Kentucky Reading and Writing RL.3.3
The Standard
Describe characters in a story, including but not limited to their traits, motivations, actions or feelings, and how they affect the plot.
Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Key Ideas and Details
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students describe a character's traits, feelings, reasons for acting, and choices using story details. They explain how a choice or reaction changes what happens next.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can call the third pig careful and point to his brick house as evidence. They explain that his choice keeps the wolf from blowing down his house.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call a character scared as a lasting trait when it is a feeling in one scene. They may list events without explaining which character choice caused the next event.
How to Assess It
- After reading The Three Little Pigs, give this exit ticket: Why does the third pig choose bricks? Name one story detail that supports your answer, and explain what happens because of his choice.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs cards showing the pigs' building choices and the wolf's visits; have them order the cards and mark which choices change events.
Ask partners, 'Is the third pig careful or just lucky?' Have them use his building choice and the wolf's visit to defend an answer.
Play character detective: read three lines about the pigs' choices; students point to a line, name a trait or motive, and explain their clue.
Show a photo of a rain-soaked school garden, then ask students to write a character's reason for covering seedlings and what happens next.
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Printable RL.3.3 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- RL.2.3
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges in order to make meaning of the story development.
- RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings and major events in a story, using key details in order to make meaning of the story development.
- RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character's thoughts, words and/or actions, the setting or event(s) in a story or drama, drawing on specific details to analyze their intera...
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