Worksheet

Write a story that builds to a tone and an outcome

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Counting Bolts (student story draft)

    [1] Mr. Dolan promised that counting the hardware store's bolts would take one afternoon, but by the fourth hour I had begun to suspect a punishment. [2] Jun, who ran the register and had survived the same task the summer before, strolled past my aisle with professional sympathy and offered no help. [3] I recorded each total in handwriting that grew smaller and more bitter with every bin, convinced that no one had ever needed this many washers.

    [4] The drawers behind the paint counter came last, and Mr. Dolan remarked, with the cheer of a man who would never count them, that nobody had opened those since his father labeled them. [5] Most labels had faded to a brown smear, so I counted whatever each drawer held and learned a lock washer from a fender washer. [6] In the third drawer from the bottom, beneath a layer of dust, lay forty brass fittings shaped like tiny bells that matched nothing on my list. [7] When I carried one to the front, Mrs. Ortega, a plumber who had argued with Mr. Dolan for three weeks, stopped mid-sentence and turned it over in her palm. [8] “They quit making these before my mother retired,” she said, “and every supplier in the county told me to tear out the old pipe.” [9] Mr. Dolan studied the drawer, then me, then the faded label, and for once had no remark to offer.

    [10] Years from now I will tell people that this job taught me everything I know about patience, and that I would not trade one dusty afternoon. [11] That evening I stayed after closing and relabeled every drawer in block capitals, copying each count onto an index card for the next person. [12] Jun appeared near dark with lemonade, set a cup beside my clipboard, and read the cards over my shoulder without remarking that I had exceeded the job. [13] By morning a map hung beside the drawers, and Mr. Dolan, who never admitted to being impressed, told Mrs. Ortega the fittings were hers at cost. [14] I returned to the bolts and counted until noon, and somewhere in the last row I realized that I had stopped hoping the numbers would end.

  2. Ari is naming the tone under the scene strip. Which tone do the events of the whole draft build toward?

    • Weary resentment, as the narrator counts bolt after bolt through an afternoon that will not end.
    • Dry, self-mocking exaggeration that quietly gives way to absorption in the work.
    • Satisfaction at helping a plumber, as Mrs. Ortega gets her brass fittings at cost.
    • Real bitterness toward Mr. Dolan and Jun, as the narrator says in sentences 1 and 3.

  3. Esme fills in the outcome box at the end of the strip. What do the events of the draft actually settle for the narrator?

    • The narrator decides to spend a career in hardware and loves those dusty afternoons.
    • The narrator stops resenting the dull work and quietly takes ownership of it.
    • Mrs. Ortega finds the fittings she needs, so her bathroom repair is saved.
    • Mr. Dolan finally admits that the narrator has done something impressive.

  4. Luz tests each sentence against the tone line. Which sentence steps outside the build the draft is making?

    • [9] Mr. Dolan studied the drawer, then me, then the faded label, and for once had no remark to offer.
    • [3] I recorded each total in handwriting that grew smaller and more bitter with every bin, convinced that no one had ever needed this many washers.
    • [10] Years from now I will tell people that this job taught me everything I know about patience, and that I would not trade one dusty afternoon.
    • [4] The drawers behind the paint counter came last, and Mr. Dolan remarked, with the cheer of a man who would never count them, that nobody had opened those since his father labeled them.

  5. The Lending Shed (student story draft)

    [1] The town had leased us the lending shed for a dollar a year, and the lease would end on the last Saturday of October. [2] Tala and I spent the final week taking down hand-lettered shelf signs, written in so many hands that the shed looked, up close, like a long conversation. [3] Every tool carried a paper tag listing its borrowers, and the tag on the oldest wheelbarrow had run out of room and continued onto a second. [4] I had drafted a petition to save the building, three paragraphs I considered the best writing of my life, and I carried it all week without showing anyone.

