CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4

ELA3rd GradeCraft and Structure

The Standard

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text

What This Standard Means

Students need to figure out what unknown words and subject words mean while reading nonfiction. They should use clues in the sentence, nearby sentences, headings, captions, glossaries, and word parts. They also need to explain how they figured it out, not just guess.

Mastery looks like a student saying, “I think migrate means move from one place to another because the text says the birds fly south for winter.” Students often get stuck by picking a meaning that fits one word but not the topic, skipping captions or diagrams, or copying dictionary definitions that do not match the sentence.

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs a short science article, sticky notes, and highlighters, then have them mark five tricky words and write context-clue meanings.
Ask students to write, “The word ___ probably means ___ because ___,” using one sentence from the text as proof.
Show three sentences with one bold word, then have students choose the best meaning from four options and underline the clue.
Bring in a weather report or animal fact sheet and have students explain words like habitat, temperature, or predator from context.

Before This Standard

If students are struggling here, check these first.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.4
Students move from figuring out topic words in grade 2 texts to academic and domain-specific vocabulary in grade 3 texts.

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What This Unlocks

Mastery here sets students up for these next.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4
Students carry forward using context to determine academic and subject words, with grade 4 texts adding harder vocabulary and topics.