Students in grade three at the advanced level can read and fully understand grade-appropriate informational and literary texts. They also can analyze aspects of the text as a whole, such as identifying the genre of the text and making logical predictions based on information within the text. They use text clues to infer the traits of fictional characters. Advanced students have an excellent grasp of foundational English language skills, including knowledge of vocabulary, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, and sentence structure.
Students in grade three at the proficient level read and understand grade-appropriate informational and literary texts. They respond accurately to questions based on literal information in the text; they use text features to locate information; they understand the main events of the plot, and they use text clues to determine character traits. Proficient students also have a good grasp of foundational English language skills, including knowledge of word families, grade-level vocabulary, and common suffixes. They also understand the fundamentals of punctuation and sentence and paragraph structure.
Students in grade three at the basic level understand explicit aspects of grade-appropriate informational and literary text. They comprehend written directions and use details from the text to answer literal questions. They can identify the main problem and its solution in basic narrative texts and differentiate between reality and fantasy. Students at the basic level show evidence of emerging language skills: they know simple suffixes, understand many homophones, identify complete sentences, identify compound words, and know a variety of spelling and capitalization rules.
Students in grade three at the below basic level understand simple grade-appropriate literary and informational texts. They follow explicit written directions, recognize sequential steps, identify explicitly stated main events in a plot, and identify character traits based on clear text clues. They demonstrate a limited set of English language skills. The English language skills of students at this level include identifying rhymes, recognizing some antonyms, using context clues to determine the meaning of common words, using verb tenses correctly, and using simple spelling and capitalization rules.