3rd-Grade ELA Assignment

Third-grade students read a grade-appropriate text about animal migration, then use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the migratory journeys of whales and locusts. This assignment exposes students to a worthwhile non-fiction text, but the task does not require students to engage in a grade-appropriate analysis of time, sequence, and cause and effect within the text. Students are not required to develop a deep understanding of the information presented in the text in order to complete the task.   

This assignment is partially aligned because the text is strong, but the task is not:

The assignment exposes students to a grade-appropriate, worthwhile text. The text contains useful information about the migratory journeys of six different animals (locusts, gray whales, American silver eels, monarch butterflies, caribou, and terns) and complex vocabulary (e.g., words like “migrate,” “profound” and “survival”). The text is written in poetic prose and includes vibrant illustrations of the different animals.

The assignment requires students to consider the relationship between two scientific ideas but does not ask students to describe that relationship orally or in writing. Students are required to use a Venn diagram to explore the migratory journeys of whales and locusts, but do not have the opportunity to describe that relationship using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

The task could be stronger if students were asked to write an informational piece using evidence from the text after completing the Venn diagram. Students could be asked to compare the migratory journeys of animals in writing and integrate definitions and details from the text. However, as a stand-alone assignment, the Venn diagram does not reflect the demands of the grade-level standards.