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Eleven Pennies on the Lock Beam

5th grade fiction passage about coins at a canal lock: 230 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade fiction coins at a canal lock 230 words

Eleven Pennies on the Lock Beam

Ravi spent every summer morning with his uncle, who kept the canal lock at Marsh End. The lock was a stone box full of water with a heavy wooden gate at each end. A boat floated in, the gates closed, and the water rose or fell to lift the boat to the next stretch of canal.

One Monday, Ravi found a penny lying on the long wooden beam of the lower gate. On Tuesday there were three. On Wednesday there were seven. Nobody in town admitted to leaving them.

"Someone is counting something," Ravi said.

He looked for clues. The pennies sat in a neat row, and the beam around them was damp. The winding handle for the gate hung on the wrong hook, and its grip was smeared with canal mud. His uncle always hung it on the left hook.

"Uncle Osei, does anyone work the lock at night?"

"Only the boat crews," said his uncle. "When I am asleep, they wind the gates themselves, and they leave a penny to say thank you."

Then Ravi understood. "One penny for each boat!" On Thursday morning there were eleven, because a crowd of boats had come home from the harbor festival upriver.

Ravi started a tally on the lockhouse wall. At the end of summer, they used the pennies to buy a can of bright green paint for the gates.

Questions

  1. What does a canal lock do for a boat? in the text

  2. Where did Ravi find the first penny? in the text

  3. How many pennies were on the beam on Wednesday? in the text

  4. Who left the pennies, and when? in the text

  5. What clue showed Ravi that someone had worked the gate at night? think about it

  6. Why did the number of pennies grow so much by Thursday? think about it

Words to know

canal
a long channel of water dug for boats
lock
a section of a canal where the water level can be changed
beam
a long, strong piece of wood
crews
the groups of people who work on a boat
tally
a count kept by making marks
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One passage, three levels

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.

● Easier · 217 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.4

Ravi spent every summer morning with his uncle. His uncle kept the canal lock at Marsh End. The lock was a stone box full of water with a big wooden gate at each end. A boat floated in. The gates closed. Then the water rose or fell to lift the boat to the next part of the canal.

One Monday, Ravi found a penny on the long wooden beam of the lower gate. On Tuesday there were three. On Wednesday there were seven. No one in town said they left them.

"Someone is counting something," Ravi said.

He looked for clues. The pennies sat in a neat row. The beam was damp. The winding handle for the gate hung on the wrong hook, and mud was on its grip. His uncle always hung it on the left hook.

"Uncle Osei, does anyone work the lock at night?"

"Only the boat crews," said his uncle. "When I sleep, they wind the gates themselves. They leave a penny to say thank you."

Then Ravi saw it. "One penny for each boat!" On Thursday there were eleven. Many boats had come home from the harbor festival.

Ravi made a tally on the lockhouse wall. At the end of summer, they used the pennies to buy green paint for the gates.

▲ This passage · 230 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.2

Ravi spent every summer morning with his uncle, who kept the canal lock at Marsh End. The lock was a stone box full of water with a heavy wooden gate at each end. A boat floated in, the gates closed, and the water rose or fell to lift the boat to the next stretch of canal.

One Monday, Ravi found a penny lying on the long wooden beam of the lower gate. On Tuesday there were three. On Wednesday there were seven. Nobody in town admitted to leaving them.

"Someone is counting something," Ravi said.

He looked for clues. The pennies sat in a neat row, and the beam around them was damp. The winding handle for the gate hung on the wrong hook, and its grip was smeared with canal mud. His uncle always hung it on the left hook.

"Uncle Osei, does anyone work the lock at night?"

"Only the boat crews," said his uncle. "When I am asleep, they wind the gates themselves, and they leave a penny to say thank you."

Then Ravi understood. "One penny for each boat!" On Thursday morning there were eleven, because a crowd of boats had come home from the harbor festival upriver.

Ravi started a tally on the lockhouse wall. At the end of summer, they used the pennies to buy a can of bright green paint for the gates.

■ Harder · 241 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.1

Ravi spent every summer morning with his uncle, who tended the canal lock at Marsh End. The lock was a stone chamber filled with water, with a massive wooden gate at each end. A boat would drift in, the gates would swing shut, and the water would slowly rise or fall to carry the boat to the next stretch of canal.

One Monday, Ravi discovered a single penny lying on the long wooden beam of the lower gate. On Tuesday there were three. On Wednesday there were seven. Nobody in town would admit to leaving them.

"Someone is counting something," Ravi announced.

He searched for clues. The pennies sat in a tidy row, and the beam around them was damp with dew. The winding handle for the gate hung on the wrong hook, and its grip was smeared with canal mud. His uncle always hung it on the left hook, without fail.

"Uncle Osei, does anyone operate the lock at night?"

"Only the boat crews," his uncle replied. "While I am asleep, they wind the gates themselves, and they leave a penny behind to say thank you."

Suddenly Ravi understood. "One penny for each boat!" By Thursday morning there were eleven, because a whole crowd of boats had come home from the harbor festival upriver.

Ravi began keeping a tally on the lockhouse wall. When summer ended, they spent the pennies on a can of bright green paint for the gates.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put canal, lock, beam, crews and tally on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the story will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to retell the story in three sentences: how it began, what the problem was, and how it ended.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Eleven Pennies on the Lock Beam"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 230 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.2. 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.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 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.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

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.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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