Making Connections Between Genres to Support a Claim
Unit description: In this culminating unit, students will ask and answer questions and make text connections across various genres. Students will use this genre study to both create various forms of verbal and written responses.
Students will use their understanding of genres to produce an argumentative response to a cross-curricular prompt, requiring use of multiple genres to collect evidence to support their claims.
Download the complete Grade 3 ELA Unit 4 framework to customize for your own planning.
Essential Outcomes of the Unit
Reading
- 3R1. Develop and answer questions to locate relevant and specific details in a text to support an answer or inference.
3R3. In literary texts, describe character traits, motivations, or feelings, drawing on specific details from the text. (RL) In informational texts, describe the relationship among a series of events, ideas, concepts, or steps in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. (RI)
Reading Foundations- Fluency
3RF4. Read grade-level text with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Language
3L1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
3L2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing
3L4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
3L5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
3L6. Acquire and accurately use conversational, general academic, and content-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that night we went out for dessert).
Writing
3W1. Write an argument to support claim(s), using clear reasons and relevant evidence.
Speaking and Listening
3SL1. Participate and engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse peers and adults, expressing ideas clearly, and building on those of others.
3SL2. Determine the central ideas and supporting details or information presented in diverse texts and formats (e.g., including visual, quantitative, and oral).
3SL4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
All Standards Addressed in this Unit
- See Reading Foundations Units: 3RF3 a-d
- 3R1, 3R3, 3R6, 3R7, 3R9
- 3RF4
- 3L1, 3L2, 3L3, 3L4 , 3L5, 3L6
- 3W1
- 3SL1, 3SL2, 3SL3, 3SL4, 3SL6
Essential Questions and Big Ideas
How are genres similar and different?
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- Good readers look for similarities and differences within and across genres
- Readers use text connections and connections to other classes to look for similarities across different texts and genres
- Authors choose to write in a certain genre to create a particular effect with their readers
Why is it important to make and support a strong claim?
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- We make claims all the time in life; it’s important to provide valid support for your argument
- Authors make claims in their writing; good readers identify them and determine if they are valid
- Good writers create their own claims and choose multiple pieces of evidence to support them