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Your Sixth Sense Is Hiding in Your Muscles

6th grade nonfiction passage about body position sense: 261 words, seven questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade nonfiction body position sense 261 words

Your Sixth Sense Is Hiding in Your Muscles

Ask someone to close both eyes and touch the tip of their nose with a finger. Almost everyone can do it on the first try. Yet with the eyes shut, nothing is telling them where the hand is. How does the brain know?

The answer is a sense that most people have never heard of. It is called proprioception, and it tells you where your body parts are and how they are moving. Tiny sensors sit inside your muscles, in the tough cords called tendons that attach muscle to bone, and around your joints. When a muscle stretches or squeezes, its sensors send messages along nerves to the brain. The brain combines thousands of these messages into a steady picture of your whole body, all without you thinking about it.

This quiet sense does more work than you might expect. It lets you walk down a dark hallway without looking at your feet. It lets you reach for a glass of water while your eyes are on a book. It helps a pianist hit the right keys and a basketball player dribble without staring at the ball. Learning a new skill, from riding a bike to tying a shoe, is partly a matter of teaching the brain to read these body signals more smoothly.

Practice matters because the sense can be trained. Balance games, such as standing on one foot, ask the brain to use position signals carefully, and most people improve with repeated tries. Your body has more senses than the usual five, and this is one of the busiest.

Questions

  1. What is the name of the sense that tells you where your body parts are? in the text

  2. Where are the sensors for this sense found? in the text

  3. What are tendons? in the text

  4. How does the brain use the messages from the sensors? in the text

  5. Why can you reach for a glass of water while looking at a book? think about it

  6. Why is learning to tie a shoe partly about this sense? think about it

  7. Why might standing on one foot help improve this sense? think about it

Words to know

proprioception
the sense of where your body parts are and how they move
tendons
tough cords that join muscles to bones
joints
places where two bones meet and can bend
sensors
tiny parts that notice changes and send messages
steady
not changing or shaking
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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 · 207 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.4

Close both eyes. Now touch the tip of your nose with one finger. Most people can do it on the first try. But with your eyes shut, how does your brain know where your hand is?

The answer is a sense called proprioception. It tells you where your body parts are and how they move. Tiny sensors sit in your muscles. They are also in your tendons, the tough cords that join muscle to bone. And they are around your joints. When a muscle stretches or squeezes, the sensors send a message to the brain. The brain puts all the messages together. It makes a picture of your whole body. You do not have to think about it.

This sense does a lot of work. It lets you walk down a dark hall. It lets you grab a glass of water while you look at a book. It helps a pianist hit the right keys. When you learn to ride a bike or tie a shoe, your brain is learning to read these body signals.

You can train this sense. Standing on one foot is good practice. Most people get better with tries. Your body has more than five senses, and this is one of the busiest.

▲ This passage · 261 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.2

Ask someone to close both eyes and touch the tip of their nose with a finger. Almost everyone can do it on the first try. Yet with the eyes shut, nothing is telling them where the hand is. How does the brain know?

The answer is a sense that most people have never heard of. It is called proprioception, and it tells you where your body parts are and how they are moving. Tiny sensors sit inside your muscles, in the tough cords called tendons that attach muscle to bone, and around your joints. When a muscle stretches or squeezes, its sensors send messages along nerves to the brain. The brain combines thousands of these messages into a steady picture of your whole body, all without you thinking about it.

This quiet sense does more work than you might expect. It lets you walk down a dark hallway without looking at your feet. It lets you reach for a glass of water while your eyes are on a book. It helps a pianist hit the right keys and a basketball player dribble without staring at the ball. Learning a new skill, from riding a bike to tying a shoe, is partly a matter of teaching the brain to read these body signals more smoothly.

Practice matters because the sense can be trained. Balance games, such as standing on one foot, ask the brain to use position signals carefully, and most people improve with repeated tries. Your body has more senses than the usual five, and this is one of the busiest.

■ Harder · 281 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.9

Invite a friend to shut both eyes and touch the tip of a nose with a single finger. Nearly everyone succeeds on the first attempt. Yet with the eyes closed, nothing visible is reporting where the hand is located. How, then, does the brain know?

The explanation is a sense that many people have never even heard of. It is called proprioception, and it informs you of the position of your body parts and the way they are moving. Microscopic sensors are embedded in your muscles, in the tough cords known as tendons that fasten muscle to bone, and around your joints. Whenever a muscle stretches or contracts, its sensors dispatch messages along nerves to the brain. The brain merges thousands of these messages into a continuous, steady picture of your entire body, and it accomplishes this without any conscious effort on your part.

This unobtrusive sense performs more work than you might expect. It allows you to walk down a dark hallway without glancing at your feet, and to reach for a glass of water while your eyes remain fixed on a book. It guides a pianist toward the correct keys and enables a basketball player to dribble without staring at the ball. Mastering a new skill, from riding a bicycle to tying a shoe, is partly a matter of teaching the brain to interpret these body signals more smoothly.

Practice makes a difference because the sense can be trained. Balance activities, such as standing on one foot, require the brain to use position signals carefully, and most people improve with repeated attempts. Your body possesses more senses than the familiar five, and this is among the busiest of them.

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 proprioception, tendons, joints, sensors and steady 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 3 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 "Your Sixth Sense Is Hiding in Your Muscles"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 261 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.2. 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 seven. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 3 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 3 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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