4th Grade SC ELA Packet Subject: English Language Arts State: District of Columbia Student Name: Teacher Name: School Name:
Read the two articles about archaeology, which is the study of what people and places were like long ago. Then answer the questions based on the texts. Paired Texts - Basic Archaeology: What is a Dig?; What is a Midden? by David White Article 1: Basic Archaeology: What's a Dig? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. One of the main things archaeologists do in their line of work is the dig. This is a project designed to find out more about a specific area and what it was like many, many years ago. Archaeologists might be looking for animal skeletons or plant remains. They might be looking for weather patterns or fire damage. Whatever they're looking for, it usually involves digging. Why? Well, first of all, the wind is constantly blowing fresh dirt and trash all over the world. This airborne debris lands on the ground in tiny layers. After years of these tiny layers building up, what was once on the surface is buried underground. It's not that the ground has really sunk; it's more that more layers have been added on top. So, archaeologists use their pickaxes and their drills and their brushes to find and piece together clues to what happened in an area's past. And the more they find, the more they understand. For instance, by discovering seeds, archaeologists can also discover what kinds of crops the people who lived there grew or, if people didn't live there at all, what kind of wild plants or fruits or vegetables grew there. Also, a dig might turn up fragments of clothing or shoes, giving archaeologists clues to what kind of clothing the people who lived there wore. The basic idea behind the dig is to discover the past. Article 2: Basic Archaeology: What's a Midden? 1. 2. It might sound a little silly, but archaeologists can find out a lot about people by looking through their trash. People throw away things because those things aren't important or because the people have too much of those things already. By sifting through the garbage pile of a civilization, archaeologists can find out what was important to those people (or what they had too much of).
3. 4. 5. 6. Why is this important? Sometimes, garbage is all that's left of a people. Especially if that people has been conquered by others, the buildings, tools, and food were probably consumed or destroyed long ago. A people's trash, especially if it was also trash to the invaders, might be left alone, enabling archaeologists to discover more about a people who left few clues to what they liked and didn't like. Did they wear certain clothes? What kinds of food did they eat? What kind of tools did they use or throw away? Answers to all these questions can be found by sifting through a midden. It could also be possible to find out more about a conquered people by searching the midden of their conquerors. Some invaders, not really knowing what's valuable to the people they're conquering, might very well throw away things that are extremely valuable. It is left to archaeologists to find these things and piece together the life stories of people long since conquered. One person's trash could be another person's treasure. Basic Archaeology: What s a Dig? and What s a Midden? from socialstudiesforkids.com by David White, copyright 2002-2011.
1 The column on the left lists some important ideas about archaeologists. One idea is found in both Article 1 and Article 2. One idea is found in Article 1 only, and one idea is found in Article 2 only. Write the ideas in the correct columns below. One idea will not be used.
2 Based on the information in both articles, what steps would you take to do an archaeology dig at a spot where people might have lived in the past? Write an essay describing the process you would follow to learn about these people, using only the information in the articles. Be sure to include details from both articles. Write your response in the space that has been provided below. 3 In paragraph 6 of Article 1, the author states, The basic idea behind the dig is to discover the past. Circle the two paragraphs in Article 1 that support the idea that digs can tell us specific information about people who lived in the past.
4 The following question has two parts. Answer Part A and then answer Part B. Part A According to Article 1, what do archaeologists study in addition to people who lived long ago? (A) The reasons an area became full of debris long ago (B) The general conditions in an area long ago (C) The governments of the people long ago (D) The ways people worked together long ago
5 Part B Which detail from Article 1 best supports the answer to Part A? (A) It's not that the ground has really sunk; it's more that more layers have been added on top. (B) And the more they find, the more they understand. (C) Also, a dig might turn up fragments of clothing or shoes, giving archaeologists clues to what kind of clothing the people who lived there wore. (D) For instance, by discovering seeds, archaeologists can also discover what kinds of crops the people who lived there grew or, if people didn't live there at all, what kind of wild plants or fruits or vegetables grew there.
6 The following question has two parts. Answer Part A and then answer Part B. Part A Which sentence best states the main idea of Article 2, What s a Midden? (A) Conquering other people destroys details about the past. (B) Learning about the past is more important than ever. (C) Being an archaeologist is a very difficult job. (D) Looking at old trash gives archaeologists useful knowledge.
7 Part B Which detail from the article best support the answer to Part A? (A) By sifting through the garbage pile of a civilization, archaeologists can find out what was important to those people (or what they had too much of). (B) Sometimes, garbage is all that's left of a people. (C) Especially if that people has been conquered by others, the buildings, tools, and food were probably consumed or destroyed long ago. (D) Some invaders, not really knowing what's valuable to the people they're conquering, might very well throw away things that are extremely valuable.
