ELA.3.C.1.5 3.11.b

Structure and Development 3rd Grade

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 3.11.b
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by: (i) organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction and a conclusion; and (ii) developing an engaging idea with relevant details;
Florida - Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking: ELA.3.C.1.5
Improve writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing with guidance and support from adults and feedback from peers.

Structure & Development

Good writing is structured, or organized according to a plan. It is also well developed, with enough relevant details and examples to build upon the topic.

Writing should have an INTRODUCTION, supporting DETAILS, and a CONCLUSION.

An INTRODUCTION is the beginning of a piece of writing. It introduces the topic to the reader.

Supporting DETAILS are the facts and examples that build the topic. They should all be directly related to the topic.

A CONCLUSION is the end of a piece of writing. It wraps everything up. It may restate the topic sentence from the introduction in a different way or briefly summarize the information in the text.

Gentle Giants

Whale sharks are the biggest sharks, but they are really not scary at all. They can get up to 40 feet long and weigh up to 50,000 pounds. They do have thousands of teeth, but the teeth are very tiny and not used for eating. Whale sharks only eat tiny sea creatures called plankton. They filter the plankton through pads in their mouths. So whale sharks have no reason to bite, and they are no threat to humans at all. Some people even go swimming with whale sharks. The sharks don’t even seem to mind people holding on to their fins for a ride. Whale sharks really are gentle giants of the sea!

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Go to the next page to practice working with structure and development.

Structure and Development

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS): 3.11.b

develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:
(i) organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction and a conclusion; and

(ii) developing an engaging idea with relevant details;

Florida - Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking: ELA.3.C.1.5

Improve writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing with guidance and support from adults and feedback from peers.