    [5] On Friday Mr. Abara, a retired electrician, returned a hand plane that the tag said he had borrowed eleven years before, setting it on the counter with both hands. [6] He said that he had planed every door in his house with it and would have returned it sooner if anyone had asked. [7] Tala wrote the return on the tag in careful letters, and the date made the plane's long absence look, briefly, like a loan between friends. [8] Then people kept coming, none to protest but all to return drills, ladders and a posthole digger, and each lingered at the counter longer than the transaction required. [9] By closing the floor was crowded with tools and the shelves stood bare, and the quiet in the room had the density of a held breath.

    [10] Tala tripped over a coil of garden hose and wore it like a scarf for five full minutes while the line of borrowers cheered. [11] Mrs. Delgado from the library announced that the tools would move to a rotating cart at the community center, where anyone could sign the same tags. [12] I read the petition over once and saw that it argued for a building when what people had been defending was a habit. [13] I folded it into the tag box beside the oldest wheelbarrow, where some future borrower might find it and wonder. [14] When Tala switched off the lights the shed was empty, and I latched the door with care, though nothing remained inside for anyone to take.

  6. Kira runs one tone line under every box of the lending-shed strip. Which tone does that line show from the first sentence to the last?

    • Deep grief and anger at the town for taking the shed away.
    • Urgent protest, because the narrator drafts a petition to save the building in sentence 4.
    • Wistful acceptance that grows from quiet, ironic watching as protest gives way to letting go.
    • Cheerful community pride, as neighbors line up to return tools and the borrowers cheer.

  7. Milo writes in the outcome box for the shed strip. What do the events settle for the narrator by the last sentence?

    • The petition succeeds and the town renews the lease for another year, saving the building.
    • The tools move to a rotating cart at the community center, where anyone can still sign the same paper tags.
    • The narrator accepts the closing of the building because the borrowing habit will go on elsewhere.
    • Mr. Abara's eleven-year loan is finally forgiven.

  8. Noah checks the shed draft sentence by sentence against its tone line. Which sentence interrupts the build?

    • [14] When Tala switched off the lights the shed was empty, and I latched the door with care, though nothing remained inside for anyone to take.
    • [3] Every tool carried a paper tag listing its borrowers, and the tag on the oldest wheelbarrow had run out of room and continued onto a second.
    • [9] By closing the floor was crowded with tools and the shelves stood bare, and the quiet in the room had the density of a held breath.
    • [10] Tala tripped over a coil of garden hose and wore it like a scarf for five full minutes while the line of borrowers cheered.

  9. Under the Cloud Deck (student story draft)

    [1] The astronomy club had waited eleven weeks for the comet, and on the night it was to peak, the sky above the school roof was a lid of gray cloud. [2] Mr. Whitcombe set up the club's telescope anyway, tightening each leg with the deliberate care of someone performing a ritual whose success did not depend on him. [3] Luz passed around a thermos of cocoa and remarked, in a voice meant to sound casual, that clouds sometimes thinned around ten. [4] It was nine fifteen, and nobody answered, because answering would have meant admitting that all of us were watching the same patch of sky.

    [5] A comet's tail always points away from the Sun, pushed outward by sunlight and by the stream of charged particles that flows from the Sun's surface. [6] We spoke less as the hour passed, and the quiet on the roof settled in layers, distant traffic below and the creak of the tripod above. [7] At ten the clouds had not thinned, and Luz stopped saying that they would, which struck me as the first honest remark anyone had made all evening. [8] Mr. Whitcombe turned the telescope toward a pale smear that the clouds had not quite covered and asked whether anyone minded his checking something else.

    [9] For about ninety seconds the cloud deck opened over the east, and a single bright point appeared, with four tiny sparks lined up beside it. [10] Mr. Whitcombe said quietly that it was Jupiter with its four largest moons, and he let each of us look for as long as we wanted. [11] When my turn came I saw a small, steady disk with the moons spaced along it like beads on a wire, and I resisted giving up the eyepiece. [12] The clouds closed again before Luz had a turn, and I expected a groan, but Luz only said that now we had something to compare next time. [13] We carried the telescope down the stairs in two trips, still without a comet, and nobody mentioned the eleven weeks. [14] On the walk home I found that the disappointment I had carried up the stairs had changed shape, and I minded it less than I had expected.

