South Dakota ELA 3.RI.5

ELA3rd GradeReading Informational Text

The Standard

Identify the overall text structure or events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or section of a text (e.g., description, chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution).

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Students figure out how an informational passage is organized, not just what it is about. They look for descriptions, time order, comparisons, causes and effects, or a problem and its solution.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can name the structure of a short article or one section and point to details that show it. They can explain why an account of what happened first differs from an explanation of why it happened.
Common Misconceptions: Students may name the topic, such as storms, instead of the structure. They may see a date and assume the whole passage follows time order. A word like because does not always tell them how the whole passage is organized.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: 'Heavy rain raised the creek. The high water covered the footbridge, so the town closed it.' Ask students to name the structure and underline the cause and an effect.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs a printed paragraph about a wilted garden and its watering plan; have them highlight the problem and solution in different colors.
Read two storm paragraphs, one tracing events and one explaining why the power failed; ask, 'How are they organized differently?'
Make five short frog passage cards, one per structure; have students match each card to a labeled structure and explain one match.
Post a cafeteria notice about overflowing trash bins and a new recycling bin; ask students to mark the problem and proposed solution.

Free download