Links

website

The Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts for Grades 3-5 emphasize the need to provide all students with consistent opportunities to confront and comprehend grade-level complex text—through individual reading, through read-alouds, or as a group reading activity. Although this may require extra scaffolding for some students, all students should have an opportunity to engage with complex text as a member of a class.

Characteristics of high-quality reading materials for Grades 3-5:

  • appropriately complex texts
  • contain more sophisticated academic vocabulary
  • lend themselves to more complex tasks
  • able to support rich dialogue
  • well-written and, as appropriate, richly illustrated
  • appeal to students’ interests (“texts of their choice”)
  • wide range of materials on a variety of topics and genres
  • vary in length and density
  • at students’ own reading levels as well as complexity levels that will challenge and motivate students

National Geographic's many award-winning nonfiction materials—from children's books to classroom magazines to interactive digital products—provide upper elementary students with opportunities to practice the foundational reading skills required to achieve fluency and comprehension.
  • Credits

    Media Credits

    The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

    A Project of the

    National Geographic Society Common Core Committee

    Last Updated

    April 3, 2013

  • User Permissions

    For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

    Media

    If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

    Text

    Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

    Interactives

    Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.