  10. Zee reads the rooftop draft against its tone line. Which sentence steps out of the build?

    • [3] Luz passed around a thermos of cocoa and remarked, in a voice meant to sound casual, that clouds sometimes thinned around ten.
    • [14] On the walk home I found that the disappointment I had carried up the stairs had changed shape, and I minded it less than I had expected.
    • [9] For about ninety seconds the cloud deck opened over the east, and a single bright point appeared, with four tiny sparks lined up beside it.
    • [5] A comet's tail always points away from the Sun, pushed outward by sunlight and by the stream of charged particles that flows from the Sun's surface.

  11. The Greenhouse Key (student story draft)

    [1] Ms. Haddad handed me the greenhouse key on the last day before winter break, with a watering schedule and a look suggesting she already regretted the arrangement. [2] For nine mornings I crossed the empty parking lot, unlocked the glass door, and greeted the trays of seedlings, which I had privately begun to address by number. [3] My family considered this habit slightly alarming, and I defended it by claiming that tomatoes grew better when someone appeared to expect them to. [4] The schedule had a line for each morning, and I initialed every one in a firm hand, the way a sea captain might sign a log.

    [5] On the ninth night the forecast dropped to eighteen degrees, and I stood in my kitchen reading it twice, as though a second reading might raise the number. [6] The greenhouse heater wore a tag that said broken, which Ms. Haddad had mentioned in November with the lightness of someone who expected it to stay unimportant. [7] Honestly, a district that spends more on trophy cabinets than on heating for living things deserves whatever the frost does to its tomatoes. [8] I carried every blanket I owned across the parking lot, draped them over the benches, and tucked the edges around the trays like a nervous host.

    [9] Around midnight headlights swung across the glass, and Bo came through the door with a space heater under one arm and an extension cord over a shoulder. [10] Bo had seen my light from the road and assumed, correctly, that I was attempting something unwise, and had come to help me attempt it properly. [11] We ran the cord to the only working outlet, switched on the heater, and sat on overturned buckets watching the seedlings for signs of opinion. [12] At two in the morning the thermometer taped to the window read thirty-one degrees, which Bo declared acceptable and I declared a personal triumph. [13] When the sun rose, only the outer edge of one tray had browned, and I touched it gently, as though apologizing. [14] I had assumed the key meant being alone with the plants, and by morning it seemed to mean being the person others knew where to find.

  12. Ari draws one tone line beneath the greenhouse strip. Which tone do the events build toward across the whole draft?

    • Warm, sentimental gratitude toward Bo, who rescues the plants.
    • Nervous worry, as the narrator reads the forecast twice and tucks blankets like a nervous host.
    • Pride in a personal triumph, as the narrator declares at two in the morning.
    • Tender, mock-solemn humor that warms as a lonely duty becomes a shared one.

  13. Jun fills the outcome box under the greenhouse strip. What do the events finally settle for the narrator?

    • Ms. Haddad learns about the frost night, praises the narrator and promises to repair the broken heater.
    • The thermometer reading of thirty-one degrees shows the heater was enough.
    • The narrator stops caring about the broken heater and forgives the district.
    • The narrator, who guarded the key alone, learns to accept others as part of the work.

  14. Luz tests the greenhouse draft against its tone line. Which sentence does the build not need?

    • [7] Honestly, a district that spends more on trophy cabinets than on heating for living things deserves whatever the frost does to its tomatoes.
    • [14] I had assumed the key meant being alone with the plants, and by morning it seemed to mean being the person others knew where to find.
    • [4] The schedule had a line for each morning, and I initialed every one in a firm hand, the way a sea captain might sign a log.
    • [9] Around midnight headlights swung across the glass, and Bo came through the door with a space heater under one arm and an extension cord over a shoulder.
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Write a story that builds to a tone and an outcome

Answer Key - Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Counting Bolts (student story draft)

    [1] Mr. Dolan promised that counting the hardware store's bolts would take one afternoon, but by the fourth hour I had begun to suspect a punishment. [2] Jun, who ran the register and had survived the same task the summer before, strolled past my aisle with professional sympathy and offered no help. [3] I recorded each total in handwriting that grew smaller and more bitter with every bin, convinced that no one had ever needed this many washers.

