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Read Works: A Very Special Place
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction shares the story of a young girl living in an urban setting who had a wonderful imagination. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and...
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Read Works: Amusement Park Motion
[Free Registration/Login Required] This informational text is an article about the physics topic of "momentum" that occurs at amusement parks. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and...
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Read Works: Aliens Invade!
[Free Registration/Login Required] This article shares information about the effect of adding certain species into non-native environments. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and...
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Read Works: American Government Jury Duty
[Free Registration/Login Required] This first person account explains the topic of jury duty. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and establishes scaffolding for...
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Read Works: From City to Farm
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about s psychologist who decided to leave his life in the city and become a farmer. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Soft Schools
Soft Schools: Reading Comprehension 4th Grade Quiz
This site offers a nonfiction reading comprehension quiz in which students read a passage about Abraham Lincoln and answer questions about it.
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Read Works: Water Woes
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction piece includes information about the world's water shortage. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and establishes...
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Read Works: Truman and His Doctrine: Revolutionary, Unprecedented, and Bipartisan
[Free Registration/Login Required] This 5-page PDF is the nonfiction article "Truman and His Doctrine: Revolutionary, Unprecedented, and Bipartisan" by Elizabeth Edwards Spalding which discusses Truman's policy to provide aid to Turkey...
![De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Our Streets [Pdf] Unit Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Our Streets [Pdf] Unit Plan")
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Our Streets [Pdf]
"Our Streets" is a one page, nonfiction passage about how streets are designed, built, signed, and maintained. It is followed by an open-ended question which requires students to provide evidence from the story; it includes underlining...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Prairie Ecology [Pdf]
"Prairie Ecology" is a one page, nonfiction passage about the tallgrass prairie ecosystem and how it works using three animals: the skipper butterfly, ground squirrel, and the bison It is followed by an open-ended question which requires...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Plants and Places [Pdf]
"Plants and Places" is a one page, nonfiction passage about how plants fit the types of environment they live in such as cactus like hot, dry weather and live in Arizona. The state flowers fit the climate of the states. It is followed by...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Nutrition Lesson [Pdf]
"Nutrition Lesson" is a one page, nonfiction passage about protein including what it does in the body and what foods contain protein. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Plants and Food [Pdf]
"Plants and Food" is a one page, nonfiction passage about plant foods and the importance of knowing what plants are safe to eat and how to prevent food from spoiling. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Traveling West [Pdf]
"Traveling West" is a one page, nonfiction passage about pioneers traveling west in wagon trains. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes underlining the most important...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Economic Connections [Pdf]
"Economic Connections" is a one-page nonfiction passage about the economics of importing and exporting goods among countries to get what people need. It is followed by an open-ended question that requires students to provide evidence...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Learn About South Africa [Pdf]
"Learn about South Africa" is a one page, nonfiction passage about South Africa and its fight to end the apartheid. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes underlining the most...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Grant Park [Pdf]
"Grant Park" is a one page, nonfiction passage about Chicago creating a landfill by putting the trash from the Chicago fire in 1971 into the lake, on which they built Grant Park. It is followed by an open-ended question which requires...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: Native Americans: Potawatomi[pdf]
"Native American Life--Potawatomi Profile" is a one page, non-fiction, first person reading/thinking passage about the Potawatomi Native American tribe. It includes information about what they did during each of the seasons of the year.
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Read Works: Cool in the Hot Desert
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage gives information about the fennec fox and how it stays cool in the hot African desert. This passage reinforces essential reading comprehension skills. Opportunities for...
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Read Works: Always Remember
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage describes the events of September 11th and the memorials established to commemorate this horrifying day in history. This passage reinforces essential reading comprehension...
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Read Works: Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans the Aztec Empire
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage provides information about the ancient Aztec Empire, including the significance of Montezuma and Tenochtitlan. This passage reinforces essential reading comprehension skills....
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Read Works: Back From the Brink
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage gives information about animals that are on the brink of extinction, including the following: bald eagle, grizzly bears, Hawaiian sea turtles, and Southern sea turtles. This...
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Read Works: Bat News
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage describes the job of a chiroptologist, a bat scientist. This passage reinforces essential reading comprehension skills. Opportunities for vocabulary acquisition are also...
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Read Works: My Travel Journal in China: Day 5
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage gives a first person account of a person's visit to the Forbidden City in China. This passage reinforces essential reading comprehension skills. Opportunities for vocabulary...