Everett Public Schools
Assessment of Student Learning
Student Packet
Benchmark Reading Assessment
Grade 6
Grading Period 1
“The Ride”
“America’s Best Girl”
“Enjoy Your Journey”
Student:
Date:
Teacher:
Period:
Literary Passage
Directions: Read the following selection and then answer the questions.
The Ride
1
Fear rolled over Keenan’s body in giant waves that made it impossible to breathe, and from a
distance, he could hear frantic voices calling to him. The sharp, bright sun forced him to close his
eyes, and for a moment, he almost forgot where he was.
2
Even climbing a stepladder left Keenan panicky, no matter how irrational that was. He just did not
like heights. His father called it acrophobia, and he and the rest of his family had tried to cure him of
it for years. He had stubbornly resisted all of their attempts to help him. So why, Keenan asked
himself earnestly, was he doing this idiotic thing? Had he lost his mind?
3
Keenan forced himself to open his eyes, but stinging beads of sweat rolled into them, blinding him.
Cautiously, he wiped his face on the sleeve of his t-shirt without releasing his desperate grip on the
metal bar. No matter how hot the metal was, Keenan would not let go of that bar for even an instant.
In front of him was nothing but the vast, empty blueness of the summer sky. Keenan gritted his teeth
and forced himself to look down. Below him, very far below him, he could see his mother’s yellow
sundress. Squinting against the sun for a moment, he saw his mother wave to him.
4
Then the nightmare began.
5
Keenan plunged into nothingness. He was falling, and he knew that nothing would catch him. His
body rose from the hot vinyl seat and bounced against the shining bar that held him in place. With a
sudden roar, the car dropped into a bone-jarring dip and then lurched crazily to the top of another
hill, diving furiously down the other side of it. The roller coaster was like a train gone crazy that sent
him tumbling out of control.
6
Breathing was impossible. Keenan closed his eyes and could hear himself shrieking. Embarrassed,
he closed his mouth abruptly as his car, the first one in the line-up, coasted slowly and peacefully to
a stop.
7
“You made it!” his mother exclaimed jubilantly as Keenan walked unsteadily down the ramp toward
her. “We told you that you could do it!”
8
Keenan stared at the metal hill he had just descended. The very
sight of it terrified him, but at least he could breathe now. He
watched curiously as another group of riders plunged down it,
some raising their arms triumphantly and shouting with joy, others
screaming in fear. His parents and his brothers had convinced him
to face the thing he was afraid of, heights. Keenan had not run
away from his fear. He had overcome it.
9
“Ready to try it again?” demanded his brothers, racing down the
ramp toward him.
10 He looked at his brothers for a moment, and then smiled. His
stomach had settled back into its normal place.
11 Keenan nodded briskly. “Sure,” he replied. “Why not?”
2
Benchmark Reading Assessment
Grade 6 – Grading Period 1
“The Ride”
Fill in the bubble next to the letter of the best answer.
1. Which two objects does the author compare using a simile? [LA05]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
The metal hill and a ramp
A stepladder and the rollercoaster
The metal bar and a yellow sundress
The roller coaster and a train gone crazy
2. Based on the information in the story, what do you predict Keenan will do now that he has ridden the
roller coaster? [LC03]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
He will no longer be afraid to try new adventures.
He will have nightmares remembering his experience on the roller coaster.
He will no longer be teased by his brothers because he successfully rode the roller coaster.
He will have a more positive relationship with his mother.
3. What is the meaning of the word irrational in paragraph 2 of the story? [LC04]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
Unsafe
Logical
Awesome
Unreasonable
4. Which sentence best summarizes the story? [LC02]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
Keenan suffered from acrophobia, a fear of heights.
Keenan faces his fear of heights by riding on a roller coaster.
Keenan’s brothers and parents encouraged him to ride a roller coaster.
Keenan and his family took a family trip that included a roller coaster ride.
5. According to the story, which word best describes Keenan? [LA05]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
Secure
Muscular
Determined
Encouraging
3
6. What is the theme of the story? [LC01]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
Facing your fears takes courage.
Happiness comes from being included as part of a group.
Foolish thoughts are a normal part of growing up.
Family support is essential when trying to overcome fears.
7. Short Answer- 2 pts
In your own words, write a summary of the selection. Include a summarizing statement and three
main events from the story in your summary. [LC02]
4
Informational Passage
Directions: Read the following selection and then answer the questions.
