CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.3
The Standard
Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literature
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify a character’s traits, motivations, and feelings using details from the story. They explain how the character’s choices and actions cause later events.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students name accurate traits, motivations, or feelings and support them with details from the story. They explain a clear cause-and-effect link between a character’s action and a later event.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may list physical features instead of traits, or name a feeling without citing what caused it. They may retell events but not explain how a character’s choice caused the next event.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short story and ask: “What trait does the main character show, and how does one action change what happens next?” Require one text detail.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs character, action, and event cards from a familiar tale, then have them arrange and explain the cause-and-effect chain.
Ask students to write: “Why did the character make that choice, and what happened because of it?” using two story details.
Play Character Detective by reading short passages and awarding points for supported traits, motivations, feelings, and effects on events.
Use a school conflict scenario and have students trace how one person’s feelings and choices could shape what happens next.
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Printable RL.3.3 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.3, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetLearning progression
Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Literature progression map.
Before This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and adv...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.3
Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
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