What are paired passages? I’m so glad you asked! Paired passages are two texts about the same topic. First, students read the passages independently. Then, students use their reading skills to analyze the passages together. Using paired passages is an important skill in third grade. They often show up in tests, and being able to compare two informational texts is a really important skill when conducting scientific research.

Text: How to Use Paired Passages During 3rd Grade Science

Image: Text is displayed over an image of four children reading a book while laying on the grass.

Paired passages are often used in a literacy lesson, which is a great place to start! But I’m a big believer in integrated learning. Students shouldn’t only be using paired passages in literacy lessons. They need to know how to read two texts and use their key reading skills in scientific settings as well. So let’s dive into how to use paired passages in third grade.

Pick the Passages

These paired passages all about Fossils come from the integrated reading and science unit “Fossils”.

The first step is choosing paired passages that go with your current science standards. If you’re learning about fossils, pick two passages that look at fossils! Maybe you want students to learn about dinosaur bones and dinosaur fossils, so you find passages about how paleontologists find bones and fossils. If you’re studying life cycles of ocean fish you may find a passage about fish that live in coral reefs and another passage about fish that live in the trenches. Or maybe you want to teach students about cause and effect, so you pick a passage about garbage in coral reefs and a passage about how straws affect turtles.

Give it a try for free! The ‘engineering design process’ is a scientific standard for second, third and fourth grades and this set of paired passages addresses two famous bridges: The Golden Gate Bridge and the Sidney Harbour Bridge.

Annotate the Passages

After picking the texts, it’s time to read them with students and teach them how to interact with the text. Have students annotate the passages. I like to teach students how to locate important information and then use a highlighter. Teach them how to pick out key words and phrases, instead of highlighting huge chunks of text. Teach students how to find similar information in the paired passages.

For example, if they are trying to identify features of fish, they shouldn’t be underlining information about coral reefs. They should only be highlighting the information about features of fish.

Focus on a Key Reading Skill

It can be overwhelming when you first start teaching students about paired passages, so focus on one key reading skill at a time. Reading skills aren’t just for literacy lessons… they can be integrated into other subjects as well, including science! It’s important that students learn to compare/contrast, understand cause and effect, and know the difference between fact and opinion. But don’t feel any pressure to teach ALL these skills with the same paired passages.

Focus on one reading skill at a time so students can practice effectively.

If you’re looking for some third grade pair science texts to get you started, I have several available in my shop (links to resources). These are a great place to start as you continue on your journey of teaching reading skills while using paired texts. 

Once you start using paired passages in science, you’ll never want to go back to only using them in literacy lessons.

Integrate Your Reading and Science!

Looking for a FAST way to plan out an integrated reading and science unit that already includes paired passages? In just a few clicks you can grab all of the pieces you need: lesson plans, paired passages, reading comprehension, key reading skills, and a hands-on science extension. Click and print. Planning is really that easy.

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I don’t know about you, but my classroom always seems to be short on time. Traditional classroom schedules have always taught each subject separately: math, reading, writing, science… all done in their own blocks. But we know that integrated learning is such an effective way to teach learning targets at once. Integrated learning blends subjects together, teaching more than one at the same time… and I am a HUGE fan of integrating science and reading, especially in 3rd grade.

Why is reading important in science?

So much of science involves carefully examining informational text. Scientists do extensive research on a topic in order to determine if the topic is worth further investigation. They pour through books to glean information and make predictions, to further their understanding of a topic, to form hypotheses and research proposals. They read other scientists’ research to learn more.

Reading truly is an essential part of science. It’s an important skill for research. And it’s our job to help students learn how to do this accurately. We can teach them how to gather information. What kinds of information to look for. How to understand the information.

Teach Students to Examine Informational Text

First, we need to teach students how to look at informational texts. There are so many genres out there. We need to teach students how to navigate these. Students need to read informational texts differently than fantasy texts. They need to read fiction texts differently than nonfiction texts.

So, first and foremost, we should tell our students how to identify these texts.

From there, give students some informational text and help your students to take a closer look at it. What do they notice about the pictures? What do they notice about the vocabulary?  Read the text through together and have students make connections to things they might have experienced in their lives. For example, if you are reading about fossils, have students discuss what they know about fossils before reading. Then afterwards, have them reflect on if the information they shared is accurate or not.

Reading informational text often includes looking at the text features: headings, subheadings, bolded words, pictures, diagrams and more. The text features in a piece of informational text can give us important information as well! When we are looking at informational text I try to stop and point out what I’m seeing in each text feature.

“The title of this page is ‘Digging Up Dinosaurs’ I wonder what that tells us about what we are going to read.” “What can we see in this picture? What new information can it tell us?”

Modelling our thinking, out loud, is an important part of teaching students to read informational text.

