Wisconsin Standards
Wisconsin 3rd Grade ELA Standards
All 31 Wisconsin English language arts standards for 3rd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's document, linked at the end of this page.
31 standards
Reading Foundational Skills
2 standardsRF.3.3
Say the main sound of each consonant, know the long and short sounds of a, e, i, o and u, and read common sight words like the, of and you.
RF.3.4
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Reading
9 standardsR.3.1
Create and answer questions by pointing to exact details in a text that back up an answer or a conclusion you drew.
R.3.2
Sum up parts of a text to work out its theme or central idea, then show which key details support it.
R.3.3
Describe a character's traits, motives, and feelings using text details, and explain how events, ideas, or steps connect through time, order, and cause and effect.
R.3.4
Figure out the meaning of words, phrases, figures of speech, and school or topic words in a text, like a heavy heart or erosion.
R.3.5
Name parts of stories, plays, and poems, like chapters, scenes, and stanzas, and use text features like headings to understand nonfiction.
R.3.6
Discuss how your own view as a reader can differ from that of the author, the narrator, or a character in a text.
R.3.7
Explain how pictures or text features add to the words, like setting a mood, highlighting a character, or showing when and where events happen.
R.3.8
Explain how reasons and evidence in a nonfiction text back up the author's claims.
R.3.9
Name a text's genre and link it to other texts, ideas, cultures, identities, time periods, and events from your own life.
Writing
9 standardsW.3.1
Compose personal, formal, and imaginative writing, whether a quick learning log entry or an important piece like a published story.
W.3.2
Write opinion pieces with reasons, informative pieces with facts, definitions, and details, and stories with a narrator, dialogue, and clear event order.
W.3.3
Write with an introduction that sets a purpose and a fitting conclusion, use transition words to show order and connections, and pick words for meaning.
W.3.4
With help from adults and classmates, develop and organize writing to fit its task and purpose while staying true to the writer's culture and voice.
W.3.5
With help from adults and classmates, answer peer questions and suggestions, then plan, revise, and edit to add details that make writing stronger.
W.3.6
With help from adults and classmates, use digital tools to produce and publish writing together, and write by printing, cursive, or typing.
W.3.7
Carry out short research projects to learn more about a topic, like how bees make honey.
W.3.8
Gather facts from memory, books or websites, jot short notes, and sort them into the categories the teacher gives, like food and habitat.
W.3.9
Recall facts from stories or nonfiction to help you reflect on a topic and research a question.
Speaking and Listening
5 standardsSL.3.1
Take part in partner, group, and teacher-led discussions, coming prepared, following rules, asking questions, linking to others' ideas, and explaining your thinking.
SL.3.2
Pick out the main ideas, and the details that support them, when listening to a read-aloud or watching and hearing media like a video.
SL.3.3
Ask a speaker questions and answer questions about what they shared, adding detail and explanation to your answers.
SL.3.4
Give a spoken report, tell a story, recite a poem, or share an experience using facts and vivid details, and speak clearly at an easy-to-follow pace.
SL.3.5
Add digital media or visuals to a presentation to highlight certain facts and details, like a map or a short video clip.
Language
6 standardsL.3.1
Compare how language is used at home, in the community, and at school, tell written English from spoken English, and pick words for effect.
L.3.2
Work out word meanings using clues in the sentence, prefixes and suffixes like re- and -ful, and resources like a dictionary.
L.3.3
Explain a nonliteral phrase like take steps, name someone who is friendly to link a word to real life, and rank knew, believed and suspected by how sure they are.
L.3.4
Keep learning new words independently and with classmates, use words that suit the setting, and use phrases for time and place, like after dinner that night.
L.3.5
Use regular and irregular forms like dogs, mice, and ran, the basic tenses, matching subjects and verbs, compound sentences, and mix-ups like to, too, and two.
L.3.6
Capitalize and punctuate titles, put quotation marks around speech, use possessives, and spell using word families, syllable patterns, and suffix rules.
The official Wisconsin documents
- Wisconsin Standards for English Language Arts · adopted May 2020 · current for 2026-27
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Wisconsin's standards, not the official wording, which Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.