    [4] The drawers behind the paint counter came last, and Mr. Dolan remarked, with the cheer of a man who would never count them, that nobody had opened those since his father labeled them. [5] Most labels had faded to a brown smear, so I counted whatever each drawer held and learned a lock washer from a fender washer. [6] In the third drawer from the bottom, beneath a layer of dust, lay forty brass fittings shaped like tiny bells that matched nothing on my list. [7] When I carried one to the front, Mrs. Ortega, a plumber who had argued with Mr. Dolan for three weeks, stopped mid-sentence and turned it over in her palm. [8] “They quit making these before my mother retired,” she said, “and every supplier in the county told me to tear out the old pipe.” [9] Mr. Dolan studied the drawer, then me, then the faded label, and for once had no remark to offer.

    [10] Years from now I will tell people that this job taught me everything I know about patience, and that I would not trade one dusty afternoon. [11] That evening I stayed after closing and relabeled every drawer in block capitals, copying each count onto an index card for the next person. [12] Jun appeared near dark with lemonade, set a cup beside my clipboard, and read the cards over my shoulder without remarking that I had exceeded the job. [13] By morning a map hung beside the drawers, and Mr. Dolan, who never admitted to being impressed, told Mrs. Ortega the fittings were hers at cost. [14] I returned to the bolts and counted until noon, and somewhere in the last row I realized that I had stopped hoping the numbers would end.

  2. Ari is naming the tone under the scene strip. Which tone do the events of the whole draft build toward?

    • Weary resentment, as the narrator counts bolt after bolt through an afternoon that will not end.
    • Dry, self-mocking exaggeration that quietly gives way to absorption in the work.
    • Satisfaction at helping a plumber, as Mrs. Ortega gets her brass fittings at cost.
    • Real bitterness toward Mr. Dolan and Jun, as the narrator says in sentences 1 and 3.

  3. Esme fills in the outcome box at the end of the strip. What do the events of the draft actually settle for the narrator?

    • The narrator decides to spend a career in hardware and loves those dusty afternoons.
    • The narrator stops resenting the dull work and quietly takes ownership of it.
    • Mrs. Ortega finds the fittings she needs, so her bathroom repair is saved.
    • Mr. Dolan finally admits that the narrator has done something impressive.

  4. Luz tests each sentence against the tone line. Which sentence steps outside the build the draft is making?

    • [9] Mr. Dolan studied the drawer, then me, then the faded label, and for once had no remark to offer.
    • [3] I recorded each total in handwriting that grew smaller and more bitter with every bin, convinced that no one had ever needed this many washers.
    • [10] Years from now I will tell people that this job taught me everything I know about patience, and that I would not trade one dusty afternoon.
    • [4] The drawers behind the paint counter came last, and Mr. Dolan remarked, with the cheer of a man who would never count them, that nobody had opened those since his father labeled them.

  5. The Lending Shed (student story draft)

    [1] The town had leased us the lending shed for a dollar a year, and the lease would end on the last Saturday of October. [2] Tala and I spent the final week taking down hand-lettered shelf signs, written in so many hands that the shed looked, up close, like a long conversation. [3] Every tool carried a paper tag listing its borrowers, and the tag on the oldest wheelbarrow had run out of room and continued onto a second. [4] I had drafted a petition to save the building, three paragraphs I considered the best writing of my life, and I carried it all week without showing anyone.

