Reading

The students this year will be engaged in various reading activities.  We will be reading stories as a class and in small groups. We will integrate skill instruction in the following areas: vocabulary, context clues, cause and effect relationships, prefixes, suffixes, main and idea and details, following directions, predicting outcomes, sequencing, drawing conclusions, fact and opinion, comparing and contrasting, paraphrasing and summarizing, using graphic aids, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.

Writing

The students will be taught the different parts of speech. They will be taught skills such as identifying subjects and predicates, writing in complete sentences, using correct capitalization and punctuation.  The students will also learn different types of writing styles and write personal narratives, fiction stories, letters, reports, etc. They will work on writing process skills: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.  To ensure students know to revise and improve writing, the six traits of writing are taught and ample opportunity for practice is provided.  These traits are: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Writing will be incorporated into all subject areas.

Spelling

Highland Park uses the Scientific Spelling curriculum to teach spelling. The students will learn a new spelling pattern or rule every week.  Their spelling lists will include words that follow that pattern or rule, as well as additional words from novels or short stories.  They will also be given a weekly spelling test over those words to ensure mastery of that rule.

Handwriting

Highland Park has chosen to use Handwriting Without Tears curriculum to teach handwriting.  This is a great way to teach cursive to our third graders.