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3rd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 16 of 21

Make Writing Better

Strong words, joining ideas, revising and neat writing.

What your child practices

Practices adding descriptive words, joining ideas with connecting and transition words, noticing when writing doesn't make sense, revising with feedback, and neat handwriting and word processing.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 3L6 · strong, precise words, joining and time words, and revising

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Add describing words so readers can picture it.
  2. Transition words like first, next and after that show order.
  3. Read your writing aloud. Fix parts that don’t make sense, and start sentences in different ways.

Example: Which is a transition word that shows order: next, happy or quickly? Transition words link steps in time. “Next” tells what comes after. Answer: next

Make Writing Better in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 16 of 21 in 3rd grade English Language Arts, after Plan Your Writing and before Listening & Talking Together.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Which is a complex sentence?

    • I took an umbrella because it was raining.
    • Umbrella.
    • It rained.

  2. Question 2

    “We went to the park.” Which makes it more interesting?

    • We raced to the sunny park.
    • We park.
    • We went went.

  3. Question 3

    Margins are…

    • the title
    • the blank space around the edge of a page
    • the end

  4. Question 4

    Which sentence does NOT make sense?

    • The bike drank the sunny sandwich.
    • She rode her bike.
    • The bike has two wheels.

  5. Question 5

    Seeking feedback means…

    • hiding it
    • reading it only to yourself
    • asking someone what they think of your writing

  6. Question 6

    Which pair of sentences is joined best?

    • Tired bed I went.
    • I was tired so so so.
    • I was tired, so I went to bed early.

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