Third grade is a benchmark year for kids in the primary grades, and students and teachers alike feel that a bit. There is an age-old saying that until the third grade children learn to read and after the third grade children read to learn. From the fourth grade onwards, the focus shifts from learning abilities to information literacy and knowledge.
Students’ performances in third grade do shed light on their overall academic performances for the future. Students who do well academically in the third grade also largely do well in the higher grades. Third grade is considered to be one of the difficult years for children. It is the first year in which the education testing such as NWEA MAP starts.
The other key issue that differentiates third grade is there is a clear retention or promotion decision on students taken in the third grade. A third grade student has to be able to read at a certain level to be able to move on to the fourth grade. But, at the same time, there is a lot of critique and argument around whether it is fair to force a child who is struggling to read very well to repeat the class. Is that how we want to conduct our education is an important question for discussion! But, waivers are provided on promotions especially due to external circumstances and all third graders are eligible for promotion to the fourth grade, but there is a lot of discussion in the academia around this topic – the counter is if someone is not at a wanted level of reading skills, then it is only going to make them face more difficult challenges in the fourth grade and it wouldn’t be fair to put the student under more pressure and hamper one’s self-esteem and freedom of performance.
Things that parents of third-grade students should do:
- Encourage your children to read daily and summarise it to you
- Post words around the house and have your child read them and use them
- Proactively develop their vocabulary
- Work with them on spellings, vocabulary games, and aptitude.
- Introduce them to audio books and challenge them as much as possible
Especially during this period of K-12 education, schools are recognizing the need to put additional reading and writing interventions, and develop key areas of skills in children for the future. At UnicMinds, we provide the best online reading and writing classes for children of all age groups and especially for the third graders who are appearing for the MAP, CogAT, and other testing. It is important for parents and academicians to be on top of their children’s learning, so students, parents and teachers can all work together to address their goals.
Hope this is useful, thank you.
If you want to learn more about how we can help your child, book a free trial on the website or contact us at [email protected]
Learn about – The Importance of STEM Education, MISA test for students, and Coding for Kids.
