Central Ideas and Summaries: Starting Task

Looking for Shade

This passage describes an invented setting and events.

At the invented Alder School, a group wanted to find shady places for an outdoor reading time. On Tuesday they marked the shade they saw at noon on a yard sketch. The next morning, they noticed that some of those same places were sunny. They decided to record the time beside each shaded area instead of treating one sketch as a guide for the entire day. For three days, they made a morning sketch and a noon sketch. The sketches showed a shaded corner near the wall in the morning and a shaded place beside the trees at noon. The group could now choose a place for each of those two reading times. Their records did not show which places would be shady late in the afternoon, so they planned another observation before choosing an afternoon place.

Read or listen to the whole passage. You may look back at it. Work before discussing answers. Use your own wording; exact words from a title or a useful term are fine. A short accurate answer is better than adding a claim the passage does not support.

Teacher: save the different follow-up and transfer texts until their intended use.

1

Central Ideas and Summaries: Starting Task

Your response

1. Name the topic in a short phrase.

2. State an important point developed across the passage in one complete sentence.

3. Choose two accurate details that help explain that point. Tell why each matters.

4. Combine the point and at least two relevant details into a concise, objective summary of 2–3 sentences. Preserve important limits; do not add your opinion.

You may use extra paper or the agreed way to communicate your response.

2