America’s Best Girl
by Tracey E. Fern
1
Stroke. Stroke. Stroke. Gertrude “Trudy”
Ederle was fourteen miles off the coast of
France and seven miles from her goal – the
coast of England. She had been swimming
for eleven hours through frigid water. Rain
pelted down, the tide dragged her backward,
and the salty water had caused her tongue to
swell to twice its normal size.
2
“You must come out!” someone finally
yelled from a nearby tugboat.
3
Trudy raised her head and looked into the
In 1926, Trudy Ederle became the first woman and the
black waves. “What for?” she called back.
fastest person to swim the English Channel.
Trudy knew this was her last, best shot to
become the first woman to swim the English
Channel. She put her head back down. Stroke. Stroke. Stroke.
The Swim of a Lifetime
4
When Trudy stepped into the water on August 6, 1926, few people thought the nineteen-year-old had
a chance of swimming the Channel. Although the narrow sea that separates England from France is
only twenty-one miles wide, the tides are treacherous, the water is bone-chillingly cold, and the
weather is unpredictable. To make matters worse, the Channel was laced with raw sewage, stinging
jellyfish, clinging seaweed, and heavy ship traffic.
5
The Channel was so dangerous that by 1926 only five people in history had been able to swim across
it, and all of them had been men. Most people thought no woman was strong enough to complete
such an arduous swim. “Women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance,
they must remain forever the weaker sex,” a London newspaper had said just one day before Trudy’s
swim. Trudy was determined to prove the skeptics wrong.
Facing the Challenge
6
Trudy was one of the best all-around swimmers in the world. She held eighteen world records and
had won three medals at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.
7
Trudy was used to rough seas, too. At home in New York, she swam for miles in the open ocean
every day during the summer, no matter what the weather. And she had been training in the Channel
for the past three weeks.
5
8
But Trudy had tried to swim the Channel once before. In August of 1925, Trudy had come within
six miles of England. Then she had gotten horribly seasick. Her trainer had to pull her out of the
water.
9
Trudy knew that if she did not make it this time, there was a good chance that her rival, Clare Belle
Barrett, would beat her across the Channel. Clare Barrett had come within a few miles of
completing the swim herself, and was planning to try again soon.
Braving the Rough Seas
10 The sea was a chilly sixty-one degrees Fahrenheit when Trudy waded into the water off Cape Gris-
Nez, France, at 7:09 A.M. She wore a black two-piece bathing suit, a skull cap, heavy goggles, and
eight layers of grease to protect her from the cold. The spectators cheered. Trudy waved and
plunged in.
11 The tug Alsace chugged along beside her carrying a sign that read, “This way, ole kid!” with an
arrow pointing forward. Trudy’s coach, Thomas Burgess, was onboard, along with her father, sister,
and friends.
12 Trudy started off with a strong crawl, pulling steadily at twenty-eight strokes per minute and kicking
eight beats for every full stroke of her arms. Her space-eating crawl covered the first four miles in
just three hours. Coach Burgess was worried that Trudy wouldn’t be able to keep up that breakneck
pace.
13 “Take your time!” he called out to Trudy. But Trudy just kept swimming.
14 She stopped for her first meal at 10:30 A.M. and sipped beef extract while floating on her back.
Then she started swimming again.
15 Her friends hung over the side of the Alsace and sang silly songs to keep Trudy from getting bored.
It was working: Trudy was on world-record pace. But by early afternoon, it was clear that trouble
was brewing.
16 Trudy had chosen this day for her swim because weather forecasts were favorable, but at 1:30 P.M.
it started to rain. At first, the rain was gentle, but within a few hours a full-fledged storm swooped
across the Channel. By 5:00 P.M. the sea was rough, the tide was running against Trudy, and a
stinging spray was being hurled into her face.
17 By 6:00 P.M. it seemed hopeless. The waves and tide were so fierce that for every few yards Trudy
swam, she was pushed back twice as many. And the storm showed no signs of letting up.
18 Coach Burgess leaned over the side of the Alsace and begged Trudy to get out of the water. But
Trudy was only six miles from the English shore. “No! No!” she shouted. She fought the storm for
three more hours. Finally the wind and rain eased and the tide turned. Now it was sweeping her
toward the shore.
19 Trudy finally stubbed her toe on the beach at Kingsdown, England at 9:40 P.M. She had been in the
water for fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes. Trudy wasn’t just the first woman to swim the
Channel; she was the fastest person to swim it. She had smashed the world-record time by almost
two hours.
6
20 But Trudy’s swim had taken a toll on her body. The pounding waves had
damaged her hearing, so Trudy eventually gave up professional swimming
and became a swimming instructor for deaf children.
