The Well That Breathed: read-along
The Well That Breathed as a read-along for the projector: 17 pages, 1982 words, level 12, grade 7.
Page 1 of 17
Cora Hale arrived at her grandmother's farm on the last Sunday in August, in the driest summer that anybody on the hill could remember. The grass along the lane had faded to the color of straw, and the pond in the bottom field had shrunk to a brown eye ringed with cracked mud. Only the poplars looked untroubled, sixty of them in a single line along the lane, planted by her great-great-grandfather as a windbreak. Gran met her at the gate, kissed her once on the forehead, and announced that the well was haunted, or possibly just broken, in exactly the voice she might have used to say that supper was at six.
Keys: ← → or Page Up and Page Down turn the page, Space starts and pauses the voice, Home and End jump, F fills the screen. Tapping the right side of a page goes on; the left side goes back.
How to use it
- Press Full screen (F) to put the book on the projector.
- Press Read to me (Space), or read it yourself and turn pages with the arrow keys or a tap. Pick the Pace that suits the class.
- After the last page, three questions come up to talk about.
About this book
- Level 12, Grade 7
- 17 pages, 1982 words, about 15 minutes aloud
- A story, a little spooky
Related
About The Well That Breathed
Something is breathing at night in the old well at Gran's farm, and every afternoon it runs dry. With a knotted string, a seed catalogue and a neighbor who swears it's a ghost, Cora hunts down the truth before the well man's drill arrives.
Words to preview
- windbreak (WIND-brayk)
- row of trees
- hypothesis (hy-POTH-uh-sis)
- testable guess
- vapor (VAY-per)
- invisible water mist
- trough (TRAWF)
- animal water tub
- haunted (HAWN-ted)
- full of ghosts
Questions that fit any book
- What happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end?
- Which page was your favorite? Why?
- How did the main character feel at the end? What tells you?
Questions
How long does The Well That Breathed take to read aloud?
It has 17 pages and 1982 words, so about 15 minutes at the Steady pace and a little less at Quick. If you stop to talk on the way, plan for more.
What reading level is The Well That Breathed?
Level 12, Grade 7. The library numbers its levels from 0 to 18 and puts the level of a book on its cover; level 12 sits at grade 7. A level is a guide for choosing, so look at the pages yourself.
Whose voice is it?
Your browser's own. Read to me uses a speaking voice already on the computer, so it sounds like that computer and works without a sign-in. Voices differ: some light each word as it is spoken, and some do not, in which case the highlight follows a steady pace instead. Some browsers use an online voice; if yours does, the browser, not us, sends the words of the page to its speech service. If no voice is installed, turn the pages and read it aloud yourself.
Do students need an account?
No. Nothing is asked of anyone and nothing is sent to us. Project the page, or share the link and let students open it on their own screens.
Where does this book come from?
It was written for Peabody's library. It is not copied from a published book.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. The voice is your browser's own. No sign-in, no ads.