Unit Plan 4 (Grade 3 ELA): Building a Small-Moment Narrative

Grade Level: 3

Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language)

Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session

I. Introduction

This week teaches students to zoom in on a personal “small moment” and craft a clear beginning–middle–end narrative. Learners establish a situation and introduce a narrator/characters, develop the moment with actions, thoughts, feelings, and brief dialogue, use temporal words to signal order, and provide a satisfying sense of closure. Daily fluency work uses short narrative prose to build phrasing and expression. By Friday, students publish a revised paragraph-length narrative and demonstrate one-minute expressive reading.

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…

1. Select a small, focused personal moment and plan a clear B–M–E.
2. Establish the situation and introduce narrator/characters; set the scene (W.3.3a).
3. Develop the moment with actions, thoughts, feelings, and brief dialogue; use temporal words to signal event order (W.3.3b, W.3.3c).
4. Provide a logical closure that reflects on or wraps up the moment (W.3.3d).
5. Apply capitalization, punctuation (including dialogue), and spelling conventions (L.3.2).
6. Read narrative text aloud with accuracy, phrasing, and expression (RF.3.4a–c).

Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 3

• Writing: W.3.3a–d
• Language: L.3.2
• Foundational Skills: RF.3.4a–c

Success Criteria — student language

• I can tell the who/where/when of my small moment in the beginning.
• I can show the middle with actions, thoughts, feelings, and a short line of dialogue.
• I can use temporal words (first, then, after, finally) to keep my moment in order.
• I can end with a closure that tells how it ended or what I learned/felt.
• I checked capitals, punctuation (especially for quotes), and spelling.
• When I read aloud, my voice matches the feeling and pauses at punctuation.