Illinois Assessment of Readiness English Language Arts Reading Grade 3

Along a school fence in Wilmington, tall plants leaned over a strip of grass. Mr. Bell brought a mower to cut the grass before the school picnic. The class was carrying chairs outside when Nina noticed a striped caterpillar on a leaf.

She called Mr. Bell over. He stopped the mower and bent down. Nina wanted him to promise never to cut anything near the fence. Mr. Bell looked at the picnic tables. The grass between the tables and the door had to be short so people could walk easily.

Nina and two friends searched the fence strip. They found caterpillars on several milkweed plants, but none on the short grass near the door. They tied blue yarn loosely to stakes around the milkweed patch. Mr. Bell walked around the stakes and drew a curved line on the class map.

By lunchtime, the path from the door was clear. A narrow strip around the milkweed was cut too, but the tall plants inside the stakes still stood. Nina watched a younger child follow a caterpillar with his finger without touching it. His father moved a chair closer to see.

After the picnic, Nina untied a piece of yarn that had slipped onto the path. She put it back on its stake. Next week, she planned to bring her notebook to the patch.

Lena and her uncle climb wooden stairs at Starved Rock State Park near Utica. A thin waterfall drops into a canyon. Spray makes the rock shine.

A sign at the landing says the wet rock is slippery. Visitors must stay on the stairs. Lena wants to step onto the rock so she can feel the spray on her hand. Her uncle reads the sign aloud.

Lena stays on the stairs. She can still see the waterfall and hear it hit the canyon floor. She wipes spray from her cheek and says the stairs are close enough. They walk down the same stairs they climbed.

In Galena, Theo and his grandmother stop beside a brick wall. A white line is painted high on the wall. Words under the line say the Galena River reached that height in a flood many years ago.

The line is above Theo's head. He thinks the river is that high today, so he does not want to walk downhill. His grandmother points to the words. The line shows an old flood. It does not show the river today.

They walk to a footbridge. His grandmother says the river is in its banks. She explains that the water stays in the river and does not cover the street. The water is far below the white line, and the street is dry. Theo laughs at his worry. The high mark is a memory of an old flood, not a picture of this afternoon.

Nia sits on wide steps at the Peoria riverfront. A long flat boat called a barge moves slowly on the Illinois River. The sun feels hot, so she sets her red hat on the step. The hat has one blue stripe.

A breeze lifts the hat and rolls it toward the rail. A park worker catches it before it can drop toward the water. She holds it up and asks who it belongs to.

Nia says it is red with a blue stripe. The worker checks the stripe and gives the hat back. Nia puts it on and holds the brim while she watches a second barge. She does not set the hat down again.

Jay's class visits a house museum on Eighth Street in Springfield. Ropes hang across the doorways of the rooms. A guide says the ropes mean visitors may look, but they may not walk in or touch the furniture.

Jay sees a stiff sofa stuffed with horsehair. He wants to press it with one finger to see if it is scratchy. He remembers the ropes and keeps his hands at his sides. He asks his question in a soft voice, as the guide requested.

The guide says horsehair sofas were made to last, and this one is old, so it must be left alone. Jay nods. Outside, he looks at a small barn and does not open its door. Looking is welcome. Touching is not.

At a Saturday market in Champaign, the corn table has one sack left. A card on the sack says 3 dollars. Devi wants that sack for her family dinner. She has a 5 dollar bill in her pocket.

She pays with the 5 dollar bill. The seller takes 3 dollars for the corn and gives Devi 2 dollars back. Devi counts the change. She has 2 dollars.

Her brother points to the peach table. A sign says sold out. There are no peaches to buy. They leave with the sack of corn and with no peaches. Devi keeps the 2 dollars in her pocket for the bus ride home.

A paved path runs beside the Rock River in Rockford. A painted sign says riders must ring a bell before they pass people who are walking. The sound gives walkers time to move aside.

Luis rides his bike and forgets the bell. He swoops close to a walker, and she jumps. Luis stops. He says he is sorry. He tells her he should have rung the bell first.

The walker nods and steps toward the grass edge. Farther along, Luis sees two more walkers. This time he rings the bell early. They hear it and shift over. He rides past them and stays on the pavement.

Monks Mound rises at Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville. It is a huge hill of earth. People built it long ago by piling soil they carried in baskets. The mound is made of earth. It is not made of brick.

Wooden steps go up one side. A sign says to stay on the steps and not to run. The sign also says to leave the mound as they found it. Imani and her father start up. Imani wants to race. Her father taps the sign. She walks.

At the top, the land looks wide and flat, and a highway shines in the sun. Imani does not pick up soil to take home. They walk down the same steps.

Pablo's family hikes at Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee National Forest. Tall rocks stand above the trees. A map shows two overlooks. The near overlook faces a rock that looks like a camel's head to Pablo. The far overlook faces a rock his sister calls a chimney.

Their aunt says they have time for only one overlook before lunch. Pablo's ankle is sore from the morning walk. The near overlook is closer. The far one is past a long set of stone steps.

They choose the near overlook. Pablo sees the camel-shaped rock and takes a photo. They do not go to the chimney rock. The aunt folds the map and leads them back for lunch.

