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The Mural

7th grade fiction passage about friendship and community: 331 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

7th grade fiction friendship and community 331 words

The Mural

The wall behind the community center had been blank for as long as Jada could remember. It was long and gray, speckled with old tape and faded flyers. Then, one Saturday in April, the city announced that a mural would be painted there, and that anyone in the neighborhood was welcome to submit a design.

Jada loved to draw, but she kept her sketchbook mostly hidden. At school she sat in the back of the art room and never volunteered her opinions, and she was convinced that her drawings were not good enough for anybody else to see. When her best friend Lena discovered that a contest was being held, she refused to let the matter drop.

"You have to enter," Lena insisted. "Your drawings of the river and the old bridge are the best I have ever seen."

"They are only doodles," Jada mumbled. "Other people will have professional ideas."

"Then do it for the neighborhood," Lena said. "Everybody knows that bridge. You draw what we all see."

For two weeks, Jada worked at her kitchen table late into the night, sketching and erasing and starting over. On the day before the deadline, she nearly threw the whole thing away. But Lena stopped by with a bag of markers and sat beside her until the final line was inked.

A month later, the judges announced their decision. When Jada heard her name, her face burned with surprise. Over the summer, volunteers of all ages helped her paint the wall, with the river curving across it and the bridge standing proudly in the middle. Neighbors brought lemonade and stayed to chat about their memories of the old bridge.

On the day the mural was finished, Jada stood back and studied it for a long time. For the first time, her art was not hidden in a notebook. It belonged to everyone around her, and she realized that sharing it had made her braver than she had ever believed she could be.

Questions

  1. What did the city announce one Saturday in April? in the text

  2. Why did Jada keep her sketchbook mostly hidden? in the text

  3. How did Lena help Jada? in the text

  4. Why did Lena say, "You draw what we all see"? think about it

  5. What is the theme, or main message, of the story? think about it

Words to know

mural
a large painting made right on a wall
speckled
covered with small spots
doodle
a quick drawing made without much planning
deadline
the time by which something must be finished
volunteer
a person who helps without being paid

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 mural, speckled, doodle, deadline and volunteer 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 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 4 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 "The Mural"?

It was written for 7th grade. It has 331 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.3. 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 five. 3 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 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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