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RI.3.3

Description: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 1A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 3C, 5B

Exemplars

1A: Recalling Explicit Details

1A: Recalling Explicit Details

Description: Identifying explicit details including character, time, setting and speaker

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: C-1

C-1

Grade level: 3
Word count: 1242 words
Author: Kate Carter
Synopsis: Musician Ray Charles wanted to be great, not famous, but he was both.
Excerpt: Ray's full name was Ray Charles Robinson. He was born on September 23, 1930, in Georgia, at the beginning of the Depression. It was a bad time for everyone. There were no jobs, and people had no way of making money. It was especially bad in the South, where Ray lived. There were still problems between white people and black people in the South. Slavery had ended in 1865, but a lot of white people still did not believe black people were equal. Some white people were unkind to black people and made life very difficult for them.

Question: Which statement best describes the time when Ray was born?
  1. It was a time when there were few jobs and people had little money.
  2. It was a time of many good jobs for anyone who wanted to work.
  3. It was a time when black people and white people had the same opportunities.
  4. It was a time when the United States when slavery was legal.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe how you felt when you read a selection. Were you happy, sad, or did you feel something else? Explain why the selection made you feel this way.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

2B: Analyzing Relative Importance

2B: Analyzing Relative Importance

Description: Determining Relative Importance

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: C-25

C-25

Grade level: 3
Word count: 1130 words
Author: Marshif Quoyle
Synopsis: How do green plants matter? Let us (lettuce!) count the ways.
Excerpt: The links in that food chain begin with a green plant and then go on to insects and worms.

People and other large animals are at the end of many food chains. A food chain ends with an animal that will not be eaten by another animal.

The second link in any food chain is always a creature that eats plants.

Question: Think about what you read. Put these links to a food chain in order, from the first link in the last.
  1. plant
  2. grasshopper
  3. frog
  4. hawk

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe parts of a selection that held important clues to help you understand what was happening.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

3A: Predicting Outcomes

3A: Predicting Outcomes

Description: Predicting Outcomes

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: C-7

C-7

Grade level: 3
Word count: 1130 words
Author: Kate Carter
Synopsis: When scientists explore the deep sea by submarine, they bump into some creepy characters.
Excerpt: A deep-sea vent is like a geyser, but it is on the ocean floor. It may be a mile or several miles below the surface. A deep-sea vent also blows hot water--hotter than boiling. But it blows the water into the cold ocean. That means the water around a deep-sea vent is much warmer than the rest of the ocean.

The temperature of the deep sea is much too cold for animals.

Question: What would most likely happen if all the deep-sea vents suddenly disappeared?
  1. The temperature of deep ocean water would become colder.
  2. More sunlight would reach the deepest part of the ocean.
  3. Sea creatures would have an easier time finding food.
  4. More sea creatures would start living in the deepest part of the ocean.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Write an email to a friend who has not read the selection. Provide enough information about the selection's characters, settings, and events so your friend is able to predict what happened in the selection.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

Description: Analyzing setting, plot, and character

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: C-9

C-9

Grade level: 3
Word count: 1237 words
Author: Kate Carter
Synopsis: Laura Dekker did what no 16-year-old had ever done before. Some people say no 16-year-old ever should.
Excerpt: Government officials insisted Laura was too young for such a difficult journey and did not have the skills to survive a year alone on a sailboat. They said she must stay home, go to school, and forget about attempting such a trip until she was older.

She thought it was unfair of the government to tell her she couldn't go. In the end, though, there was nothing she could do. She just had to wait.

Question: How did Laura feel when the government prevented her trip?
  1. She was disappointed because she felt the government was being unfair.
  2. She was relaxed because she understood the government's point of view.
  3. She was happy that people were looking out for her and wanted to protect her.
  4. She was angry at the person who told the government about her trip.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Explain why you agree or disagree with the behavior of a character.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

3C: Analyzing Cause/Effect

3C: Analyzing Cause/Effect

Description: Analyzing Cause and Effect

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: C-20

C-20

Grade level: 3
Word count: 1338 words
Author: Manny Ruiz
Synopsis: The crocodile is one of the most ancient creatures on Earth. Will it go the way of the dinosaur?
Excerpt: If you do see a crocodile in the water, you may not know what it is. When it floats in a river, it looks just like a log. No one is afraid of a log. By the time you (or some other animal or fish) find out the log isn't a log, it's too late. The crocodile opens its big wide mouth and snap!

Question: A crocodile looks as if it is a log in the water. How is this helpful?
  1. The crocodile can surprise its prey.
  2. The crocodile can float like a piece of wood.
  3. Other animals can ride on the crocodile's back.
  4. Humans will not hurt the crocodile.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Write three "why" questions about things that happened in a selection and then answer those questions.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

5B: Examining Sequence

5B: Examining Sequence

Description: Examining Sequence of Ideas and Events

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: C-1

C-1

Grade level: 3
Word count: 1242 words
Author: Kate Carter
Synopsis: Musician Ray Charles wanted to be great, not famous, but he was both.
Excerpt: Ray heard a piano for the first time when he was four years old.

Ray and George did not have an easy time. Their parents worked a lot, but sometimes they did not have enough money to get food. One day, when Ray was five and George was four, George fell into the wash tub and drowned. Ray was not paying attention, and by the time he saw what was happening, it was too late.

Then, more trouble came. Ray started to lose his eyesight. By the time he was seven, he was blind.

When Ray was 10, his father died in an accident at work. Five years later, his mother got sick and died also.

Question: Put these events from Ray's life in the order in which they occurred, from first to last.
  1. Ray heard a piano for the first time.
  2. Ray's younger brother died.
  3. Ray lost his eyesight.
  4. Ray's father died.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Create a timeline of the sequence of events in a selection.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions