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Three Ideas for One Tide Pool Poster

6th grade fiction passage about a group project that stalls: 239 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade fiction a group project that stalls 239 words

Three Ideas for One Tide Pool Poster

Ms. Okoro gave the group one big sheet of poster board and one rule: the whole team had to agree. The topic was tide pools. Unfortunately, Jonas, Mei, and Kofi had three different ideas about how to make it.

Jonas wanted every fact he knew, written in tiny, neat letters. Mei wanted huge colorful drawings of sea stars and hermit crabs, with almost no words. Kofi wanted a lift-the-flap game where readers guessed which animal was hiding in each pool.

They argued through all of Monday. By Tuesday, each of them had started a separate corner of the poster, and the corners did not match. Jonas's looked like a page of a textbook. Mei's looked like a comic. Kofi's was mostly flaps.

Then Mei noticed something. "People walking past would stop at my pictures," she said slowly. "But they'd stay for Jonas's facts. And Kofi's flaps would make them touch it."

"So we need all three," Jonas admitted.

They cut the board into one picture zone, one fact zone, and one game zone, and joined them with a wavy blue border that looked like the edge of the sea. Mei drew the animals, Jonas wrote a short fact under each, and Kofi made a flap that asked, "Who clings to rocks when the waves come?"

When Ms. Okoro walked by on Friday, the poster had a crowd. "Nobody sat in a corner," she said, "and everybody noticed."

Questions

  1. What was the one rule Ms. Okoro gave the group? in the text

  2. What did Mei want to put on the poster? in the text

  3. What was Kofi's idea? in the text

  4. What joined the three zones together? in the text

  5. Why did the corners of the poster not match on Tuesday? think about it

  6. What did Mei realize that helped the team? think about it

Words to know

tide pool
a small pool of seawater left among rocks when the tide goes out
argued
talked in an angry way because of different opinions
separate
apart from the others
border
a strip along the edge of something
clings
holds on tightly
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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 · 223 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.7

Ms. Okoro gave the group one big sheet of poster board and one rule: the whole team had to agree. The topic was tide pools. But Jonas, Mei, and Kofi had three different ideas.

Jonas wanted every fact he knew, in tiny neat letters. Mei wanted huge colorful drawings of sea stars and hermit crabs, with almost no words. Kofi wanted a lift-the-flap game where readers guessed which animal was hiding in each pool.

They argued all day Monday. By Tuesday, each of them had started a separate corner. The corners did not match. Jonas's looked like a textbook. Mei's looked like a comic. Kofi's was mostly flaps.

Then Mei noticed something. "People walking by would stop at my pictures," she said slowly. "But they would stay for Jonas's facts. And Kofi's flaps would make them touch it."

"So we need all three," Jonas said.

They cut the board into a picture zone, a fact zone, and a game zone. They joined them with a wavy blue border, like the edge of the sea. Mei drew the animals. Jonas wrote a short fact under each. Kofi made a flap that asked, "Who clings to rocks when the waves come?"

On Friday, Ms. Okoro walked by. A crowd stood at the poster. "Nobody sat in a corner," she said, "and everybody noticed."

▲ This passage · 239 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.1

Ms. Okoro gave the group one big sheet of poster board and one rule: the whole team had to agree. The topic was tide pools. Unfortunately, Jonas, Mei, and Kofi had three different ideas about how to make it.

Jonas wanted every fact he knew, written in tiny, neat letters. Mei wanted huge colorful drawings of sea stars and hermit crabs, with almost no words. Kofi wanted a lift-the-flap game where readers guessed which animal was hiding in each pool.

They argued through all of Monday. By Tuesday, each of them had started a separate corner of the poster, and the corners did not match. Jonas's looked like a page of a textbook. Mei's looked like a comic. Kofi's was mostly flaps.

Then Mei noticed something. "People walking past would stop at my pictures," she said slowly. "But they'd stay for Jonas's facts. And Kofi's flaps would make them touch it."

"So we need all three," Jonas admitted.

They cut the board into one picture zone, one fact zone, and one game zone, and joined them with a wavy blue border that looked like the edge of the sea. Mei drew the animals, Jonas wrote a short fact under each, and Kofi made a flap that asked, "Who clings to rocks when the waves come?"

When Ms. Okoro walked by on Friday, the poster had a crowd. "Nobody sat in a corner," she said, "and everybody noticed."

■ Harder · 264 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.2

Ms. Okoro handed the group one enormous sheet of poster board and a single condition: the whole team had to agree on every choice. Their topic was tide pools. Unfortunately, Jonas, Mei, and Kofi each held a completely different vision of how the poster should look.

Jonas wanted to include every fact he knew, written in tiny, tidy letters. Mei wanted huge, colorful drawings of sea stars and hermit crabs, with almost no words at all. Kofi wanted a lift-the-flap game in which readers guessed which animal was hiding in each pool.

They argued for the whole of Monday. By Tuesday, each of them had started a separate corner of the poster, and the three corners clashed. Jonas's looked like a page torn from a textbook. Mei's looked like a comic strip. Kofi's was mostly flaps.

Then Mei noticed something important. "People walking past would stop to look at my pictures," she said slowly. "But they would stay for Jonas's facts. And Kofi's flaps would make them reach out and touch it."

"So we need all three," Jonas admitted.

They divided the board into one picture zone, one fact zone, and one game zone, and they connected the sections with a wavy blue border that resembled the edge of the sea. Mei drew the animals, Jonas wrote a short fact beneath each one, and Kofi built a flap that asked, "Who clings to rocks when the waves come?"

When Ms. Okoro strolled by on Friday, a crowd had gathered around the poster. "Nobody sat in a corner," she observed, "and everybody noticed."

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 tide pool, argued, separate, border and clings 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 "Three Ideas for One Tide Pool Poster"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 239 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 5.1. 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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