READING COMPREHENSION MYSTERY STORIES AND QUESTIONS, grades 5-7

Item description

These two high interest mystery stories ensure students will eagerly practice close reading as they hunt for text evidence and make inferences. Both comprehension passages exploit the interest that many grade 5-7 students have in both wild animals and pets. One mystery story stars a cranky Texas alligator, while the other features Lazy Luke’s attempt to use his cat to get out of trouble. The questions that follow each story will hone students’ skills, challenging them to use essential skills such as character analysis, author’s purpose, and working out the use of vocabulary and figurative language in context. A variety of formats are used to assess their understanding, such as multiple choice questions, mix and match, and true and false. The multiple choice questions are modeled on those asked on many state tests, thus this resource provides super test prep.

Full answer keys are included. Both stories have a paragraph question, a rubric, and a model paragraph response. The resource ends with a page of quickie animal riddles for students to puzzle over. To add to the fun there are two mix and match pages of animal jokes whose questions have been separated from their punchlines. Students will have so much fun and so many chuckles that they will not realize they are learning!

Table of contents                         Pages

An Animal Legend is Born (story) 1-2

Literary terms definitions               2

Mystery question                             3

Multiple choice questions & mix and match      3-5

Paragraph question                          6

Paragraph rubric                               7

Animal jokes mix and match          8
Answers to “Animal Legend” questions 9

Lazy Luke’s Cat to the Rescue- Not! (story) 10-11

Mystery question                             12

Mix and match & true and false questions 12

Paragraph question                         13

Paragraph rubric                              14

Answers to “Lazy Luke’s Cat” questions 15

Animal Riddles                                 16

Animal jokes mix and match #2   17

Answers to riddles and jokes        18

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