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Timbuktu and Its Handwritten Libraries

6th grade nonfiction passage about timbuktu manuscripts: 196 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade nonfiction timbuktu manuscripts 196 words

Timbuktu and Its Handwritten Libraries

Timbuktu is a city in the African country of Mali, on the edge of the Sahara desert. Long ago it was a busy crossroads where traders met. Caravans of camels carried salt across the desert. Merchants brought gold and grain from the south. Where goods travel, ideas travel too. Timbuktu became famous for learning.

Hundreds of years ago, scholars and students gathered in the city. There were no printing presses, so every book had to be copied by hand. Skilled scribes wrote on paper brought from far away. They used ink made from natural materials, and some pages were decorated with bright colors. The books covered mathematics, medicine, astronomy, history, law, and poetry.

Families treasured these manuscripts. Many were kept in private homes and passed down from parents to children. Today, many thousands of them survive. Because old paper is fragile, workers repair the pages, take photographs of them, and store them in special boxes to protect them from dust and damp.

Historians read the manuscripts to learn how people in West Africa studied the stars, treated illness, and solved problems long ago. Each page is a window into the minds of scholars of long ago.

Questions

  1. Where is Timbuktu? in the text

  2. What did the camel caravans carry across the desert? in the text

  3. Why did scribes copy books by hand? in the text

  4. What are two subjects the manuscripts covered? in the text

  5. Why did a trading crossroads become famous for learning? think about it

  6. Why do workers store the manuscripts in special boxes? think about it

Words to know

caravans
groups of travelers and animals crossing a desert together
scholars
people who study a subject very closely
scribes
people who copied writing by hand
manuscripts
books or papers written by hand
fragile
easy to break or damage
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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 · 171 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.1

Timbuktu is a city in the African country of Mali. It sits at the edge of the Sahara desert. Long ago it was a busy crossroads for traders. Camel caravans carried salt across the desert. Merchants brought gold and grain from the south. Goods traveled, and so did ideas. Timbuktu became famous for learning.

Hundreds of years ago, scholars and students met in the city. There were no printing presses, so books were copied by hand. Scribes wrote on paper brought from far away. They made ink from natural things. Some pages had bright colors. The books were about math, medicine, stars, history, law, and poetry.

Families treasured these manuscripts. Many were kept in homes and passed from parents to children. Many thousands are still here today. Old paper is fragile. So workers repair the pages and take photographs. They keep them in special boxes. The boxes guard against dust and damp.

Historians read the books to learn how people in West Africa studied the stars and treated illness long ago.

▲ This passage · 196 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.1

Timbuktu is a city in the African country of Mali, on the edge of the Sahara desert. Long ago it was a busy crossroads where traders met. Caravans of camels carried salt across the desert. Merchants brought gold and grain from the south. Where goods travel, ideas travel too. Timbuktu became famous for learning.

Hundreds of years ago, scholars and students gathered in the city. There were no printing presses, so every book had to be copied by hand. Skilled scribes wrote on paper brought from far away. They used ink made from natural materials, and some pages were decorated with bright colors. The books covered mathematics, medicine, astronomy, history, law, and poetry.

Families treasured these manuscripts. Many were kept in private homes and passed down from parents to children. Today, many thousands of them survive. Because old paper is fragile, workers repair the pages, take photographs of them, and store them in special boxes to protect them from dust and damp.

Historians read the manuscripts to learn how people in West Africa studied the stars, treated illness, and solved problems long ago. Each page is a window into the minds of scholars of long ago.

■ Harder · 222 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 9.7

Timbuktu is a city in the African country of Mali, located on the southern edge of the vast Sahara desert. In earlier times it was a bustling crossroads where traders from many regions converged. Caravans of camels hauled salt across the desert, and merchants brought gold and grain from the lands to the south. Wherever goods travel, ideas travel as well, and Timbuktu grew renowned as a center of learning.

Hundreds of years ago, scholars and students gathered in the city in great numbers. Since there were no printing presses, every book had to be copied by hand. Skilled scribes wrote on paper that had been carried from distant lands, using ink made from natural materials, and some pages were decorated with brilliant colors. The books covered mathematics, medicine, astronomy, history, law, and poetry.

Families cherished these manuscripts. Many were kept in private homes and handed down from parents to children over generations. Today, many thousands of them survive. Because old paper is so fragile, workers carefully repair the pages, photograph them, and store them in specially made boxes that protect them from dust and damp.

Historians study the manuscripts to discover how people in West Africa examined the stars, treated illness, and solved problems long ago. Every page offers a window into the minds of scholars who lived centuries before us.

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 caravans, scholars, scribes, manuscripts and fragile on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text 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 write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Timbuktu and Its Handwritten Libraries"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 196 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 7.1. 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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