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Common Core ELA3rd GradeWriting

W.3.8: Take Brief Notes and Sort Them

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.8 · Cluster: Research to Build and Present Knowledge.

All 42 3rd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

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

What W.3.8 Means in Plain English

Third graders gather facts from memory, books and websites, write each one as a short note, and sort the notes into categories the teacher provides. A red panda project might use Food, Home and Body, with “sleeps in trees, saw it at the zoo” under Home.

Second graders (W.2.8) answer a question from memory or from sources the teacher hands them. Third grade adds note-taking and sorting, and students may find sources themselves. Fourth graders (W.4.8) choose their own categories and list their sources.

W.3.8 I Can Statements

  • I can gather facts from what I remember, books and websites.
  • I can take short notes in just a few words.
  • I can sort my notes into the categories my teacher gives.

W.3.8 Worked Example

The same red panda facts, written once as one long ramble and once as sorted notes.

Prompt

Take notes on red pandas from our zoo trip, the library book and the zoo’s website. Keep each note short, mark where it came from, and sort the notes into our three categories: Food, Home and Body.

Not YetRed pandas eat bamboo and they live in the mountains and sleep in trees and they have a big fluffy tail that is really pretty. I saw one at the zoo and it was so cute.The facts are there, but they run together in long sentences, so nothing is sorted into Food, Home and Body, no note says where it came from, and “so cute” is an opinion that fits no category.
Meets the StandardFood: mostly bamboo leaves and shoots (library book), also berries and eggs (zoo website). Home: mountain forests in Asia (library book), sleeps high in trees (saw it at the zoo). Body: about as big as a house cat (zoo website), long ringed tail wraps around it for warmth (saw it at the zoo), a wrist bone that works like an extra thumb for gripping bamboo (library book).Short phrases, not copied sentences, each under the category the teacher gave, with its source in parentheses. One source is an experience (the zoo trip), one is print and one is digital, and the opinions are gone.
Moves to Use
Write each fact in a few words, not a whole sentence.Put every note under one of the teacher’s categories.Mark where each note came from: the trip, the book or the website.Leave out opinions, like “so cute,” which fit no category.

Common Mistakes with W.3.8

Notes as long as the book

Whole sentences copied from page 6, commas and all

Try this: Have students read a sentence, cover it, and write the fact from memory in five words or fewer.

A note in the wrong box

“Eats bamboo” filed under Home because bamboo grows there

Try this: Ask “Is this about what it eats, where it lives or what it looks like?” before each note goes into a box.

Forgetting what they saw themselves

A student who watched a red panda sleep in a tree takes notes from the book only

Try this: Remind students that a field trip or class observation counts as a source, and give it a place on the note sheet.

Where W.3.8 Fits

Comes BeforeW.2.8Answer a question from memory or from sources the teacher provides.
AlongsideW.3.7Short research projects, where sorted notes turn into the writing.W.3.2Group related information together, the same sorting carried into a draft.
Comes NextW.4.8Take notes, sort information into categories and give a list of sources.

Practice W.3.8

Quick Check

  1. What three kinds of sources do the strong notes use?
  2. Under which category does “long ringed tail wraps around it for warmth” belong, and why?
  3. What is wrong with the weak notes?

W.3.8: Other Names

W.3.8CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.8

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.