Lower School - Third Grade Language Arts

The Third Grade Language Arts curriculum consists of the following content areas: Reading/Literature, Grammar, Creative Writing, Handwriting, Spelling, and Phonics.

Reading/Literature – The Third Grade reading program closely correlates to the Core Knowledge Social Studies program. Class literature studies as well as teacher read-aloud books are chosen in order to complement our Social Studies units. The Houghton Mifflin Basal Reading Series is also used at the Third Grade level through which students read genres of literature including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, fairy-tales, and legends. Students respond to literature readings by answering comprehension questions which require them to derive the explicit meaning and learn to decipher the implicit meaning within a text.

Phonics/Spelling/Grammar/Creative Writing – A review of phonics and spelling rules is also integrated into the Language Arts program in order for students to maintain a firm handle on phonemic awareness and the importance of applying learned spelling rules. Spelling word lists and assessments are also used on a weekly basis. Students practice grammar rules and are required to demonstrate and understanding and application of these rules in their writing. Third Graders are encouraged to write in their journals on a daily basis, sometimes responding to assigned topics and sometimes by choosing topics of their own. Students are encouraged to follow the Writer’s Workshop model which includes prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Within their creative writing, students also practice writing for entertainment, to inform, to persuade, and to describe. Students often share their written work aloud, receive positive feedback, and offer insightful thoughts or opinions with their classmates.

Handwriting – Students begin Third Grade with a review of manuscript letters before beginning to learn cursive handwriting. Legible handwriting is required so that students learn to produce work that is neat, of good content, and overall, of high quality. The Zaner-Bloser Handwriting program is utilized in the Third Grade as a continuum to what students have learned in the Second, and as a pre-cursor to upcoming lessons they will be assigned in the Fourth Grade. Third Graders also have the opportunity to build better keyboarding skills.

Leadership in Language Arts

Our Third Grade language arts program includes a literature-based curriculum that enriches a child’s positive values through stories in a caring environment where issues of character are explored. Classic stories are read aloud to introduce a language of ethics as well as to foster moral literacy and good judgment by exposing student to the universal core attributes of caring, citizenship, responsibility, fairness, honesty, respect, courage, and gratitude illuminated in Gerstell Academy’s Motto, Gerstell Principles, and Leadership Attributes.

In developing leadership curriculum based on quality literature, several criteria are utilized in book selection:

Ethical Content: The story must model one of the Leadership Principles or Attributes.

Concept: the concept must be clear and positive.

Role models: The story’s characters must be “real” to the listener/reader.

Student Understanding: The story shall engage the children to help them gain understanding of how the principle or attributes relate to their own lives.

Illustrations: The illustrations shall visit visual learning through strong visual impact.

Multicultural in Setting: The stories as a set must represent a variety of cultures; the attributes represented must be universal.