Amir and his aunt walk to a Lake Michigan beach in Evanston. A tall pole holds the swim flag. A board explains the colors. A green flag means people may swim in the marked area. A red flag means everyone stays out of the water.

Today the flag is red. The board says the waves are high. Amir is a careful swimmer, and he asks if the red flag is only for people who cannot swim. His aunt reads the line that says everyone. The red flag includes good swimmers too.

They stay on the dry sand and build a tower with a paper cup. Waves crash beyond the marked area. Amir does not wade. When they leave, the flag is still red.

A bike path in Moline crosses a bridge over the Mississippi River. Sometimes the bridge lifts so a tall boat can pass. A red light and a gate tell riders to wait. A green light means the bridge is down and riders may cross.

Sasha and her father arrive while the light is red. The bridge is up. Sasha thinks three boats are coming because she hears three horns. Her father points. Only one tall boat is in the part of the river where boats travel. The other horns come from a train on the far bank, not from boats.

They wait behind the gate. The one boat passes. The bridge comes down, and the light turns green. Sasha rides across with her father. They do not go around the gate.

Elena and her cousin sit on a bench along the Naperville Riverwalk. Ducks paddle on the Fox River and slip under a low bridge. A bread crust from lunch is in Elena's bag.

A sign on the rail says not to feed the ducks. The sign says bread is not good for them. Elena wants to toss the crust because the ducks look hungry. Then she looks at the water's edge. The ducks are eating green plants there.

Elena tells her cousin the ducks already have food. She puts the crust back in the bag. Her cousin had started to read the sign aloud, and now he smiles. When they stand up, the crust is still in the bag.

The school garden in Chicago had a problem. After lunch, snack wrappers sometimes blew against its fence. The garden club made a sign that said, “Please put wrappers in a bin.” It hung the sign on the back wall of the classroom.

For a week, the club counted wrappers at the fence each afternoon. The counts were still about the same. “We need bigger letters,” said Marco. Tia took the sign outside and held it where she could read it from the lunch tables. From there, the classroom wall was hidden by the school building.

The club asked to move the sign. On Monday it placed the sign near the lunch tables, beside the bins. The message stayed the same size. On two days the children counted fewer wrappers at the garden. On Wednesday a strong wind scattered an uncovered bin, and the count rose again.

Tia drew three columns in the notebook: day, wrappers, and notes. In the notes column for Wednesday she wrote, “Bin lid open.” The children asked the custodian to help fix the lid. They kept counting for another week.

At the next club meeting, Marco brought a new idea for the sign. Instead of reaching for paint, Tia opened the notebook. The club spread it in the middle of the table before anyone changed the words.

At an Aurora library sale, Ben found a book of local photographs. A folded page stuck out of the middle. It was a map drawn in green pencil, with a star beside a bridge. Below the star, someone had written, “Meet here.”

Ben wanted to pull out the map and keep it. His grandmother suggested asking at the sale desk first. The volunteer at the desk looked inside the book’s cover. “The library no longer needs this copy,” she said. “But this loose page may belong to someone who used it.” She placed the map in a clear folder and wrote down where it had been found.

Ben bought the book. At home, he noticed the same bridge in a photograph. The picture showed a narrow walkway and three lamp posts. He drew his own map on fresh paper, adding the lamp posts so that his grandmother could recognize the place.

A week later, the volunteer called. A woman had come looking for a green map she and her grandson had made. She had left it inside the book while comparing old photographs. The volunteer had her name and description of the page before showing it to her.

Ben did not get the green map back. On Saturday he and his grandmother visited the bridge using his new drawing. There were still three lamp posts. Ben added a bench that the old photograph had not shown.

A train whistle blows in Carbondale. Rosa sits up in bed and reaches for her school shoes. The room is dark. She thinks the whistle means morning has come and she is late for school.

Her father knocks and turns on a small lamp. The clock on the dresser says 9:00. He says this 9:00 is at night. The whistle is the night train passing through town. School does not start at night.

Rosa looks at the dark window. She puts the shoes back by the door for the real morning. She gets into bed. She has not missed school. School has not started yet.

At Lockport, a canal boat waits in a large stone box called a lock. The lower gates are shut. The boat needs to reach a higher part of the canal. It cannot climb the hill by itself.

Water flows into the lock. The boat rises as the water rises. The boat does not grow bigger. The water lifts it. A boy named Chris thinks workers are pumping air into the boat like a balloon. His sister says no. She points at the rising line where the water meets the stone wall.

When the water inside matches the higher canal, the upper gates open. The boat moves out. Visitors stay behind a fence. They do not stand on the gates. Chris watches the water and understands that the water did the lifting.

A third-grade class visits a firehouse in Joliet. A firefighter shows them the truck. She says the bright red color helps drivers see the truck in traffic. A spotted dog named Pepper lives at the station.

Pepper sleeps on a rug by the office door. The firefighter says Pepper stays at the station when the truck goes out. Pepper does not ride on the truck. The dog might get in the way, and the truck must leave quickly.

Back at school, the class writes thank-you notes. Willa draws Pepper on the truck. Her teacher asks her to check the visit notes. The notes say Pepper stays by the station door. Willa erases the dog from the truck and draws Pepper on the rug by the door. The red truck is in the picture with no dog on it.