1st grade nonfiction passage about early telephone switchboards: 89 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.
Long ago, you could not dial a friend on the phone. You called an operator first.
An operator sat at a big board full of holes and wires. When you picked up the phone, a light blinked on her board. She said, "Hello, who would you like to call?"
You told her a name. She took a wire and plugged it into the right hole. That joined your phone to your friend's phone. Then you could talk!
An operator helped with every call. Now our phones connect by themselves.
Who did you call first on an old phone? in the text
What did the operator sit at? in the text
What did she plug into the right hole? in the text
What blinked on her board when you picked up the phone? in the text
Why did the operator plug in a wire? think about it
The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.
Long ago, you could not dial a friend on the phone. You called an operator first.
An operator sat at a big board with holes and wires. When you picked up the phone, a light blinked. She said, "Who would you like to call?"
You told her a name. She plugged a wire into the right hole. That joined your phone to your friend's phone. Then you could talk!
Now our phones connect by themselves.
Long ago, you could not dial a friend on the phone. You called an operator first.
An operator sat at a big board full of holes and wires. When you picked up the phone, a light blinked on her board. She said, "Hello, who would you like to call?"
You told her a name. She took a wire and plugged it into the right hole. That joined your phone to your friend's phone. Then you could talk!
An operator helped with every call. Now our phones connect by themselves.
Long ago, you could not simply dial your friend's number on a telephone. First, you had to speak to an operator.
The operator sat in front of an enormous board that was covered with holes and wires. When you picked up your phone, a small light began to blink on her board. She would say, "Hello, who would you like to call?"
After you told her the name, she picked up a wire and plugged it into the correct hole. That joined your phone to your friend's phone, and then the two of you could talk.
Every single call needed an operator's help. Today, our phones connect all by themselves.
It was written for 1st grade. It has 89 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 1.8. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.
There are five. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 1 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.
About 1 minute read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.
Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.
No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.
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