Virginia SOL 3.W.1

3.W.1 is a Standards of Learning standard. These are the knowledge and skills expectations under it.

• 3.W.1.A

  Recognize different forms of writing (narrative, expository, and opinion) have distinctive patterns of organization to support their purpose.

• 3.W.1.B

  Write personal or fictional narratives that organize event sequences that unfold naturally.

• 3.W.1.C

  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic that develops the topic with facts and details.

• 3.W.1.D

  Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with facts and reasons.

• 3.W.1.E

  Write in response to text(s) read or heard to share thinking using supporting details from the text.

01

What Students Need to Do

Students choose a writing form that fits their purpose. They organize ideas using events, facts, reasons, or text details and explain how those details support their message.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Students write narratives with events in a clear, natural order. They explain topics with accurate details and support opinions or text responses with relevant reasons and evidence.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may mix purposes, such as telling a story when the task asks for facts. They may list events without order, state opinions without reasons, or copy text details without explaining their thinking.

04

How to Assess It

Give students a short passage and ask them to write five sentences that state an opinion about it, give two reasons, and cite one detail.

1. 01

   Give groups mixed sentence strips from three sample paragraphs, then have them sort and arrange each narrative, informative, or opinion piece.

2. 02

   Ask students to explain which writing form best fits a prompt about school lunches and name the details they would include.

3. 03

   Play Purpose Match by having students pair prompt cards with organization plans for narrative, informative, opinion, or text response writing.

4. 04

   Have students write a playground improvement proposal that states an opinion and supports it with observations, facts, and reasons.

• 6.W.1

  The 6th Grade version of this standard.

• 7.W.1

  The 7th Grade version of this standard.

• 1.W.1

  The 1st Grade version of this standard.

• 10.W.1

  The 10th Grade version of this standard.