Speaking and Listening Standards (Grade 3)
These standards appear in classroom tasks and support the reading and writing sections: students must follow a discussion, pull the main idea from something read aloud, ask useful questions, and report with facts and descriptive details. Grade 3 work moves from 'I think' to 'I think this because the speaker said...'.
Core rules
- Discussions: Come prepared, follow agreed rules, build on another speaker's idea, and ask a question to check understanding.
- Listening to a text: Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in media.
- Reporting: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
- Sentences: Speak in complete sentences when the task calls for formal talk.
Worked example
A teacher reads aloud: 'Beavers build dams across streams. The dam slows the water and creates a pond. In the pond, beavers build a lodge that keeps them safe from predators.' Question: What is the main idea? 'Beavers build dams' is only the topic. The main idea is 'Beaver building changes a stream into a safe home,' because it covers both the dam and the lodge. The word 'predators' supports safety but is a detail, not the main idea by itself.
Traps
Giving the topic instead of the main idea; retelling every detail; speaking in fragments during a report; asking a question that was already answered; adding facts the speaker did not give; confusing a comment with a question.