8 Read the following sentence from Article 2. A people's trash, especially if it was also trash to the invaders, might be left alone, enabling archaeologists to discover more about a people who left few clues to what they liked and didn't like. Which point is the author supporting by including this sentence in the article? (A) how difficult it is to learn about people based on the objects they have left behind (B) that objects that were considered worthless in the past are also worthless in the present (C) that throughout history people have fought over valuable objects (D) why some objects people used in the past may have survived to the present
Read the article. Then, answer the questions. Louis Braille: Opening the Doors of Knowledge by James Rumford 1 Two hundred years ago, if you were blind, you became a beggar. Or maybe, if you were lucky, a circus musician or a fortuneteller. Most seeing people pitied you because they thought you had only half their wits. Few understood that it was only your eyes that did not work. Your heart and your mind were like everyone else s. 2 So said a Frenchman named Haüy [ah-wee], who opened a school in Paris for blind children in 1784. He spent all his money to prove that the blind could learn. He even invented special books with huge, raised letters so that they could read with their fingertips. 3 News of Haüy s school spread across France, arriving one day in 1818 at the doorstep of a poor saddle maker named Simon Braille. Several years before, the saddle maker s three-year-old son Louis had punctured his eye with a sharp, pointed awl while playing. Infection quickly sealed his eyes shut, and within days he was blind. 4 Everyone knew what was in store for the boy a life of begging. But Louis s father and mother would have none of that. The village priest and the village schoolteacher agreed, and they taught Louis, even though there were no books for blind children to read or ways for them to write. But Louis was bright and in two years had learned all he could at the village school. 5 Then the village priest came knocking at the Brailles door with an astounding proposal: send Louis to Paris, to Haüy s school. But how? There was no money. So the priest went to the most powerful man in the county, who wrote a letter to the school. 6 Within a few months, Louis had a scholarship and left his village of Coupvray [coo-vray] for a new life in Paris. He was only 10. 7 When Louis was 12, an extraordinary man named Captain Barbier [bar-bee-ay] came to the school. He wanted to show off his invention, called night writing. This was a code of 12 raised bumps that made it possible for soldiers to send and read messages in the dark. 8 The sighted teachers called Captain Barbier a clever man, but, when Louis slid his fingers over the bumps, he whispered, No, he s a genius! 9 Louis realized that night writing was a way for blind people to write down the ideas that filled their heads. No longer would they have to ask seeing people for help. And night writing was a way for blind people to read, really read, instead of slowly tracing their fingers over giant, raised letters. 10 But night writing needed work. Its clumps of dots took too much time to write and were almost as hard as Haüy s letters to read. For three years Louis punched out new combinations of dots, but nothing worked. Then
one summer, when he was 15, he had a breakthrough. Instead of basing his letters on 12 dots, Louis based them on six. This made his letters easy to write and easy to read, for each letter was small enough to fit under a fingertip. 11 Louis couldn t wait to teach his friends back at school. Within days of his return, his friends were gliding their fingertips across words theyhad written. No longer did they need sighted people to write for them. Louis s dots meant freedom! 12 The head of the school, Director Pignier [peen-yay], welcomed Louis s dot system, but some of the teachers scoffed at the boy s foolishness. How could the blind learn without the help of the seeing? How could the blind lead the blind? But Louis paid no attention. Before long, dot-filled books appeared in classrooms. 13 At age 17 Louis was made a teacher at the school; at 24, a full professor. Students filled his classes, and he in turn filled them with hope and the promise that they each had something valuable to contribute to the world. 14 Louis even used his dots to write down music. His students no longer had to memorize every piece. Now they could compose as well. More freedom. More promise. 15 In 1840, Director Pignier was dismissed and a teacher named Dufau [dew-foe] took his place. Dufau didn t like Louis s dots. They made the students too independent. One summer, when Louis was back in Coupvray, Dufau introduced a simplified form of Haüy s raised letters. Then, to make sure that everyone used the new system, he burned Haüy s books and Louis s as well. There was also a new rule: No more dot writing. 16 But no one gives up newly won freedom without a fight. Louis, even in his grief, knew that. The students defied the director. They wrote in secret. They passed notes at night. 17 When Dufau saw how the students supported Louis, he gave in. Dot books and dot writing were back. For the next eight years, Louis continued to teach, and his system of reading and writing flourished. 18 Then, in 1852, he became seriously ill and died. No newspaper mentioned his death. Only people at the school knew that a great man had passed away. They built a statue of their beloved teacher and wrote his life story. 19 Slowly, the world came to know of Louis Braille and adopted his system of dot writing. In 1952, 100 years after his death, his body was taken to Paris and buried alongside the heroes of France. That day, every newspaper in the world wrote about Louis, and thousands of blind people lined the streets to honor him. Louis Braille had given them the means to prove that their hearts and minds were like everyone else s. Louis Braille: Opening the Doors of Knowledge by James Rumford, from Ask (January 2009). Text and art copyright 2002 by James Rumford. Reprinted by permission of Cricket Magazine Group, Carus Publishing Company. Photograph copyright istockphoto/roman Milert.
9 Based on the article, how was Louis s invention important to blind people? (A) It gave them back their sight. (B) It gave them ideas for their writing. (C) It helped them decide what to study. (D) It helped them become more independent.
10 Read the words from the article below. fortuneteller fingertips doorstep newspaper What do the words in the box have in common? (A) They are adjectives. (B) They are contractions. (C) They are proper nouns. (D) They are compound words.
11 Read the question carefully. Explain your answer. Add supporting details. Double-check your work. Based on the article, explain what people thought of Louis Braille. Support your answer with important information from the article.