FAST ELA Grade 3 cheat sheet

A story's characters are the people or animals who act; traits are shown by what they say, do, and think.

Setting is where and when a story happens; it can shape a character's choices and problems.

Plot order: exposition (setup), rising action (problem grows), climax (turning point), falling action, resolution.

Conflict is the central problem; it may be character vs. character, self, nature, or society.

Theme is the message about life, stated as a full sentence; it is not the same as the topic.

Narrator point of view: first person uses I/we; third person uses he/she/they and may be limited or omniscient.

Dialogue uses quotation marks around a speaker's exact words, with a new paragraph for each new speaker.

A summary retells main events in order and omits minor details and personal opinions.

Main idea is the most important point of a text; key details support or explain it.

Text features include headings, captions, bold words, diagrams, timelines, and glossaries; each helps locate or explain information.

Cause tells why something happened; effect tells what happened as a result.

Compare means to show similarities; contrast means to show differences.

An author's purpose is usually to inform, explain, persuade, or entertain; the reason shapes word choice.

A fact can be proven; an opinion tells a belief or feeling and often uses words like best, should, or beautiful.

Chronology organizes events by time (first, next, then); problem/solution and cause/effect are other common structures.

When two texts address one topic, compare their main ideas, details, and the evidence each author uses.

Context clues: read the sentence before and after an unknown word for definitions, examples, or contrasts.

A synonym has nearly the same meaning; an antonym has the opposite meaning.

Simile compares two things using like or as; metaphor states one thing is another without like or as.

Personification gives human qualities to nonhuman things, such as a wind that whispers.

Idioms are fixed phrases whose meaning is not literal, such as under the weather meaning ill.

Prefixes change meaning: un- and dis- mean not; re- means again; pre- means before; mis- means wrongly.

Suffixes change meaning or part of speech: -ful means full of; -less means without; -ly often forms an adverb.

A homophone sounds the same but is spelled differently and has a different meaning, such as to, too, and two.

Common text structures: description, sequence/chronology, compare/contrast, cause/effect, and problem/solution.

Signal words reveal structure: because and as a result signal cause/effect; however and unlike signal contrast.

To integrate two texts, identify a shared topic, then note where the texts agree and where they differ.

An author's claim is the point being argued; reasons and evidence are what support it.

Firsthand accounts come from someone who was there; secondhand accounts report events through others.

Graphic features such as charts and tables present data that may repeat or extend the written text.

A text's structure can shift between sections; check each paragraph's signal words rather than assuming one pattern.

Short vowels appear in closed syllables ending in a consonant, as in cat, bed, and hop.

A silent e at the end usually makes the earlier vowel long, as in hop to hope and cap to cape.

Vowel teams such as ai, ee, oa, and ea often spell one long vowel sound.

Consonant digraphs sh, ch, th, and wh spell one sound; blends such as bl, str, and gr keep each sound.

R-controlled vowels ar, or, er, ir, and ur change the vowel sound, as in car, for, and bird.

Syllable types: closed, open (long vowel, as in go), vowel team, silent e, r-controlled, and consonant-le.

Fluency is reading accurately, at a reasonable rate, and with expression; rereading a passage builds all three.

Decoding an unfamiliar word: break it into syllables, apply vowel and digraph rules, then check meaning in context.