Apply Reading Skills to Science

While reading informational science texts, make sure to apply reading skills. There are several things you could do. Throw in some comprehension questions. Have students underline new vocabulary words and find the definitions. Have students sequence events from the informational text. Distinguish facts from opinions in a text. Compare and contrast similar information.

I can’t wait to share more about how I integrate reading and science in third grade. It’s saved me so much time, and I know it can make an impact in your classroom.

If you’re ready to give it a try now, take a peek at Reading into Science, my brand new resource line that integrates close reading with engaging STEM extensions! You can check out the first lesson for FREE.

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Text: How to teach Reading and Science together!

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Trying to fit in daily time to read the Bible can be tricky in grade three, but I feel that it’s important… especially at a Christian school. My grade three literacy program is part Daily 5, part Literacy Place, part Reading Power, and part 6-Traits. I haven’t ever found one program that completely fits the needs of my students, so I have always borrowed from the best parts of the most quality reading and writing programs on the market. Each day, my students sit for 20-25 minutes of independent, sustained Read to Self time.

In our room, this is treasured time.

My students need the time both to practice their reading, and to have a small amount of time that is calm and quiet. They treasure this time as much as I do, and heaven help us if this block has to be moved for some reason! Most of the time, students can choose to read any book (or magazine, or comic) that they would like as long as it is usually at their level.

read to self time with bibles

However, on Wednesdays, we spend the entire Read to Self block in our Bibles.We are so lucky to have a class set of Bibles that are assigned to each student.We have New International Reader's Version Bibles that are just about perfect for a third-grade reading level.

I think that it is so important to cultivate a classroom culture that places an emphasis on the Word as being important.  Building strong spiritual disciplines starts early, and the Christian classroom is a great place for this.  How can I teach and tell my students that reading their Bibles is important if we are not spending time to do that during class time? How can I talk about how important it is for them to fall in love with God’s Word if I am not setting that example myself?

How to help students navigate their Bibles while they read

Before our time in the Word begins, I stand at the board and help students to navigate their Bibles.They will yell out topics and stories that they want to read about, and I will (to the best of my ability) point them to the Book/Chapter in the Bible that they will head to.

Sure, there are parts of the Bible that they won’t yet be able to understand, and some of it is above their reading level, but that doesn’t mean that they are too young to start the habit of reading from a Bible for enjoyment. 

Spoiler Alert: The boys like the stories about battles, fierce animals, and God showing his POWER!I cannot tell you how full my heart feels during this block. It’s amazing to look around the room and see a class full of students enraptured by the Bible. I love it when students skip up to share something new that they have discovered, or just cannot wait to tell a friend about what they have read.

Even though we only have scheduled “Wednesdays in the Word” so many of my students have begun pulling out their Bibles for Read to Self much more than one day a week. It’s such a joy to watch the Spirit move in our classroom through the hearts and minds of these little ones.

When I first began student teaching, my mentor teacher always used to say that there were three things that must happen each day in an elementary classroom.  First, students need to write something.  Second, students need to actively read something.  Finally, there needs to be a point in each day where the teacher reads out loud to their students.  

No matter how busy or crazy the school day, he always emphasized the importance of reading out loud, and students loved it.

I've carried those three rules into my own classroom, and reading out loud is something that both I, and my students, always look forward to.  I try to pick from a variety of texts as I read out loud: novels, picture books, information texts, silly poems... almost anything!  Here are a few of my favourites books to read out loud: 

The Book With No Pictures (by B.J. Novak)

This book is one of the silliest read alouds I have ever purchased, but even after reading it a dozen times (no exaggeration) my students are still begging me to read it "just one more time."  Make sure that you're ready to be a little bit goofy, and play along with the story in the book! 

My Mouth is a Volcano (by Julia Cook)

This one is my favourite "teaching" books.  It has a lesson, and my third graders find it easy to connect to the story.  In My Mouth is a Volcano, the main character has difficulty with 'blurting' his thoughts and answers during class, and finds help in visualizing his words as a volcano erupting!  I have a class of excited 'blurters' this year, and it's been great to find a book that helps us to see how blurting may hurt other classmates' chance at sharing their ideas. 

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (by Chris Grabenstein)

This book is a few levels above my third grade students, but I read it aloud for a class novel study.  It's a great book and has about a hundred chances to make text-to-text connections while you read! It follows the adventures of a group of seventh grade students as they explore (and escape from!) a brand new library designed by an eccentric master game maker.  Think The Amazing Race meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Note:  The first quarter of the book is a little bit slow, and introduces a lot of smaller characters, but stick with it, it gets a lot better! 

How about you? What is your class reading right now? What inspires you as a teacher?

- Rachel

*All images of books are from Amazon.com