Reading and Writing Achievement Standards Curriculum

Overview: Reading Achievement Standards
The reading achievement standards include three components to be considered when
assessing students’ independent interactions with text. The three components are
identified as:
Text Complexity – characteristics of fiction/nonfiction (information) texts
Reading Strategies and Behaviours – learning behaviours students should exhibit
when reading texts independently
Comprehension Responses – literal, inferential/interpretive, and
personal/critical/evaluative responses to texts
Exemplars (samples) of comprehension questions and student responses are provided as a
guide for teachers to use when formulating questions and promoting discussions with any
classroom student texts. The student exemplars were collected at the end of May/early
June and include responses to related questions which demonstrate the text complexity and
level of comprehension described in the achievement standards.
Students worked independently to read text and provide written responses to the
comprehension questions. Prior to responding to questions, teachers could remind
students to use processes and strategies they had used throughout the year (e.g., graphic
organizers, comprehension strategy charts displayed in the classroom, highlighters, sticky
notes).
Overview: Writing Achievement Standards
The writing achievement standards make use of common traits of quality writing and
describe what students should be able to demonstrate independently when completing a
piece of writing. The six traits are identified as:
Content/Ideas – overall topic, degree of focus, and related details.
Organization – structure and form, dependent on purpose and audience
Word Choice – vocabulary, language, and phrasing
Voice – evidence of author’s style, personality, and experience
Sentence Structure – variety and complexity of sentences
Conventions – spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and usage (grammar)
The writing achievement standards for each grade level are
clarified through student exemplars. The student exemplars,
with supporting rationale, represent various forms of both
narrative and expository writing. Any information that could
potentially identify a writer has been replaced with fictitious
names. Parental permission was sought to use student writing
as exemplars in the standards documents (entry to grade five).
2 Achievement Standards End of Grade 3