Make a precise claim and say why it matters

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Free Sundays at the Harlan Museum (board memo about an invented town)

   [1] Until January, the Harlan Regional Museum charged nine dollars for admission, and then its board began a one-year experiment that made each Sunday free. [2] Six months of attendance counts are now in, and they give the board a real argument, since Sunday visits nearly tripled while weekday visits barely moved. [3] The museum should do something about its fees.

   [4] On a typical free Sunday the museum counted 1,840 visitors, against 640 on a paid Sunday the year before, and front-desk staff reported that most of the new arrivals were families who said they had never been inside. [5] Gift-shop sales on those days rose by a fifth, and the café, which had struggled, covered its costs for the first time. [6] Yet admission once paid for about a third of the operating budget, and the lost income was covered during the experiment only by a one-time grant that will not be renewed.

   [7] The treasurer, Dr. Imre Halász, argues that the fee should return on every day, since a program cannot rest on money that will not come again. [8] He adds that weekday and Saturday visitors, who still paid, did not fall in number, which suggests that the fee was not keeping people away. [9] The education director, Moana Reyes, answers that the Sunday crowds are the visitors the museum was founded to reach, and that she would keep free Sundays and charge on other days. [10] Reyes also notes that school bookings, which a separate fund pays for, rose after teachers heard about the Sunday visitors.

   [11] A board member has floated a middle path: half price on Sundays and the full fee on other days. [12] The board will vote in March and has said it cares most about whether any policy can last beyond the grant year. [13] The museum's own survey shows that visitors came mostly from the three towns nearest to Harlan, where few households hold a membership. [14] Fewer than one visitor in ten on any Sunday, the counts also show, was a museum member.

2. 1.

   Ari sees that sentence 3 is too vague to argue. Which claim is knowledgeable: exact about what to do, and no wider than the evidence?

   • The museum should look carefully at its fees, since the six months of counts show some gains and some losses.
   • The museum should keep free Sundays as they are, since the grant already covers the lost admission income.
   • The museum should make each day free, since free Sundays tripled visits and the café now covers its costs.
   • The museum should keep free Sundays and charge on other days, once it replaces the one-time grant.
3. 2.

   The draft's claim: keep free Sundays and charge on other days. Esme labels sentence 7, Dr. Halász's view. Which label fits best?

   • The writer's claim: it favors a fee on other days, which the draft also supports and states.
   • An alternate claim: it offers a third answer to the fee question without rejecting the draft's plan.
   • An opposing claim: it asks for the fee on each day, which rejects the draft's free Sundays.
   • Evidence: it reports a fact about the grant that supports the draft's plan for free Sundays.
4. 3.

   Kira writes the closing line for the board, which cares most about lasting past the grant year (sentence 12). Which significance line fits this reader?

   • How the museum is paid for decides whether the new Sunday families keep coming after the grant ends.
   • First-time families will learn what the museum holds and may become members who return for years.
   • This vote will decide whether the region's children grow up with any access to culture or history.
   • The museum should keep free Sundays and charge on other days, as the evidence in the counts supports.
5. 4.

   Luz writes the line for newspaper readers in the three nearest towns (sentence 13). Which significance line fits these readers?

   • Few households there hold a membership, so the fee decides who walks through the museum's doors.
   • The café covered its costs for the first time, which shows the museum can also run a small business.
   • The treasurer will know whether the museum can keep its budget balanced once the one-time grant has ended.
   • The museum should keep free Sundays and charge on other days, which is the plan the counts support.

6. Tablets for Wexley High (district memo about an invented school)

   [1] Wexley High School spends about eighty-one dollars per student each year on printed textbooks, and the district's technology office has proposed replacing them with licensed tablets. [2] Last spring two history classes and one biology class tried the tablets for a full semester, and the school kept careful records of what happened. [3] The district should change how Wexley students get their books.

