Name:__________________________________Date: ________________ Hour:__________
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Packet 2
Informational Text – “The Mighty Mississippi”
Questions on Chapters 5-8
Due Date:___________________
Title of Chapter 5: ______________________________________________________________
1. In Chapter 5, the author is mostly interested in…
a. Tom’s treasures
b. Sunday School
c. a church service
d. Tom’s new dog
2. The chapter suggests that laughter…
a. never belongs in a church
b. is always cruel
c. can be refreshing
d. is entirely foolish
Title of Chapter 6: ______________________________________________________________
1. You can infer that Tom probably envied Huck because Huck…
a. was older
b. was rich
c. could whistle through his teeth
d. could do as he pleased
2. In this chapter, we again see how Tom cleverly manipulates a situation to go in his favor. In this case, Tom
purposely told the teacher that he talked to Huck in order to…
a. sit next to Becky
c. get sent home
b. show he wasn’t ashamed of Huck
d. make everyone laugh
3. Tom and Huck discuss three superstitions that would cure warts. Briefly describe each of those three
superstitions below.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Physical description, or looks, is one of the five methods of characterization that an author uses to describe the
characters. On page 30, Twain uses stated characterization when he describes Huck’s appearance. Use his
description to draw and color a picture of Huck below. Then answer the question that follows.
What does Huck’s appearance suggest about his personality?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Title of Chapter 7: ______________________________________________________________
1. What does the title of this chapter mean?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Becky is upset with Tom because he…
a. argued with her
b. tried to steal her favorite marble
c. had an old girlfriend
d. tripped her
3. When Tom offered Becky his most prized possession, a brass doorknob, she rejected it. How you think Tom felt?
Describe a time when someone rejected something you gave them or something you said.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Title of Chapter 8: ______________________________________________________________
1. Tom wanted to run away in order to…
a. make Becky suffer
b. quit school
c. support his family
d. meet new people
2. You can infer from this chapter that when Tom played he liked to be…
a. a follower
c. a leader
b. an outside observer
d. a peacemaker
Timeline Summary
On the page that follows, create a timeline that records 5 major events from Chapters 1-8. In the boxes, you
may choose to either draw a picture or write a sentence that clearly describes each of the five events. Pictures
should be detailed and done in color. Sentences must be complete and well-written. Whether you choose to
draw or write, your work must be accurate and neat. The events should be listed in chronological order - the
same order in which they appeared in the book.
Reading Informational Text
Before you read the informational article “The Mighty Mississippi” on the next page, complete the following
steps.
1. Preview the title and subheadings of the article. Then, examine any pictures and captions that are
included. What will the article be about? Be as specific as possible.
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Scan the text for any boldface or italicized words. Look for definitions of those words.
3. Preview the questions for the article that are listed below. This helps you to know what information to
look for as you read.
4. Finally, read the article, highlight any important information, and answer the questions.
Directions: Based on the biography that you just read, first label each question’s QAR type. Remember,
RT = Right There, TS = Think and Search, AM = Author and Me. Then use the information from the biography to
answer the following questions.
_______ 1. In which state does the Mississippi River begin?
a. Minnesota
b. Missouri
c. Mississippi
d. Montana
_______ 2. Who built religious structures along the banks of the Mississippi River?
a. Pioneers
c. Jesuit Missionaries
b. European settlers
d. Native Americans
_______ 3. The Mississippi River is known by all of the following nicknames except…
a. Big Daddy
c. Big Muddy
b. Father of Waters
d. Old Devil River
_______ 4. In which year did the steamboat era begin?
a. 1800
b. 1811
c. 1673
d. 1930
_______ 5. Which of the following states does not border the Mississippi River?
a. Wisconsin
c. Iowa
b. Texas
d. Tennessee
The Mighty Mississippi
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer takes place in a small
town on the banks of the Mississippi River, where
large steamboats carrying cargo and people regularly
passed. Like other great rivers of the world, the
existence of the Mississippi has had a great impact
on the lives and communities of the United States. It
has been a tremendous economic and natural
resource, as well as an inspiration for stories, poems,
and paintings.
sailing of the New Orleans. The steamboat turned
the nation’s rivers into a system that could carry
large amounts of cargo, as well as pioneers who
would begin farms across the heartland.
Keelboats (pictured above) were replaced by steamboats
(pictured below) because steamboats allowed for goods and
people to be moved faster and more efficiently.
Danger on the River
The Mississippi River begins as a tiny stream in
northern Minnesota and ends in the Gulf of Mexico
on the coast of Louisiana. As it winds through the
heart of the United States, this 2,300 mile long river
passes by hundreds of communities. The river is
known by several names, including the Father of
Waters, Big Muddy, and Old Devil River.
A Little History on the Big River
Before the European settlers arrived, Native
Americans used the river as an artery for travel, and
they built religious structures called mounds along
its banks. In 1673, a Jesuit missionary, Jacques
Marquette, and an explorer, Louis Joliet, were the
first Europeans to explore the Upper Mississippi
River. The original river transportation was the
canoe, and later keelboats that could be pulled from
shore were used because they could move more
quickly. In 1811, the steamboat era began with the
WORDS
TO
KNOW
In the 1800s, the river was alive with steamboats
and barges. However, steamboat navigation on the
Mississippi was risky. In fact, in river lingo, a sawyer
is a fallen tree hidden under the surface of the river
on which a boat could snag. The riverbanks widened
with the clearing of forests for steamboat fuel and
farmlands, causing the banks to erode and the river
to shift. In his book Life on the Mississippi, Mark
Twain wrote that people “cannot tame that lawless
stream, cannot curb or confine it, cannot say to it,
Go here, or Go there, and make it obey…cannot bar
its path with an obstruction that it will not tear
down, dance over and laugh at.”
Not until the 1930s was the Army Corps of Engineers
able to successfully tame the river by building a
series of 29 navigational dams that directed the flow
of the Mississippi. The dams turned the river once
more into a path for commerce, power generation,
and storm water collection.
Artery: a major pathway that bears important traffic
Dams: special walls built across a river or stream to stop the water from flowing
Active Reading Strategies – Focus on Making Connections
When you use this active reading strategy, you connect personally with what you are reading. You can connect events
from the text to what you have personally experienced, heard about, and read about. Choose one of the events from
the book and, in the space below, describe the personal connection you can make to it.
Describe the event and the connection you can make to something you have experienced, heard about, or read about.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Packet 2 Rubric
____/4 Chapter Questions

The title of each chapter is spelled and capitalized correctly.
Grading Scale

All questions are answered correctly and completely.

Student used the question to answer the question (UTQTATQ) for all questions.

Each open-ended question is answered with a well-written paragraph.

Illustration is neatly done in color and contains details from the text.
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
____/2 Timeline

Main events from the story are included in chronological order.

Pictures or sentences contain enough detail to accurately describe each event.

Pictures are done in color; sentences are well-written.
____/3 Informational Text – “The Mighty Mississippi”

Pre-reading portion is complete; important information in the text is highlighted/underlined.

Each QAR type is correctly labeled.

All questions are answered correctly and completely.
____/1 Active Reading Strategy portion is neat and well done. An appropriate connection is fully described.
____/2 Correct conventions (capitalization, punctuation, grammar, spelling) and neat work throughout
____/12
TOTAL
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DE
N