Skip to main content
Common Core ELA3rd GradeReading: Literature

RL.3.2: Recount Stories and Find the Lesson

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 42 3rd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

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

What RL.3.2 Means in Plain English

Third graders retell fables, folktales and myths from many cultures in order, then name the lesson the story teaches. The new step is the proof: they show which details carry that lesson, like a choice a character makes and what happens because of it.

In 2nd grade (RL.2.2) students recounted fables and folktales and named the message. Third grade adds myths and asks how the details convey it. In 4th grade (RL.4.2) the lesson becomes a theme, drawn from stories, plays and poems, and students summarize the text.

RL.3.2 I Can Statements

  • I can retell a fable, folktale or myth in order.
  • I can name the lesson or moral a story teaches.
  • I can point to the details that teach the lesson.

RL.3.2 Worked Example

An original fable with its moral left unstated. Students have to find the lesson in what the characters choose and what those choices bring.

Read the Story
Long ago, Hornbill found three ripe figs at the edge of the grassland.She ate the first fig right away. The second she pushed deep into the soft earth by the water hole. The third she dropped in front of Sparrow, who had not eaten in two days.Jackal laughed from the tall grass. “Three figs, and you kept only one! You will be hungry by morning.”By the next dry season, a young fig tree stood by the water hole, heavy with fruit. When a hawk came circling, it was Sparrow’s whole flock that shrieked a warning in time for Hornbill to hide.And Jackal, who had kept everything he ever found, sat hungry at the edge of the grassland with no one to warn him of anything.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What lesson does this fable teach, and which details teach it?
Not Yet“Hornbill found three figs. She ate one, planted one and gave one to Sparrow. Then a tree grew and a hawk came.”A clear retelling, but it stops there. It never says what the fable teaches or which details carry the lesson.
Meets the Standard“What you plant and what you share come back to help you. Hornbill planted one fig, ‘pushed deep into the soft earth,’ and later ‘a young fig tree stood by the water hole, heavy with fruit.’ She gave one to Sparrow, and later it was ‘Sparrow’s whole flock that shrieked a warning’ when the hawk came. Jackal, ‘who had kept everything he ever found,’ ends up hungry and alone.”It states the lesson as a full sentence, then ties each part of it to a choice in the story and what that choice brought. Jackal proves it from the other side.
Question Stems to Use
What choice does the main character make that the others don’t?What happens later because of that choice?Who is better off at the end, and why?What lesson could a reader take from this story?Which two details prove that lesson?

Common Mistakes with RL.3.2

Retelling instead of finding the lesson

“She ate one, planted one and gave one away.”

Try this: After every retelling, ask “So what does this story want us to learn?” and accept only an answer that applies to real life.

A lesson that ignores the ending

“Don’t laugh at people.”

Try this: Start the lesson from who is better off at the end and why: the rewarded choice shows what the story values.

Naming a lesson with no proof

“Sharing is good.”

Try this: Have students prove the lesson with a pair of details: a choice a character makes and what that choice brings later.

Where RL.3.2 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.2.2Recount fables and folktales from diverse cultures and find their central message.
AlongsideRL.3.1Point to the words in the text that prove each answer.RI.3.2Find the main idea of a nonfiction text and the details that support it.
Comes NextRL.4.2Find a theme from details in a story, play or poem, and summarize the text.

Practice RL.3.2

Quick Check

  1. What does Hornbill do with each of the three figs?
  2. Why does Jackal laugh at Hornbill?
  3. How does Sparrow’s flock help Hornbill?

RL.3.2: Other Names

RL.3.2CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2

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.