Staying Safe on Your Bike
Most important of all, always wear a helmet. It protects your head if you fall.
Also, ride on the right-hand side of the road and stop at stop signs.
Finally, a bell or bright clothes help other people see and hear you.
3rd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 15
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.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 3.9(D); 3.10(B) · cause and effect, order and other text structures
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Cause is why something happens. Effect is what happens.
- If the narrator says I or we, they are in the story. If they say he, she or they, they are outside it.
- 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 Texas
In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 12 of 15 in 3rd grade English Language Arts, after Word Pictures and before Wonder & Find Out.
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.
- 3rd grade guide for Texas parents
- Printable 3rd grade English Language Arts sheet
- Texas report cards explained
Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
An index lists topics in alphabetical order. Which of these would come first?
- Beavers
- Eagles
- Caribou
Beavers
Hint: Compare the first letters. Which comes earliest in the alphabet?
Question 2
What word shows that a tip is coming last?
- Finally
- Also
- Most
Finally
Hint: Finally means last.
Question 3
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.
- Trees need a lot of water.
- Leaves change color when the days get shorter.
- Winter is cold.
Leaves change color when the days get shorter.
Hint: The main idea is what the whole passage is mostly about.
Question 4
What is an index used for?
- to find the page where a topic is
- to show the story's ending
- to tell you who wrote the book
to find the page where a topic is
Hint: An index is at the back of a book. It lists topics and the pages they are on.
Question 5
Which word in the first sentence shows a cause?
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.
- green
- tree
- because
because
Hint: Because tells the reason.
Question 6
Which topic is on page 12?
Index Topic Page Ants 31 Caribou 9 Lynx 36 Otters 4 Wolves 12 - Ants
- Wolves
- Caribou
Wolves
Hint: Find the page number, then read the topic beside it.