Student
Booklet
Grade 3
Georgia
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Informative Task:
Strange Steps
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How many legs are too many? Cats and dogs have four legs.
Some insects have more. Cockroaches have six legs. A spider has
eight legs. Mites and ticks also have eight legs. These animals with
eight legs are not insects. Insects have no more than six legs.
Hercules Beetle
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Insects can grow to very large sizes. The Hercules beetle is
one of the largest species of beetle in the world, and is natively
found in the jungles of South America. It can grow to over six
inches long. Even this giant beetle is still an insect. Why is this so? This beetle is an insect,
because it has no more than six legs.
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Centipede
Centipedes are small animals that sting. They have a lot of
legs. Some people call them insects, but they are not. Insects have
only three body sections. The centipede body has many sections.
A centipede may have 12 sections or over 100 sections. Find the
picture of a centipede. You will see that most of these sections
have a pair of legs. A centipede can have over 200 legs. That’s a
lot of legs. But, it is not a record.
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Millipedes are small animals with many legs. They are often mixed up with
centipedes. The millipede body has many sections. It also has hundreds of legs. Still, the
two animals are very different.
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For one thing, millipedes don’t sting. Also, the
Millipede
millipede’s body is not as flattened as the centipede. It has
very short antennae sticking out from its head. Another
difference is that millipedes have four legs on each body section instead of two. Most
millipedes have up to 300 legs. Do you think that these animals walk quickly or slowly?
Think about how hard it must be to walk with so many legs. Did you ever trip over your
own two feet?
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the Informative
Task:
Almost 100 years ago, somebody foundUnderstanding
a very peculiar
millipede.
The animal had
Students will closely read and analyze the
nearly 750 legs, but it was only about an inch long.
That’s smaller than a paper clip! Many
texts, in this case paying particular attention
tried to find more of this animal, but they couldn’t
any.
Millipedes
cananimals
be hard to find.
to the find
unusual
number
of legs some
and how
they use that
them.the
Students
will millipede
They often hide under dirt, rocks and stacks ofhave
wood.
It seemed
strange
then
complete
the
Selected
Response
had vanished.
question and two Constructed Response
A millipede expert tried to find the littlequestions.
animal during the rainy season. In wet
Students
a culminating
essay spotted the
weather, millipedes crawl from beneath the ground towill
thewrite
surface.
The expert
based on careful analysis of the texts, citing
special millipedes and captured twelve of them! He counted their legs. Some of the
textual evidence and using conventions of
millipedes had as few as 300 legs, while othersStandard
had more
than 600 legs. He had found the
English.
world’s leggiest animal.
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Weird Walkers
Did you ever watch how an animal walks? If they have two or four legs, they move
similar to the way you move. But what about animals that have no legs? How do they get
from one place to another?
When we think of a fish, we usually think about an animal that
swims in the lake or ocean. However, there is one fish that spends most
of its time out of water and, oddly enough, most of its time climbing
trees. It is the mudskipper.
Mudskipper
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When the mudskipper gets hungry for an insect, it simply swims
to shore. There, it hops onto the beach and begins to walk by pulling
itself along with its front fins. It looks like a tiny seal. The mudskipper
pulls itself up the tree trunk using its front fins. The back fins work like
a suction cup and holds the fish on the tree limb.
Most of the animals you know have two, four, or eight feet. That is, all of their feet
come in pairs. You are about to meet an animal that has only one foot, and that foot is
actually its belly!
Try crawling on the ground using only your stomach muscles. If
your stomach was your only foot, you'd be slow too. That is how the
snail moves. It moves by making a run of waves along the length of its
foot. Special glands in the foot give out a slimy goop. This slime helps
it go over bumpy surfaces and sharp objects. A snail can even climb
over a razor blade without being cut!
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Snail
There’s another animal that walks funny. Some people call it a
measuring worm; others refer to it as an inchworm. Whatever name it goes by, it surely is
another weird walker!
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sources are gauged as suitably
If Selected
you look
closely at an inchworm, the first thing you see is that it doesn’t have any
complex text* for grade 3 and are selected
legs in the center of its body. When it walks along a twig, it pulls the back part of its body
using qualitative and quantitative features, as
up near the front part, making a hump in the middle. Then it holds
well as Appendix B as guides.
onto the The
twig
with its back legs and pushes the front part ahead. It
texts include academic language*
holds onto
the surface with its front legs, lets go with its back legs,
encompassed by complex text and reward
Inchworm
and humps
up close
its middle
When an inchworm goes out for a
careful,
reading again.
to elicit specific
walk, it looks
likefollowed
it is “inching”
along,
information
by opportunities
to or measuring the surface on
which it apply
walks.
This is how
itreading.
got its name.
understanding
of the
* indicates
instructional
shift are just a few examples of creatures with weird ways of
The animals
youanread
about
walking. The way in which animals move is an important factor in how they are able to
survive.
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GRADE 3 INFORMATIVE TASK
STRANGE STEPS
DIRECTIONS
Selected Response and Constructed
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Your class is beginning a science unit on various animals.
Response Questions:
Read the texts Too Many Legs and Weird Walkers.
Students are required to closely read the
Answer the questions that follow using your answer sheet.accompanying texts in order to identify
Plan and write an informational essay that explains the unusual
number
of legs
somethe Selected
supporting
evidence
for both
animals have and how they use them.
Response and Constructed Response
When you finish, revise and edit your essay.
questions. These questions lead students
toward, and help prepare them for the fullwrite performance task.
PART 1: QUESTIONS
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You will receive scores for each question, and the questions will help you prepare for your essay. Use
your answer sheet to write your responses.
1. Explain why both articles help you understand the unusual number of legs some animals have and
how they use them. Use details from the sources to support your answer.
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2. Which source is most useful for finding information about how some animals’ legs help them do
unusual things?
A) The article Too Many Legs
B) The article Weird Walkers
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C) The pictures from Too Many Legs
D) The pictures from Weird Walkers
3. List two important facts or ideas which can be found in the article Weird Walkers but are not in
Too Many Legs. Use details from the sources to support your answer.
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PART 2: ESSAY
Your class will be studying various animals in science class. Each student in class will study one
topic. For your assignment, write an informational essay that explains the unusual number of
legs some animals have and how they use them. Include details from both articles to support
Full-Write Performance Task:
your essay.
Students are asked to write an
Remember to:
Introduce the topic
Group ideas together in paragraphs
Use facts, definitions, and details from the articles
Use words to link ideas
Include a conclusion
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informational essay that explains
the unusual number of legs some
animals have and how they use
them. The essay is developed by
providing textual evidence from
sources* and following the
conventions of Standard English.
* indicates an instructional shift
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Responses elicit
evidence that
students
understand the text they
have read and can
communicate effectively
through informational
elaboration and knowledge
HOW YOUR ESSAY WILL BE SCORED
of language and
Statement of Purpose / Focus and Organization– clearly stating andconventions.
maintaining a main idea or
Manage your time carefully so that you can:
plan your essay
write your essay
revise and edit for a final draft
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controlling idea; ensuring that ideas move logically from the introduction to the conclusion; using
effective transitions; staying on topic throughout
Elaboration of Evidence – providing evidence from sources about your topic; elaborating with
specific information from the sources; expressing ideas using precise language
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Conventions – following the rules of usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
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