   [4] Scores on the unit tests rose by an average of two points in the tablet classes, a difference the teachers described as too small to separate from the ordinary variation between sections. [5] Students in the tablet classes reported far fewer lost or forgotten books, and nearly all said they liked searching their texts for a word. [6] Yet the tablets lost their charge by afternoon in about one class period in five, and eleven of the seventy-two tablets were damaged in the first semester. [7] The licenses cost fifty-four dollars per student a year, and the tablets themselves cost three hundred dollars apiece, which the district proposes to spread over four years.

   [8] Mr. Takeda, the history chair, supports a gradual change, beginning with the courses that use the most reading and keeping printed copies in every room for the days a tablet fails. [9] The librarian, Ms. Ferreira, argues that the school should not adopt tablets at all, since the savings are small and the printed books are already paid for. [10] A parent committee has asked for a plan in writing, with costs, by the end of the month. [11] Its chair says parents will accept change if it is shown to help students learn more, and not simply to save money.

   [12] Whatever the plan, the report that explains it should say why the choice matters. [13] Wexley gives its final exams in print each spring, so students who study on a tablet will still sit the exam on paper. [14] That detail has not come up in any meeting so far.

7. 5.

   Milo sees that sentence 3 is too vague to argue. Which claim is knowledgeable?

   • The district should train teachers to repair tablets, since eleven of the seventy-two were damaged in the first semester.
   • The district should replace each printed textbook with a tablet, since scores rose and students liked the tablets.
   • The district should adopt tablets to save money, since the yearly licenses cost less than printed books do.
   • The district should expand tablets only in its most reading-heavy courses, keeping printed copies as a backup.
8. 6.

   Noah writes the topic sentence for the paragraph on sentences 4 to 6 (results and problems). Which claim is knowledgeable?

   • The tablets raised learning, since test scores in the tablet classes rose by two points on average.
   • The tablets may or may not have helped students learn, so the pilot results are hard to interpret.
   • The pilot did not show clearly better learning, and charging and damage problems call for caution.
   • Students prefer tablets to books, since most of them said they liked searching their texts for a word.
9. 7.

   The draft argues for a gradual change, starting with reading-heavy courses. Pia labels sentence 4: scores rose two points, a gap teachers call too small to separate from variation. Which label fits?

   • The writer's claim: it says the tablets raised scores, which is what the draft argues for.
   • Evidence: it reports the pilot's results, a fact the draft must account for in its claim.
   • An alternate claim: it proposes a different way to use the tablets than the draft's plan.
   • An opposing claim: it says the tablets did nothing, so the draft's gradual plan has no support.
10. 8.

    The draft argues for a gradual change, starting with reading-heavy courses. Ren labels sentence 9, Ms. Ferreira's view. Which label fits?

    • A rival position: it rejects the draft by saying the school should not adopt tablets at all.
    • The writer's claim: it asks the district to be careful with the tablets, as the draft also asks.
    • An alternate claim: it offers a different way of adopting tablets that the draft does not consider.
    • Evidence: it reports that the savings are small and the printed books are already paid for.
11. 9.

    Tala writes the line for the parent committee, which will accept change only if it helps students learn (sentence 11). Which significance line fits these readers?

    • Students would no longer carry heavy backpacks or forget their books at home on the days when they study.
    • The district could save money on printed textbooks and use the savings for other programs in its schools.
    • Parents will trust a change only if it helps students learn, so the choice decides what the money buys.
    • This choice will decide whether Wexley students can compete in the economy of the future after they graduate.
12. 10.

    Zee writes the line for students, who will sit a paper exam each spring (sentence 13). Which significance line fits these readers?

    • Students who study on tablets will still sit a paper exam, so they could be tested in a format they have not practiced.
    • The district should expand tablets slowly, beginning with the courses that use the most reading, as the pilot suggests.
    • This choice will decide whether Wexley students learn to read deeply during their years in high school.
    • A tablet can search a word in a text faster than a reader can flip through the pages of a book.