Literacy

 

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

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