De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Pigeon Express [Pdf]

"Pigeon Express" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about a man who had carrier pigeons and sent messages to his sister on the other side of town everyday. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes: sequencing, making inferences, describing character traits, finding main idea, and summarizing. This passage aligns with Common Core Anchor Reading Standards 1 requiring close reading, textual evidence, main idea, and summarizing.