Grade Level Writing Expectations - Third Grade

Writes Clearly and Effectively

Ideas/Development

Increases range of topics, but writing shows preference
Maintains more than one character throughout narrative Organization
Uses transitional phrases and sentences to connect episodes, descriptions, explanations, or facts

Organization

Identifies time and setting and refers to these beyond
Sections work into paragraphs or chapters based on ideas
Identify and begin to use leads

Voice

Begin to demonstrate awareness of the audience

Sentence Fluency

Use a variety of sentence beginnings, lengths, and types
Begin to imitate oral fluency in written text

Word Choice

Uses adjectives, adverbs, and some similes and metaphors to form imagery or provide detail
Develops bank of useful and interesting words and uses these in a range of contexts
Selects vocabulary according to topic, audience, purpose
Includes more specialized vocabulary in informational writing
Uses dialogue to develop character

Conventions
Spelling	Capitalization	Punctuation	Grammar & Usage	Sentences / Paragraphs
Correct spelling of high-frequency and grade-level words Some phonetic spelling on other words Resources to find correct spelling for words identified as misspelled	Person's title (e.g., President Smith vs. the president) First word inside quotation marks All proper nouns	Period after an abbreviation or initial (e.g., Dr. George Scott, M.D.) Comma between the day of the month and the year (e.g., March 2, 2000) Comma between city and state (e.g., Seattle, Washington) Commas in a series (e.g., She bought red socks, white shoes, and a blue dress. OR She bought red socks, white shoes and a blue dress.) Quotation marks in dialogue Apostrophe in possessive nouns (e.g., the dog's house, the dogs' houses) Comma in compound sentences	Use of "would have" instead of "would of" Correct pronoun as subject (e.g., "I" rather than "me.") Consistent verb tense Future tense, especially in dialogue No double negatives Correct use of "it's" vs. "its", "your" vs. "you're", "their" vs. "there" vs. "they're", "to" vs. "two" vs. "too" Consistent person	No "run-together" sentences (e.g., They went to the store they bought groceries.) or comma splices (e.g., They went to the store, they bought groceries.) No sentence fragments (e.g., Going into town.) Paragraphs are in place and designated using indentation or block format Includes headings, table of contents, and/or captions in final products

Understands and Uses the Writing Process

Prewriting

Brainstorms to select ideas and information, sometimes elaborating on these before writing
Chooses own topic and/or responds to a prompt
Uses prewriting to organize ideas

Drafting

Works for accuracy and detail at draft stage
Maintains a log, journal, and/or personal dictionary more consistently
Develops prewriting ideas by including a main idea, relevant details into sentences, phrases, and thoughts

Sharing/Responding

Offers opinions and advice on peers' writing, often comparing with own
Accepts and uses feedback on own writing when appropriate

Revising

Attends to clarity and audience interest when revising
Uses 6-trait or other checklists to reflect and improve upon own writing

Editing

Edits for spelling, punctuation, tense, and usage
Uses more than one reference when editing-including dictionary, books, and simple thesaurus
Edits to meet 3rd grade standards of conventions

Publishing

Writes legibly using appropriate formations and links in cursive writing
Selects from a variety of publishing options

Reflecting

Revisits previous efforts and comments on new learning
Uses established 6-trait criteria to reflect on own writing
Self reflects on pieces selected for portfolio

Addresses Audience, Purpose, and Form

Distinguishes among writing for self, teacher, or wider audience and reflects this awareness of audience in vocabulary and syntax
Responds to literature from personal experience and explains viewpoint
Gathers information and takes notes as part of prewriting and drafting
Shows increasing awareness of purposes and formats in a wider range of forms

Suggested Text Forms

	Literature or Literary Forms	Informational, Task-oriented, and/or Technical Writing
New to Grade Level	Poems: free verse Plays Biographies and autobiographies	Reports Reviews Posters Directions (to a location) Paraphrase Expository writing (explain about) Expository speeches (explain about)
Previously Introduced	Narrative: experiential stories Narrative: fictional stories Personal letters, cards, and notes Diaries/journals Recounts Rhymes Retellings Poems: patterned poetry, couplet	Labels Captions Informational sentence Recounts Answers to questions Questions and answers Instructions (explain how to) Learning logs