The Smudged Card (Realistic Fiction)

Have students read the story once for the plot and again with a pencil, marking details that show how characters feel. Then answer the questions and compare written answers with the quoted details in the answer key.

Read The Smudged Card, about a recipe card from Kraków, then use clues to find who wrote it. The directions on the page read: Read the story. Then answer the questions on page 2. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade paragraphs & passages, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with fiction passages. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

There are 14 realistic fiction stories, 7 adventure stories, 7 mysteries and 7 historical fiction stories. The historical fiction is set during real events such as the 1935 dust storm in The Black Wall and Ellis Island in 1907 in The Chalk Mark.

Most stories fit on 1 page with the questions on page 2. Seven longer stories, such as Kayak at Dusk and The Mill Girl, run over 2 pages and have 7 questions on page 3.

Questions ask how a character changes, what the theme is, who narrates, what a phrase means and how a section fits the story. Ninety Seconds, for example, asks why the author adds a flashback to a story told in timed sections.