    [5] On Friday Mr. Abara, a retired electrician, returned a hand plane that the tag said he had borrowed eleven years before, setting it on the counter with both hands. [6] He said that he had planed every door in his house with it and would have returned it sooner if anyone had asked. [7] Tala wrote the return on the tag in careful letters, and the date made the plane's long absence look, briefly, like a loan between friends. [8] Then people kept coming, none to protest but all to return drills, ladders and a posthole digger, and each lingered at the counter longer than the transaction required. [9] By closing the floor was crowded with tools and the shelves stood bare, and the quiet in the room had the density of a held breath.

    [10] Tala tripped over a coil of garden hose and wore it like a scarf for five full minutes while the line of borrowers cheered. [11] Mrs. Delgado from the library announced that the tools would move to a rotating cart at the community center, where anyone could sign the same tags. [12] I read the petition over once and saw that it argued for a building when what people had been defending was a habit. [13] I folded it into the tag box beside the oldest wheelbarrow, where some future borrower might find it and wonder. [14] When Tala switched off the lights the shed was empty, and I latched the door with care, though nothing remained inside for anyone to take.

  6. Kira runs one tone line under every box of the lending-shed strip. Which tone does that line show from the first sentence to the last?

    • Deep grief and anger at the town for taking the shed away.
    • Urgent protest, because the narrator drafts a petition to save the building in sentence 4.
    • Wistful acceptance that grows from quiet, ironic watching as protest gives way to letting go.
    • Cheerful community pride, as neighbors line up to return tools and the borrowers cheer.

  7. Milo writes in the outcome box for the shed strip. What do the events settle for the narrator by the last sentence?

    • The petition succeeds and the town renews the lease for another year, saving the building.
    • The tools move to a rotating cart at the community center, where anyone can still sign the same paper tags.
    • The narrator accepts the closing of the building because the borrowing habit will go on elsewhere.
    • Mr. Abara's eleven-year loan is finally forgiven.

  8. Noah checks the shed draft sentence by sentence against its tone line. Which sentence interrupts the build?

    • [14] When Tala switched off the lights the shed was empty, and I latched the door with care, though nothing remained inside for anyone to take.
    • [3] Every tool carried a paper tag listing its borrowers, and the tag on the oldest wheelbarrow had run out of room and continued onto a second.
    • [9] By closing the floor was crowded with tools and the shelves stood bare, and the quiet in the room had the density of a held breath.
    • [10] Tala tripped over a coil of garden hose and wore it like a scarf for five full minutes while the line of borrowers cheered.

  9. Under the Cloud Deck (student story draft)

    [1] The astronomy club had waited eleven weeks for the comet, and on the night it was to peak, the sky above the school roof was a lid of gray cloud. [2] Mr. Whitcombe set up the club's telescope anyway, tightening each leg with the deliberate care of someone performing a ritual whose success did not depend on him. [3] Luz passed around a thermos of cocoa and remarked, in a voice meant to sound casual, that clouds sometimes thinned around ten. [4] It was nine fifteen, and nobody answered, because answering would have meant admitting that all of us were watching the same patch of sky.

    [5] A comet's tail always points away from the Sun, pushed outward by sunlight and by the stream of charged particles that flows from the Sun's surface. [6] We spoke less as the hour passed, and the quiet on the roof settled in layers, distant traffic below and the creak of the tripod above. [7] At ten the clouds had not thinned, and Luz stopped saying that they would, which struck me as the first honest remark anyone had made all evening. [8] Mr. Whitcombe turned the telescope toward a pale smear that the clouds had not quite covered and asked whether anyone minded his checking something else.

    [9] For about ninety seconds the cloud deck opened over the east, and a single bright point appeared, with four tiny sparks lined up beside it. [10] Mr. Whitcombe said quietly that it was Jupiter with its four largest moons, and he let each of us look for as long as we wanted. [11] When my turn came I saw a small, steady disk with the moons spaced along it like beads on a wire, and I resisted giving up the eyepiece. [12] The clouds closed again before Luz had a turn, and I expected a groan, but Luz only said that now we had something to compare next time. [13] We carried the telescope down the stairs in two trips, still without a comet, and nobody mentioned the eleven weeks. [14] On the walk home I found that the disappointment I had carried up the stairs had changed shape, and I minded it less than I had expected.

