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Alabama Standards

Alabama 3rd Grade ELA Standards

All 47 Alabama English language arts standards for 3rd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Alabama State Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

47 standards

Recurring Standards for K-3

5 standards
3.R1
Listen actively in partner, small-group, and whole-class talks, following class rules like waiting for a turn and looking at the speaker.
3.R2
Use sound-letter patterns and word-part skills to read and spell words correctly, like chunking thunderstorm into its parts.
3.R3
Grow background knowledge and word knowledge by talking, reading, and writing, like learning habitat during a science unit.
3.R4
Use computers and other digital tools safely, responsibly, and honestly for research and writing, both alone and with classmates.
3.R5
Take a piece of writing through planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, in genres like stories, reports, and letters.

Oral Language

6 standards
3.1
Share useful ideas in partner and group discussions while following the agreed rules, and expand on answers with more detail.
3.2
Speak to a group in clear, well-built sentences at a good volume, talking to inform, entertain, persuade, clarify, or respond.
3.3
Build speaking and listening skills by taking part in many kinds of oral activities, like retellings, class talks, and recitations.
3.4
Ask and answer questions in complete sentences, using the vocabulary expected of a third grader.
3.5
Share ideas, opinions, and feelings out loud in a sensible order, with precise words, good volume, clear speech, and correct grammar.
3.6
Work with classmates to add digital tools, like slides or recorded audio, to a spoken presentation.

Phonological Awareness/Phonemic Awareness

1 standard
3.7
Play with sounds in spoken words, like dropping the s in stop or reversing pat to tap, and change one sound, syllable, or affix at a time to make new words.

Phonics

1 standard
3.8
Read and spell longer words using syllable types and division, blends, digraphs, word parts, contractions, homophones, soft c and g, and tricky high-frequency words.

Fluency

4 standards
3.9
Read longer words quickly and correctly by applying the letter-sound patterns already taught, both in word lists and in stories.
3.10
Read and reread third grade texts correctly and smoothly, with expression and at a pace that helps understanding.
3.11
Reread poems aloud to practice their rhythm, rhyme, and phrasing, reading with expression that fits the meaning.
3.12
Recognize common high-frequency words in third grade texts instantly and correctly, like through, because, and enough.

Vocabulary

5 standards
3.13
Connect new academic and subject words to known words and background knowledge, using a word's sounds, parts, and spelling to learn it.
3.14
Explain how words relate, using synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and shades of meaning in nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and interpret figurative language.
3.15
Break words into meaningful parts like bases, Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, suffixes, and endings such as -ed or -est to find meanings, and sort words by part of speech.
3.16
Use known academic and subject words, like habitat or fraction, to understand the meaning of third grade texts.
3.17
Use academic and subject-area words correctly in writing, like evaporate in a science report.

Comprehension

13 standards
3.18
Show knowledge gained from reading stories and nonfiction independently by discussing the topic with classmates or writing about it.
3.19
Find the stated or implied main idea and its supporting details, explain with text evidence how the details back it up, and summarize the key ideas.
3.20
Set a purpose before reading stories and nonfiction by recalling what is already known and asking questions about the topic or characters.
3.21
Find and explain the words that tie sentences in a text together, like a pronoun pointing back to a name or a linking word such as however.
3.22
Describe setting, plot, characters, and theme in a story, explain how characters' actions and words shape it, find the moral of a fable, and compare two stories.
3.23
Use text features like headings, captions, and diagrams to find information, and explain how features and illustrations add meaning in print and digital texts.
3.24
Identify how a text is organized, like sequence, compare and contrast, problem and solution, or cause and effect, and explain with evidence how that shapes meaning.
3.25
Tell facts from opinions in nonfiction, using prior knowledge and text details, and use research to judge whether an opinion holds up.
3.26
Make meaning by linking a text to other books, personal experience, and the world, like comparing two versions of Cinderella.
3.27
Read stories, poems, and plays, and spot the techniques authors use to build meaning, like similes, repetition, or rhyme.
3.28
Tell whether a story is narrated in first person, using I, or in third person, using he, she, or they.
3.29
Identify the central point of a passage someone reads aloud or of information heard in audio form, like a podcast or a video.
3.30
Combine and move words and phrases to build compound sentences with joining words like and, but, or so, plus complex sentences, to understand how sentences work.

Writing

12 standards
3.31
Write neatly in cursive, joining well-formed letters and leaving proper space between words.
3.32
Spell longer words using syllable types and division rules, blends, digraphs, contractions, prefixes, suffixes, Latin roots, and homophones that fit the context.
3.33
Write true or made-up stories with characters, events in a logical order, transition words, and an ending that wraps things up.
3.34
Write informational pieces on a topic using sources, with an introduction, facts, explained details, and a conclusion.
3.35
Write an argument that persuades readers to do something or take a side, with an introduction, reasons backed by evidence from sources, and a conclusion.
3.36
Use correct third grade grammar, capitals, punctuation, and spelling, including a and an, parts of speech, irregular plurals, possessives, and common abbreviations.
3.37
Write simple, compound, and complex sentences where subjects and verbs agree, find subjects and predicates, and fix fragments and run-ons.
3.38
Write an organized paragraph that opens with a topic sentence, gives supporting details, and ends by wrapping up the idea.
3.39
Collect and judge information on a topic from books and digital sources, then use it for a project, report, or presentation, paraphrasing rather than copying.
3.40
Choose precise grade-level and subject words when writing, both to build a story and to explain or inform about a topic.
3.41
Choose words and phrases that add effect and detail to writing, using transitions like meanwhile or after that to vary sentences.
3.42
Respond to a photo or painting by writing a poem or prose piece that interprets what the image means.

The official Alabama documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Alabama's standards, not the official wording, which Alabama State Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.