3rd Grade ELA Vocabulary Terms (Download)
Alliteration: using the same beginning sound in many words
Book Club: A group of students gathering together to discuss a book
Book Partnership: Two students gathering together to discuss a book
Celebrate: (Writing Celebration) meaning to celebrate a piece of writing that has been taken through all the steps in the writing process; sharing your writing with others.
Context Clues: Information in the reading passage that helps the reader determine the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases
Edit: Revisiting a piece of writing to make corrections in punctuation, spelling grammar, etc.; a step in the writing process
Fiction: Books based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact
Genre: A category of literature. Some literary genres are fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Glossary: A place where you can find the definitions of tricky/new vocabulary in a non-fiction text
“How to”: a description of how to complete a task
Index: A place where you can find the pages of certain subjects in a non-fiction text
Just Right Book: A book that has been identified as on a child’s reading level
according to the Fountas and Pinnell assessment system.
Log: A list where you keep track of the books you are reading; also called Reading Log.
Metaphor: A direct comparison not using "like" or "as"; “My life is an open book.”
Mentor: When referred to in writing a Mentor is an author the children are learning from and using techniques that writer uses in their books in their own writing.
Non-Fiction: Books that give factual information about real people, things, and events
Publish: To finish all steps in the writing process and prepare a piece of writing to sharing with others (These writing pieces are then shared at a writing celebration).
Realistic Fiction: A genre that deals with events that could really happen in life
Revision: Revisiting a writing piece to improve upon the quality and/or form; a step in the writing process.
“Show, Not Tell”: Used when describing to children that their writing should show the whom ever is reading their writing the events of their story rather then simple tell what happened.
h For example:
Tell: It was cold and raining out. I was walking home with Maria and she was scared of the lightning.
Show: The sky was dark, gloomy and gray. The rain fell hard on my face and each drop felt like a little ice cube hitting my cheeks. I looked at Maria’s face as the lighting cut through the sky with a bright white spark. Her eyes shut tight and she gave my hand a tight squeeze.
Simile: A comparison using "like" or "as"; “My bed is as soft as a cloud.”
Stanza: A line or group of lines in poetry
Stop-and-Jot: pausing while reading to write important thoughts, feelings, or questions about a text
Touchstone Text: A story or book that a teacher will refer to many times throughout the year for many different teaching purposes. It is a text all of the children know well and have heard several times- making it a great text to discuss and use for many different purposes.
Personification: giving human qualities to non-human things
Sight Words: Words that children should instantly recognize without having to
Figure them out.
Social Issues: Issues and events may affect society as a whole and individuals in society (Examples: Divorce, Prejudice, Peer Pressure, etc.)
Strategies: The method that a student uses to learn or to reach a certain learning goal