21 “To get over that Channel was my biggest and only ambition in the world,”
she said. “I just knew it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it.”
22 Trudy’s courage, determination, and sheer athletic ability gave women “a
greater respect for their own powers, on the land as well as in the sea,” one
newspaper said. President Calvin Coolidge agreed. He called Trudy
“America’s best girl.”
Selection from - Copyright © 2001 by Highlights for Children, Inc., Columbus, Ohio.
From the Massachachutes Department of Education
A fan offered her best
wishes as Trudy set off
on her world-recordbreaking swim.
7
Benchmark Reading Assessment
Grade 6 – Grading Period 1
“America’s Best Girl”
Fill in the bubble next to the letter of the best answer.
8. Which word could the author have used in paragraph 5 instead of skeptics? [IC14]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
Fans
Doubters
Coaches
Supporters
9. Based on the information in the selection, what inference can the reader make about Trudy? [IC13]
c A. Trudy was determined to have her success help other women recognize their potential.
c B. As a swim instructor, Trudy will encourage her students to follow their dreams.
c C. Trudy was alarmed by the pollution in the English Channel and will become an activist to
clean the marine environment.
c D. After crossing the English Channel, Trudy will attempt to swim competitively even though
family and friends are concerned about her health.
10. What is the purpose of the subheadings in the selection? [IA15]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
to show interesting details in the selection
to give the author’s opinion about information in the selection
to let the reader know about an important picture in the selection
to give the reader information about what will be in the following section
11. What is the theme of the selection? [IC11]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
Believing in yourself turns dreams into reality.
Self-reliance is the best way to triumph over obstacles.
Nature’s unforeseen events cannot be overcome.
Happiness comes from experiencing success.
8
12. Which sentence summarizes the selection? [IC12]
c A. Trudy decides to swim the English Channel in the year 1926.
c B. Trudy’s goal of swimming across the English Channel is met after spending 14 hours in the
water.
c C. In 1926, Trudy begins her goal of swimming the English Channel, overcomes many
obstacles and reaches her goal.
c D. Trudy was an Olympic medalist who became the first woman to swim the English Channel.
13. Based on information in the selection, what inference could you make about the author of the
selection? [IC13]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
The author would disagree with Trudy’s decision to swim the English Channel.
The author would encourage readers to set goals as long as they also enjoyed each day.
The author would encourage readers to focus completely on setting and achieving goals.
The author would have disagreed with the owner of the tugboat to follow and encourage
Trudy.
14. Short Answer- 2 pts
Based on the information in the selection, what inference can the reader make about Trudy’s
personality? Include information from the selection to support your inference. [IC13]
9
15. Extended Response- 4 pts
What problem does Trudy Ederle experience? What are three steps she takes to solve this problem?
Include information from the selection in your answer. [LA05]
10
Literary Passage - Poem
Directions: Read the following selection and then answer the questions.
Enjoy Your Journey
by Pat Thompson
1
No matter what goals you might set,
Or what dreams you may achieve,
Your joys occur along your Journey
Whether it is towards or past those dreams or goals.
2
Once a goal is met or a dream fulfilled,
Another begins anew.
Learn to take time to relish your Journey.
Each day is a journey to somewhere. That somewhere is TODAY.
You have not been there before and will never be there again
For TODAY becomes yesterday, and tomorrow never arrives.
3
Each day’s Journey is an experience you have not known.
Your journey is continuous and will happen
Whether you reach a goal or never set one.
All you truly get to take delight from,
In this world, is your Journey.
Take time to savor it, nothing else matters but the Journey.
Selection from – BlueMountain.com. Blue Mountain Arts grants limited license to copy these materials soley for noncommercial use.
11
Benchmark Reading Assessment
Grade 6 – Grading Period 1
“Enjoy Your Journey”
Fill in the bubble next to the letter of the best answer.
16. What is the meaning of the word savor as it is used in stanza 3 of the poem? [LC04]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
Deny
Dislike
Appreciate
Understand
17. Which sentence best states the main idea of the poem? [LC01]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
People need to enjoy each day, no matter what the challenge.
Life is a journey that we should speed through.
Challenges are an important part of life.
Friendship is a necessary part of life.
18. Which sentence best summarizes the poem? [LC02]
c
c
c
c
A.
B.
C.
D.
It is not important to set goals in life.
It is important to set and meet personal goals.
It is important to set goals, but it is essential to enjoy life.
It is important to be more concerned about tomorrow than caring about today.
12