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Common Core ELAKindergartenReading: Literature

RL.K.3: Name the Characters, Setting and Major Events

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 41 Kindergarten ELA Standards

The Official Wording

With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

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

What RL.K.3 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners name the characters (who), the setting (where and when) and the big events (what happens) in a story read aloud. In a story about a crab whose sand castle gets knocked flat, that’s Gus and Tess, the beach, the wave and the new castle.

The words character, setting and event are new, so they live on an anchor chart and in hand signals all year, and the pictures do much of the work. In 1st grade children describe all three without help and back it up with details (RL.1.3).

RL.K.3 I Can Statements

  • I can name the characters in a story.
  • I can tell where and when a story happens.
  • I can tell the big things that happen in a story.

RL.K.3 Worked Example

A beach story with three things to find, and two answers to the question that asks for all of them.

Read the Story
Gus the crab lived on a sunny beach.He built a tall sand castle by the water.Whoosh! A big wave knocked it flat.His friend Tess the seagull helped him build a new one, far from the waves.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Who is in this story, where does it happen, and what big things happen?
Not Yet“A crab and a castle and the water.”A list of things from the pictures. The castle is not a character, the beach is never named, and there is no event at all.
Meets the Standard“Gus the crab and Tess the seagull. It’s at the beach. A wave knocks down Gus’s castle, and Tess helps him build a new one.”Two characters by name, the setting, and the two big events in the order they happen.
Question Stems to Use
Who is in the story?Where does the story happen?When does it happen?What is the big problem?What happens at the end?

Common Mistakes with RL.K.3

Calling every object a character

“The characters are Gus, the castle and the wave.”

Try this: Ask whether it talks, thinks or has feelings in the story, then sort the picture cards into characters and things.

Naming where they are, not where the story is

“It happens at school,” because that is where they heard it

Try this: Point to the background of the pictures and ask, “Where are Gus and Tess?” Not where we are, where they are.

Listing details instead of events

“He lived on a beach. It was sunny. He was a crab.”

Try this: Ask “What changed everything?” and keep only the moments that move the story along: the wave, and the new castle.

Where RL.K.3 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.K.1Answer who, where and what-happened questions about key details.
AlongsideRL.K.2Retell a familiar story with its important parts.RL.K.7Say which moment of the story a picture shows.
Comes NextRL.1.3Describe characters, settings and big events on their own, using details from the story.

Practice RL.K.3

Quick Check

  1. Who are the two characters in the story?
  2. What is the setting?
  3. What big thing happens to Gus’s castle?

RL.K.3: Other Names

RL.K.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3

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.