"The Turtle" (Ch. 3) from "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, Reading Questions

This is a 2-page reading assessment that has 10 multiple-choice questions and four short-answer questions, as well as the 2-page short story "The Turtle" by John Steinbeck, which is Chapter 3 from Grapes of Wrath. The questions have a mix of in-text and beyond-text questions. (It is in a 2-column format.)

This can be used as an independent reading assessment, a cold read, an emergency lesson plan, or before or after reading a John Steinbeck novel. It can also be used as an assignment to complete after the reading with students referring back to the text while answering the questions.

This short story unit is Common Core aligned and written as a Smarter Balanced assessment that contains selected responses and constructive responses.

There is also a 2-page answer key that goes along with it. The answer key includes possible answers for the short-answer questions, as well.

The documents are in Word and in PDF; therefore, they total 12 pages.

The most common use of this story is as part of a short story unit that includes lecture and discussion.

Finally, if you are in a pinch and need emergency lesson plans, this is an all-inclusive product that will work well for a substitute teacher, especially since the teacher has an answer key with the questions to help guide the teacher in case he or she is not familiar with the story.

Reading Length

The short story is only four paragraphs and around 1,000 words. For the average 7th- and 8th-grader, it should take 5 to 7 minutes to read it. The average 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-grader should take 3 to 5 minutes to read it.

Assessment Time

The average 7th- and 8th-grader will take about 24 minutes to complete the selected response and constructed response assessments. The average 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-grader should complete the entire assessment in about 18 minutes.

Reading and Completing Both Assessments

Reading the short story and completing the entire assessment all at once should take the average 7th- and 8th-grader about 30 minutes. The average 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-grader should take about 22 minutes.

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"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant: Text, Reading Assessment, & Key

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"The Turtle" (Chapter 3) from "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck

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