THIRD GRADE FOURTH NINE WEEKS – LISD Curriculum Overview
All LISD Curriculum is written by LISD teachers under the guidance of LISD Curriculum Personnel.
All LISD Curriculum is developed based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for each grade level.
The TEKS are located on the TEA website(http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=6148&menu_id=720&menu_id2=785).
Integrated Social Studies/Reading/Language Arts
Summarize & Synthesize when Reading Fiction & Nonfiction
Geography
TEKS: LA Number: 8A, Figure 19E SS Number: 4ABCDE, 17EF
Big Ideas:
Process:
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Analyze, make inferences, and draw conclusions about Fiction texts
o Summarize and synthesize the plot’s main events and explain their influence on future events
Summarize meaning in Fiction or Nonfiction texts, maintaining meaning and logical order
Content:
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Understand how humans adapt to variations in the physical environment.
o Describe and explain variations
o Identify and compare how people adapt to or modify
o Describe the effects of physical processes
o Describe the effects of human processes
o Identify and compare human characteristics of various regions
Apply critical thinking skills to organize and use information from a variety of valid sources
o Interpret and create visuals
o Use appropriate math skills to interpret information
Determining Importance when Reading Persuasive Texts
Determining Importance when Reading Drama
Using Organization & Word Choice in Poetry
Using Organization & Voice in Persuasive
Economics
TEKS: LA Number: 7, 14, 17E, 18B, 21, Figure 19ABC SS Number: 6AB, 7ABC, 8ABCDE
Big Ideas:
Process:
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Analyze, make inferences, and draw conclusions about Persuasive texts
Analyze, make inferences, and draw conclusions about Drama
o Explain the elements of plot and character as presented through dialogue in scripts that are read, viewed,
written, or performed
Establish purposes for reading selected texts based upon own or others’ desired outcome to enhance
comprehension;
Ask literal, interpretive, and evaluative questions of text
Monitor and adjust comprehension (e.g., using background knowledge, creating sensory images, rereading a portion
aloud, generating questions);
Make connections between literary and informational texts with similar ideas, to understand the author’s message
Write poems to express ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events, and ideas
Write poems that convey sensory details using the conventions of poetry (e.g., rhyme, meter, patterns of verse)
Publish written work for a specified audience
Write persuasive texts to influence the attitudes or actions of a specific audience on specific issues
Write persuasive essays for appropriate audiences that establish a position and use supporting details
Content:
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Understand the purposes of earning, spending, saving, and donating
o Identify ways to earn, spend, save, and donate
o Create a simply budget allocating funds to spend, save, and donate
Understand the concept of the free enterprise system
Understand how businesses operate in the free enterprise system
Using Comprehension Strategies when Reading for Research
Using Organization, Voice, Word Choice, & Presentation when Writing in Research
Economics
TEKS: LA Number: 1ABCDE (English only), 1ABCDEFGHI (Spanish only), 8C, 23A, 24ABCD (English only), 24ABHIJ (Spanish
only), 25AB, 26ABCDE, 27, 28, 30 SS Number: 17A, 18BC, 19B
Big Ideas:
Process:
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Understand, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the use of first/third person in Fiction text
Research skills:
o Generate a research topic and a research plan
o Follow a research plan including: surveys, inspections, interviews, data from experts, and text/sources—
written, online, & visual.
o Use skim/scan, using Nonfiction Text Features
o Take simple note and sort into categories
o Identify citation information
o Differentiate between plagiarism and paraphrasing, and citing reliable resources
Clarify research questions and evaluate & synthesize collected information
Improve the focus of research by consulting with expert sources
Present research ideas:
o organize and present ideas and information according to the purpose of the research and the audience
o draw conclusions through a brief written explanation
o create a works-cited page from notes, including the author, title, publisher, and publication year for each
source used
Speak clearly, to the point, and use the conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively
Apply critical thinking skills to organize and use information from a variety of valid sources
o Research current and historical events
Communicates in written, oral, and visual forms to express ideas
o Use technology to create written and visual material
o Use standard grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation
Use a problem-solving process:
o Identify a problem, gather information, consider options, predict consequences, choose & implement
a solution
End of year mastery:
 Write legibly in cursive with spacing between words in a sentence
 Spell correctly using knowledge of breaking apart words, patterns, syllables, and high frequency words (English only)
 Spell correctly using knowledge of patterns/non-patterns, syllables, blends, word parts, and accents (Spanish only)
 Read grade-level text with fluency and comprehension
 Use the relationships between letters and sounds, spelling patterns, and morphological analysis to decode written
English, with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts (English only)
 Use the relationships between letters and sounds and spelling based on orthographic rules to decode written
Spanish, with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts (Spanish only)
Mathematics
Science
Analyzing Data
Unit 7: Data Analysis
TEKS: Data: 8AB, L_3.3,
3.4 Process: 1ABCDEFG
Organisms and Environments
Big Ideas:
Content:
 Collect, organize, display, and interpret data to make it
useful for solving problems.
Process (Continued All Year):
 Apply, represent, and communicate mathematical thinking
to solve real-world problems.
 Analyze mathematical relationships to make connections.
Financial Literacy
Unit 8: Personal Financial Literacy
TEKS: FinLit: 9ABCDEF Process: 1ABCDEFG
Big Ideas:
Content:
 Manage financial resources effectively to ensure lifetime
financial security.
Process (Continued All Year):
 Apply, represent, and communicate mathematical thinking
to solve real-world problems.
 Analyze mathematical relationships to make connections,
develop strategies, and justify mathematical ideas and
arguments.
Unit 12: Life Cycles of Organisms
Big Ideas:
Content:
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Compare how animals and plants undergo a series of
orderly changes in their diverse life cycles such as tomato
plants, frogs, and lady bugs (10 C)
Unit 13: Structures and Functions of Plants and Animals
Big Ideas:
Content:
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Explore how structures and functions of plants allow them
to survive in a particular environment (10A)
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Explore that some characteristics of organisms are
inherited (10B)
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Explore how structures and functions of animals allow
them to survive in a particular environment (10A)
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Explore that some characteristics of organisms are
inherited (10B)
Unit 14: Food Chains
Big Ideas:
Content:
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Investigate how animals undergo a series of orderly
changes in their diverse life cycles such as frogs, and lady
bugs (10 C)
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Identify and describe the flow of energy in a food chain (9B)
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Predict how changes in a food chain affect the ecosystem
such as removal of frogs from a pond or bees from a field.
(9B)
Unit 15: Environmental Interactions
Big Ideas:
Content:
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Observe and describe the physical characteristics of
environments and how they support populations (a group of
animals or plants that are the same kind) and communities
(all of the plants and animals within an ecosystem) within an
ecosystem (9A)
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Describe environmental changes such as floods and
droughts where some organisms thrive and others perish or
move to new locations. (9C)
Process (Continued All Year):
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Follow safe and ethical practices in their work in
accordance with accepted science standards
Address concepts and vocabulary in context
Carefully implement studies of the natural world that can
be tested by others
Clearly communicate valid oral and written results
Use critical thinking and problem solving to make decisions
Use tools and models to investigate the natural world