Quiz & test questions Grade 3 English Language Arts
Why Mossgill Pond Turned Green: A Grade 3 Reading Quiz
A twenty-point grade 3 quiz on a passage about a fictional school pond that turned green after lawn food washed downhill, mixing choice and short answer.
Objectives
- Students will answer questions using details a passage states.
- Students will explain a cause and effect the passage describes.
- Students will apply the passage fix to a second pond in the same town.
Vocabulary
- Storm drain
- A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.
Also: algae, runoff, lawn food, rot
Teacher overview
This quiz is worth twenty points and runs about thirty minutes, with four multiple-choice items and six short-answer items, all drawn from one short passage about a fictional school pond. The passage states a full cause-and-effect chain, from lawn food to runoff to algae to fish, so students who go back to the text can trace it step by step. Third graders very often say that green pond water is mud stirred up from the bottom, and many hold the idea that rain rinses a pond clean rather than carrying things into it. Items 1 and 9 are written to catch those two ideas, and both are worth reviewing aloud after scoring.
Assessment
Read the passage. Then answer every question.
Why Mossgill Pond Turned Green
Mossgill Pond sits behind the school in the town of Gorsely. Ducks live on it. Children skate on it in winter.
Last June the pond turned green. The green was not paint. It was tiny green plants called algae. Algae are always in the pond. In June there were far too many.
Algae grow fast when they get plant food. Lawn food is plant food. Many lawns in Gorsely sit uphill from the pond. When it rains, water runs off those lawns. It carries some of the lawn food with it. That water slides into the storm drains and comes out at the pond.
Too much algae is hard on the pond. A thick green mat blocks the sun. Water plants under the mat die without sun. When the algae die, they sink and rot. Rotting uses up the air in the water. Fish need that air.
The town tried a fix. Workers planted a wide strip of tall grass along the uphill side of the pond. The grass slows the runoff down. It catches some of the lawn food before that water reaches the pond. Ms. Tarbell, who cuts the grass strip once a year, says the pond stayed clear all this summer.
- What made Mossgill Pond look green last June? (2 points)
A. Paint that spilled at the school.
B. Tiny green plants called algae.
C. Mud stirred up from the bottom.
D. Green dye that fell with the rain. - Where did the extra plant food come from? (2 points)
A. From the ducks on the pond.
B. From lawns uphill from the pond.
C. From the storm drains themselves.
D. From the strip of tall grass. - How does lawn food get from a lawn all the way to the pond? Use the passage. (2 points)
- What happens under the water when a thick green mat covers the top? (2 points)
A. The water plants below get more sun.
B. The water plants below die without sun.
C. The pond freezes early.
D. The ducks lay more eggs. - Why is it hard on the fish when algae die and rot? Use a detail from the passage. (2 points)
- What did the town plant along the uphill side of the pond? (2 points)
- Give two ways the strip of tall grass helps the pond. (2 points)
- Which sentence matches what the passage says about algae in a normal year? (2 points)
A. Algae never live in Mossgill Pond.
B. Algae are always in the pond, and in June there were far too many.
C. Algae only grow inside storm drains.
D. Algae come from the strip of tall grass. - A neighbor says that the June rain should have washed the pond clean. Use the passage to explain why the neighbor is wrong. (2 points)
- A second pond in the town of Gorsely sits downhill from a golf course. Name one thing the town could try at that pond, and tell why it would help. Use the passage. (2 points)
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: B. Tiny green plants called algae. The second paragraph says the green was not paint and names algae. Choice C is the common wrong idea, since mud does cloud water but the passage never mentions it.
- Answer: B. From lawns uphill from the pond. The third paragraph says lawn food is plant food and that many Gorsely lawns sit uphill from the pond.
- Answer: Rain runs off the lawns, carries some lawn food with it, slides into the storm drains, and comes out at the pond. Award full credit for any answer that keeps the runoff and the storm drains in order.
- Answer: B. The water plants below die without sun. The fourth paragraph says the mat blocks the sun and that plants under it die.
- Answer: Because the dead algae sink and rot, and rotting uses up the air in the water, which fish need. Award full credit when both the rotting and the air appear.
- Answer: A wide strip of tall grass along the uphill side of the pond. The last paragraph states this.
- Answer: It slows the runoff down, and it catches some of the lawn food before that water reaches the pond. Both come from the last paragraph.
- Answer: B. Algae are always in the pond, and in June there were far too many. The second paragraph says both halves of this sentence.
- Answer: Because the rain is what carried the lawn food into the pond in the first place. The third paragraph says the runoff carries lawn food into the storm drains and out at the pond, so rain added the problem rather than rinsing it away.
- Answer: Answers will vary. Accept one fix the passage supports with a reason, such as planting a strip of tall grass between the golf course and that pond, because the grass slows runoff and catches plant food before the water arrives. Accept also using less lawn food uphill, for the same stated reason.
Differentiation
Support
Read the passage aloud once before the quiz begins and leave it projected while students work. For these students, reduce the quiz to items 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8 and score out of twelve points. Allow oral answers scribed by an adult for items 6 and 7.
Extension
Ask students to write the three sentences Ms. Tarbell would put in a note to the golf course manager, using the cause-and-effect chain in the passage and naming the fix that worked at Mossgill Pond. Their note must keep the steps in the order the passage gives them.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "algae," "runoff," "storm drain," and "rot" with a sketch of a lawn, an arrow to a grate, and an arrow to a pond, and let students trace that arrow path with a finger before reading. Provide sentence frames for items 3 and 5: "The lawn food goes from the lawn to ___ and then to ___," and "The fish have trouble because ___." Accept labeled drawings for item 10.
Extensions
Students can walk the schoolyard and mark every storm grate they find, then write one sentence about what would reach the nearest pond or creek if something spilled beside each grate. Comparing their sentences shows how many separate paths lead to the same water.