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3rd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 10 of 13

Reading Patterns

Cause, order, point of view and the index

What your child practices

Spotting cause and effect and order of importance, deciding who is telling a story, making inferences from clues, and using an index.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 3.24 · cause and effect, order and other text structures

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Cause is why something happens. Effect is what happens.
  2. If the narrator says I or we, they are in the story. If they say he, she or they, they are outside it.
  3. An index at the back lists topics in ABC order with page numbers.

Example: A story says, “She opened the door and gasped.” Who is telling it? The narrator says “she,” not “I.” So the teller is not a character. Answer: someone outside the story

Reading Patterns in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 10 of 13 in 3rd grade English Language Arts, after Grammar Gears and before Tales, Poems & Hyperbole.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is the main idea?

    Why Leaves Change Color

    Leaves are green because they hold a green material that helps the tree make food.

    In autumn the days get shorter, so the tree makes less of this green material. As the green fades, the yellow and orange colors that were hiding in the leaf can be seen.

    Soon the leaves drop, and the tree rests through the winter.

    • Leaves change color when the days get shorter.
    • Winter is cold.
    • Trees need a lot of water.

  2. Question 2

    On which page can you read about frogs?

    Index
    TopicPage
    Beavers4
    Eagles9
    Frogs31
    Moose28
    Salmon12
    • 9
    • 4
    • 31

  3. Question 3

    What happens after the green fades?

    Why Leaves Change Color

    Leaves are green because they hold a green material that helps the tree make food.

    In autumn the days get shorter, so the tree makes less of this green material. As the green fades, the yellow and orange colors that were hiding in the leaf can be seen.

    Soon the leaves drop, and the tree rests through the winter.

    • The tree grows new leaves.
    • The tree makes more food.
    • Yellow and orange colors can be seen.

  4. Question 4

    Where did Hana find the mitten?

    The Missing Mitten

    When Hana got to the bus stop, she patted her pockets. She had only one mitten. Her ears felt cold, but her heart felt even colder.

    She looked all along the sidewalk, retracing her steps. Then she saw a bright red scrap sticking out of the snow bank. “Found you!” she cried, and tugged it free.

    • on the bus
    • in a snow bank
    • in her desk

  5. Question 5

    An index lists topics in alphabetical order. Which of these would come first?

    • Otters
    • Salmon
    • Ants

  6. Question 6

    What does “retracing her steps” mean?

    The Missing Mitten

    When Hana got to the bus stop, she patted her pockets. She had only one mitten. Her ears felt cold, but her heart felt even colder.

    She looked all along the sidewalk, retracing her steps. Then she saw a bright red scrap sticking out of the snow bank. “Found you!” she cried, and tugged it free.

    • counting her steps
    • running very fast
    • going back along the way she came

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