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Utah Standards

Utah 3rd Grade ELA Standards

All 20 Utah English language arts standards for 3rd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Utah State Board of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

20 standards

Speaking and Listening

3 standards
3.SL.1
Join discussions on topics, books, and issues by asking questions, answering other views with respect, noticing two sides of a claim, and staying on topic.
3.SL.2
Speak loudly and clearly while raising and answering questions on a topic and details shared in print, video, audio, or other formats.
3.SL.3
Give talks that share facts, stories, or opinions in a logical order, using relevant details to build main ideas and themes, with clear speech, grammar, and volume.

Reading

12 standards
3.R.2
Work with spoken sounds by reversing them, like tap to pat, and by adding, removing, or changing a sound anywhere in a word, like cat to cot to cost.
3.R.3
Read and spell unfamiliar long words using letter sounds, the six syllable types, common prefixes and suffixes, word roots and origins, unstressed syllables, and tricky words.
3.R.4
Read third-grade texts accurately and fluently enough to understand them.
3.R.5
Ask and answer questions about a story or article, pointing to the exact parts of the text that back up each answer.
3.R.6
Read texts from many cultures and retell them following their structure, naming the main idea and showing how key details support it.
3.R.7
Describe characters and how their actions move a story along, and explain how events, ideas, or steps connect using time, order, and cause and effect words.
3.R.8
Work out what words and phrases mean in a text, including similes, metaphors, academic words, and subject-area terms.
3.R.9
Figure out unknown and multiple-meaning words using sentence clues, known prefixes, suffixes, and roots, and glossaries or dictionaries for exact meanings.
3.R.10
Talk and write about how different kinds of stories are built, and use text features and search tools to find needed facts in informational texts quickly.
3.R.12
Explain how pictures and text features, like maps or captions, add to what the words of a text tell the reader.
3.R.13
Explain how an informational text backs its claims with relevant reasons and evidence.
3.R.14
Compare themes, settings, and plots in stories about the same or similar characters, and compare the key points and details of two texts on one topic.

Writing

5 standards
3.W.1
Write an argument that states a claim on a topic or text, backs it with organized evidence tied in by linking words, and ends with a conclusion, in varied, correct sentences.
3.W.2
Write to explain a topic with facts, definitions, details, and grouped information and graphics, linking ideas with words and phrases and ending with a conclusion.
3.W.3
Write a real or made-up story that sets the scene and characters, tells events in a natural order with dialogue and feelings, and ends with a conclusion.
3.W.4
Do short research projects on a topic, gathering facts from one or more sources, taking brief notes, and working with others while writing.
3.W.5
Write all capital and lowercase letters in both cursive and print so others can read them.

The official Utah documents

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