OST ELA Grade 3 cheat sheet

Story elements: characters (who acts), setting (where and when), plot (what happens), problem (the conflict), solution (how the conflict is resolved).

Retelling rule: state events in the order they happen in the text, using time-order words such as first, next, then, finally.

Character traits are inferred from what a character says, does, thinks, and how others treat them; feelings can change from the beginning to the end of a story.

Central message or lesson is a statement about life or behavior, such as "Hard work pays off"; a topic is only a word or phrase, such as "hard work."

Literal vs. nonliteral: "It is raining cats and dogs" is nonliteral; the literal meaning is that it is raining very hard.

A narrator who is a character uses I and we (first person); a narrator outside the story uses he, she, and they (third person).

Illustrations and words in a story work together; a detail shown only in the picture can support an answer about setting or character.

Chapter sequence: events in one chapter cause events in the next, so a cause-and-effect question often links two chapters.

Main idea is what the whole text is mostly about; a key detail supports or explains the main idea and never covers the whole text alone.

Text features and their jobs: heading (names a section topic), caption (explains a picture), bold word (signals an important term), glossary (defines terms), index (gives page numbers for topics).

Time-order words (first, before, after, during) signal sequence; cause-and-effect words (because, so, as a result) signal why something happened.

Comparison text structure uses words such as both, alike, unlike, and in contrast; description structure lists features of one topic without comparing.

An author's point of view is what the author thinks or wants readers to believe; reasons are the statements that support it, and evidence is the fact or example behind a reason.

Two texts on the same topic can differ in which facts they include, in focus, and in the author's purpose (to inform, to explain how, or to persuade).

A diagram or map carries information the sentences may not state, so answers can come from the graphic alone.

Steps in a procedure must be followed in the stated order; a missing step usually changes the result.

Opinion writing structure: state an opinion, give at least two reasons, support each reason with evidence or an example, then restate the opinion in a concluding statement.

Informative writing structure: name the topic, group related facts into sections or paragraphs, use linking words (also, another, for example), and end with a concluding sentence.

Narrative writing structure: establish characters and setting, use a sequence of events with dialogue and descriptive details, show the characters' actions and feelings, and provide a sense of closure.

Linking words by purpose: also and another add ideas; because and since show cause; but and however show contrast; for example introduces evidence; finally signals the end.

Planning rule: choose a narrow topic, list facts or events, and group related ideas before drafting; a broad topic produces a list instead of a paragraph.

Revision changes ideas and organization (adding reasons, reordering events); editing corrects conventions (spelling, capitals, punctuation).

A complete sentence needs a subject and a predicate; a sentence fragment is missing one of them, and a run-on joins two sentences without correct punctuation.

When writing from sources, use your own words for facts and avoid copying whole sentences from the text.

Regular plurals add -s or -es (box to boxes, story to stories); irregular plurals change form (child to children, mouse to mice, foot to feet).

Regular past tense adds -ed (jump to jumped); irregular verbs change form (go to went, see to saw, run to ran, eat to ate).

Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a verb with -s in the present tense (the dog runs); a plural subject does not (the dogs run).

Pronoun agreement: a singular noun takes he, she, or it; a plural noun takes they; a singular subject never takes "they" in formal written English.

Capitalize proper nouns (names of people, places, days, months, holidays, book titles) but not common nouns; capitalize the first word of a sentence and the pronoun I.

A complete sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark; quotation marks enclose a speaker's exact words.

Prefixes change meaning: un- and non- mean not, re- means again, pre- means before; suffixes change use: -ful means full of, -less means without, -ly turns an adjective into an adverb.

A dictionary entry gives the word, pronunciation, part of speech, and meanings; a thesaurus lists synonyms (similar meaning) and antonyms (opposite meaning).

Possessive forms: singular nouns add an apostrophe and s (the girl's coat); plural nouns ending in s add only an apostrophe (the girls' coats).