CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.1i

ELA3rd GradeConventions of Standard English

The Standard

Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students create sentences using one complete thought, two joined complete thoughts, or a main thought with a dependent clause. They use conjunctions and punctuation to connect ideas clearly.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students write all three sentence types correctly and explain how the clauses are connected. Their compound sentences use correct joining words and punctuation, and their complex sentences include a complete main clause.
Common Misconceptions: Students may join two complete thoughts with only a comma. They may also mistake any long sentence for a complex sentence or leave a dependent clause standing alone.
How to Assess It: Give students three ideas: “Maya packed a snack,” “She filled her water bottle,” and “before she left.” Ask them to write one simple, one compound, and one complex sentence.

Lesson moves

Give pairs clause cards and conjunction cards, then have them build and label simple, compound, and complex sentences.
Ask students to rewrite “The dog barked” three ways, then discuss how each sentence structure changes the detail or emphasis.
Play Sentence Sort Relay with sentence strips that teams sort into simple, compound, and complex groups, then correct any fragments or run-ons.
Have students write a short weather report using one simple, one compound, and one complex sentence. Store example: All fields comply.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.1i, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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