A legendary story of supernatural happenings or a narrative that attempts to impart a truth (often through a moral) —especially in stories where animals speak and have human characteristics. A fable can also be about legendary people and their tales.
Folktales: These started as an oral tradition — short stories or legends passed down by word of mouth through the generations. These tales or legends were part of a common group of people or folk, and may include supernatural elements. Folktales generally reflect or validate certain aspects of the culture or group. Fairy tales are a subgenre of folktales.
Key supporting details and ideas: Important details and ideas support the larger ideas the text develops over time and are used to advance the author’s claim(s). Not all details and ideas are equally important, however, so students must learn to identify those that matter the most in the context of the text.
Main idea: The most important or central idea of a paragraph or of a larger part of a text. The main idea tells the reader what the text is about and is what the author wants you to remember most.
Moral: Used in Standard 2, a moral is a lesson that concerns what is the right or the correct thing to do and can be derived or inferred (or in some cases stated literally) from a story—usually a fable.
Myth: A traditional or legendary story, usually with supernatural beings, ancestors, and heroes. These stories serve to explain the worldview of a people by explaining customs, society, or phenomenon of nature. Perhaps the most common are Greek and Roman myths, which have deities and demigods.
Objective summary: Describes key ideas, details, or events in the text and reports them without adding any commentary or outside description; it is similar to an evening “recap” of the news, which attempts to answer the reporter’s essential questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Retelling and recounting stories, including key details: Retelling and recounting involve students giving an oral account of the key details of a story. They typically include an opening statement, key events listed chronologically, and a concluding statement. (Even though “retelling” and “recount” have slightly different meanings, we use them interchangeably throughout this volume.)
Summary: Identifies the key ideas, details, or events in the text and reports them with an emphasis on who did what to whom and when; in other words, the emphasis is on retelling what happened or what the text says with the utmost fidelity to the text itself, thus requiring students to check what they say against what the text says happened.
Themes: The ideas the text explains, develops, and explores; there can be more than one, but themes are what the text is actually about. Themes can be the central message, the lesson, or what the author wants you to come away with. Common themes are survival, good versus evil, showing respect for others, adventure, love and friendship, and so on.
| Planning to Teach: Reading Standard 2 |
Whole Class
Small Group
Individual Practice/Conferring
| Grades 3–5 Common Core Reading Standards | Key Ideas and Details |
Reading 3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Literature
3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
4 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words or actions).
5 Compare and contrast two or more characters, setting, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
Informational Text
3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
4 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
5 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
Source: © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
Grades 3–5 Common Core Reading Standard 3
What the Student Does
Literature
3 Gist: Students reading for the characters describe traits, feelings, and motivations, noting how characters’ actions add to the plot and move along the sequence of events toward the ending.
They consider:
• What is the main character’s most important personality trait?
• What does the main character need or want at the beginning of the story?
• How does the main character try to solve her problem?
• How do the other characters respond?
• What is the sequence of important events in the story?
4 Gist: Students reading for the elements use specific details from the text, such as a character’s thoughts or words or actions, and descriptions of place to describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama.
They consider:
• How does the main character behave at the beginning of the story? Why?
• What bothers her most of all? Which details tell me this in these chapters?
• How does the setting play a role in the story or the characters’ actions?
• Why does the character’s behavior change from the beginning of the story to the end? What has she learned?
• What are the important events that lead up to the resolution?
• How do other characters help the main character or make the problem worse?
5 Gist: Students reading for interactions between characters, settings, or events in a story or drama compare and contrast two or more