  10. Zee reads the rooftop draft against its tone line. Which sentence steps out of the build?

    • [3] Luz passed around a thermos of cocoa and remarked, in a voice meant to sound casual, that clouds sometimes thinned around ten.
    • [14] On the walk home I found that the disappointment I had carried up the stairs had changed shape, and I minded it less than I had expected.
    • [9] For about ninety seconds the cloud deck opened over the east, and a single bright point appeared, with four tiny sparks lined up beside it.
    • [5] A comet's tail always points away from the Sun, pushed outward by sunlight and by the stream of charged particles that flows from the Sun's surface.

  11. The Greenhouse Key (student story draft)

    [1] Ms. Haddad handed me the greenhouse key on the last day before winter break, with a watering schedule and a look suggesting she already regretted the arrangement. [2] For nine mornings I crossed the empty parking lot, unlocked the glass door, and greeted the trays of seedlings, which I had privately begun to address by number. [3] My family considered this habit slightly alarming, and I defended it by claiming that tomatoes grew better when someone appeared to expect them to. [4] The schedule had a line for each morning, and I initialed every one in a firm hand, the way a sea captain might sign a log.

    [5] On the ninth night the forecast dropped to eighteen degrees, and I stood in my kitchen reading it twice, as though a second reading might raise the number. [6] The greenhouse heater wore a tag that said broken, which Ms. Haddad had mentioned in November with the lightness of someone who expected it to stay unimportant. [7] Honestly, a district that spends more on trophy cabinets than on heating for living things deserves whatever the frost does to its tomatoes. [8] I carried every blanket I owned across the parking lot, draped them over the benches, and tucked the edges around the trays like a nervous host.

    [9] Around midnight headlights swung across the glass, and Bo came through the door with a space heater under one arm and an extension cord over a shoulder. [10] Bo had seen my light from the road and assumed, correctly, that I was attempting something unwise, and had come to help me attempt it properly. [11] We ran the cord to the only working outlet, switched on the heater, and sat on overturned buckets watching the seedlings for signs of opinion. [12] At two in the morning the thermometer taped to the window read thirty-one degrees, which Bo declared acceptable and I declared a personal triumph. [13] When the sun rose, only the outer edge of one tray had browned, and I touched it gently, as though apologizing. [14] I had assumed the key meant being alone with the plants, and by morning it seemed to mean being the person others knew where to find.

  12. Ari draws one tone line beneath the greenhouse strip. Which tone do the events build toward across the whole draft?

    • Warm, sentimental gratitude toward Bo, who rescues the plants.
    • Nervous worry, as the narrator reads the forecast twice and tucks blankets like a nervous host.
    • Pride in a personal triumph, as the narrator declares at two in the morning.
    • Tender, mock-solemn humor that warms as a lonely duty becomes a shared one.

  13. Jun fills the outcome box under the greenhouse strip. What do the events finally settle for the narrator?

    • Ms. Haddad learns about the frost night, praises the narrator and promises to repair the broken heater.
    • The thermometer reading of thirty-one degrees shows the heater was enough.
    • The narrator stops caring about the broken heater and forgives the district.
    • The narrator, who guarded the key alone, learns to accept others as part of the work.

  14. Luz tests the greenhouse draft against its tone line. Which sentence does the build not need?

    • [7] Honestly, a district that spends more on trophy cabinets than on heating for living things deserves whatever the frost does to its tomatoes.
    • [14] I had assumed the key meant being alone with the plants, and by morning it seemed to mean being the person others knew where to find.
    • [4] The schedule had a line for each morning, and I initialed every one in a firm hand, the way a sea captain might sign a log.
    • [9] Around midnight headlights swung across the glass, and Bo came through the door with a space heater under one arm and an extension cord over a shoulder.