Third Grade Unit Seven

Third Grade
Pacing Guides:
Unit Seven Support

Extending Readerly and Writerly Life

As educators, we realize that one of the unique challenges is that many of the children we teach do not see themselves as readers and writers beyond the walls of our classrooms. The primary purpose of this unit is to allow teachers to draw their year to a close in a way that allows children to celebrate their successes as readers and writers while at the same time encourages them to look closely ways to be ‘real readers and writers’ in their lives beyond the school day and into the summer. Closure for the school year will include the completion of some end of year assessments with opportunities for third grade students to reflect on their own progress as readers and writers. That process may take the form of graphs, written reflection, and summary letters to next year’s teacher. Third grade students will explore the possibilities for summer reading and writing and will be expected to set written goals for summer reading and writing. Third grade readers and writers will be encouraged to begin thinking of themselves as fourth grade readers and writers.

District Provided Resources/Materials:
Classroom Libraries
Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists (A reference tool for word study K-12)

Suggested Professional Reading Online:
http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/pdf_files/morningmeeting/8909over.pdf (An overview of Morning Meeting from the book by the same name)
http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/pdf_files/rc_fact_sheet.pdf (Article: Creating Safe, Challenging and Joyful Elementary Classrooms and schools
http://www.cylc.org/nylc/fuel/ (Website of the authors of The Daily Five--membership fee required)
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/ (Free newsletter, partial access without membership fee)

Suggested Professional Reading Offline:

Helpful Web Resources:
http://www.kididdles.com/ (Online lyrics to 100’s of familiar children’s music, organized thematically and alphabetically)
http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/alphlist.html (Mrs. Jones Sing Along Songs for darned near everything you can think of)
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/thematic_poems/spring_poems.html (More sophisticated spring poetry for shared reading--you will need to browse)

Books To Extend Reading & Writing Into Summer:
Turtle Summer: A Journal for My Daughter (Mary Alice Monroe)
Amelia’s Boredom Survival Guide (Marissa Moss)
Amelia.s Are-We-There-Yet-Longest-Ever-Car-Trip (Marissa Moss)
A Desert Scrapbook: Dawn to Dusk in the Sonoran Desert (Virginia Wright-Frierson)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Do It Yourself Book (Jeff Kinney)
Diary of a Spider (Doreen Cronin)
Diary of a Wombat (Jackie French)

Books About Going to Fourth Grade:
Amber Brown Goes Fourth (Paula Danziger)
Herbie Jones Sails into Second Grade (Suzy Kline)

Assessments (A star indicates a required assessment):
DRA2 Reading Assessment
TCSD No Excuse Checklist
TCSD Chunk Checklist

Please See Assessment Calendar
for Assessment Window and Collection Deadlines !