip from the plant to your faucet?What would happen if the tank sat on the ground? How do you know?

Common Mistakes with RI.3.10

Skimming the hard part

An answer that skips the paragraph about pressure, the one that explains everything else

Try this: Have students stop after each paragraph and say the gist in one sentence, rereading whenever they cannot.

Copying the text as the answer

“Gravity does the rest” copied as the whole answer, with no explanation of what gravity does

Try this: Close the book and have students draw the tower, the pipes and a house with arrows, then reopen it to check.

Reading only easy texts

A year of short, leveled texts that never reach the top of the 2 to 3 range

Try this: Put a hard science or history text in front of students every week, with a clear purpose, before the support comes off for good.

Where RI.3.10 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.2.10Read grades 2 to 3 informational texts proficiently, with scaffolding at the high end of the range.
AlongsideRL.3.10The same expectation for stories, plays and poems.RF.3.4Read grade-level text accurately and fluently, rereading to fix words that did not make sense.
Comes NextRI.4.10Read grades 4 to 5 informational texts proficiently, with scaffolding at the high end of the range.

Practice RI.3.10

Fill-in-the-Blank GeneratorFree ToolPaste the passage and blank out the words that carry the science, like gravity, pressure and pumps, for a quick check after independent reading.Paste a passageScience wordsGrade 3
Make a Worksheet

Quick Check

  1. When do the pumps do most of their work, and why then?
  2. What pushes the water from the tank into your home?
  3. Why does water keep flowing for a while when the power goes out?

RI.3.10: Other Names

RI.3.10CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.10

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.