Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress English Language Arts Grade 3

Four students walked the beach at Sleeping Bear with paper bags. Their names were Omar, Tess, Lin, and Paul. They had come to tally shells.

Omar made one mark for each shell the group kept. They were not tallying stones. A cracked shell still counted if everyone could tell it had once been a shell.

At the end, Omar read the marks aloud. "Our tally of shells is 15." Tess glanced around and started to say 4. Lin shook her head. "Four is how many students we are. The shells are 15."

They poured the shells into one classroom box. Paul held the tally sheet beside the box. The count matched. No one added the students into the shell total.

In a gym in Lansing, Mr. Diaz stood on a low stage with two balls of the same size. One was a heavy solid rubber ball. The other was a light hollow ball. He held them at the same height.

"Some people think a heavier ball falls faster," he told the class. "I will let go of both at the same time. Watch when they reach the floor."

He opened his hands. The heavier ball and the lighter ball landed together. They touched the floor at the same moment. The heavier ball did not arrive first.

Imani frowned. "The heavy one should have won." Mr. Diaz shook his head. "Heavier objects do not fall faster. Both balls had the same distance to fall, so they took the same amount of time."

Inside the planetarium in Flint, the dome was dark. Ms. Shah pointed to a model of Earth. "Seasons come from Earth's tilt," she said. "Tilt means Earth's lean. That lean changes how directly sunlight hits Michigan."

Elliot asked why January was so cold. He thought Earth must be far from the Sun in winter. Ms. Shah shook her head. "Earth is closest to the Sun in January. A Michigan January is still winter."

She tipped the model. In January, Michigan leans away from the Sun's direct rays. The light spreads out, and the days are shorter. The cold comes from that lean, not from Earth being far away.

In the July position, Michigan got more direct light. Elliot wrote one line in his notebook: closest in January, and winter all the same.

After supper on Mackinac Island, Adele and her uncle sat on a bench above the harbor. A thin crescent hung over the water. Adele said, "Earth's shadow is covering the Moon."

Her uncle shook his head. "A crescent is the Moon's lit half, turned so we see only a slice. The dark part is night on the Moon. It is not a shadow from Earth."

He pointed at the bright curve. "Earth's shadow on the Moon is a lunar eclipse, and that is rare. Most nights the Moon is not passing through Earth's shadow."

Adele looked again. The glowing edge was sunlight on the Moon. She pulled the blanket closer and let the shadow idea go.

In late winter near Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula, Nadia helped Aunt Pearl in a sugar shack. Clear sap dripped from maple trees into metal buckets. Nadia tasted a drop. It was faintly sweet and watery.

A wide pan steamed on the stove. "Maple sap becomes syrup by boiling water out," Aunt Pearl said. "We are not adding sugar. Heat sends the water up as steam, and the sugar stays in the pan."

Nadia read a card tacked to the wall. About 40 gallons of sap make 1 gallon of syrup. Aunt Pearl nodded at the buckets. "That is why we haul so much sap for one small jug."

Later the pan held a thicker amber liquid. Nadia poured a spoonful on clean snow, which her aunt allowed once. It tasted like maple, not like the thin sap from the tree.

A tour boat moved slowly beside Pictured Rocks. Mina held a fact card from the ranger. The stripes on the cliffs came from minerals in the rock. Rain and waves had uncovered the layers. Minerals are materials in the stone that give it color.

Mina's brother, Theo, said a painter must have colored the cliffs in the night. Mina read the card aloud. Nobody had painted them. The colors were already in the stone.

The ranger pointed to a red streak and a green band. "Those bands were here long before this boat," she said. "Stay seated, and do not lean over the side."

Theo set his paint idea aside. He drew the bands in a notebook instead. Mina lent him the green pencil for the lower band and the red pencil for the streak above it.

On Saturdays, Ben and his dad crossed a footbridge in Grand Rapids. The bridge passed over a river path downtown. A bell on the rail was for walkers who needed help. It was not a bell for boats.

The sign under the bell said to ring once to call the park worker at the far end. Ben's dad read the sign twice so Ben would remember. One ring meant help.

That morning Ben's shoelace snapped. He could still walk. His dad tied the broken lace into a knot, and they went on across the bridge. Ben did not touch the bell.

Near the end, another walker rang the bell one time. The park worker jogged over with a first-aid kit. Ben understood. A snapped lace was something his dad could fix. The bell was for help a walker could not handle alone.

Rain tapped the windows of the library in Ann Arbor. Farah had a worksheet about animal homes. She needed a book that told where a beaver builds.

The first book was a funny story about a talking canoe. Farah liked the pictures, but the story did not answer the worksheet. She slid it back onto the shelf.

On a low shelf she found a book with a brown dam on the cover. A diagram showed sticks, mud, and an underwater door. The words said beavers build dams in streams to make ponds.

Farah copied one fact in a quiet corner. The lodge is the beaver's home, and the dam makes the pond around it. She stayed quiet so she would not skip a label on the diagram.

The field in Kalamazoo was windy enough for kites. Caleb's diamond kite climbed, then dropped. The string had knotted around his ankle.

His cousin Maya said, "Pull hard." Caleb's dad said no. A hard pull could snap the string or tug Caleb off his feet. They walked toward the kite until the string went soft.

Maya held the kite flat on the grass. Caleb unwound the knot one loop at a time. The string was tangled. It was not broken.

They tried again. Caleb let the string out slowly. The kite rose and stayed up. Maya said a slow let-out worked better than a yank.

In Holland, the class planted tulip bulbs on a cool October day. The bulbs looked like small onions. No flowers showed above the soil.

Mr. Ellis said the flowers would come in spring. The cold weeks were part of the wait. "A bulb is a stored start," he said. "The plant is inside, but you will not see petals today."

Nora wanted to dig her bulb back up to check on it. Mr. Ellis asked her to leave it covered. Digging it up would break the start they had just planted.

Nora patted the soil flat. She pushed in a wooden marker with her name. She would look for a green shoot when the class came back in spring. Until then, the row would look empty on purpose.

The lighthouse at the end of the pier in Muskegon had a red roof. Jules and his grandmother started onto the pier only after they checked the sky. A board listed one rule. If waves wash over the walkway, turn back.

That afternoon the walkway was dry. They reached the lighthouse. A plaque said the light helped boaters find the harbor entrance at night.

Jules asked if the light was there to decorate the roof. His grandmother tapped the plaque. "The light is a signal. The red roof is only the roof."

On the way back, spray darkened one board. The water did not wash over the walkway. They kept walking. The rule was about waves covering the path, not about one splash.

Apple trees near Saginaw were heavy with fruit. A picker named Ms. Hart gave the visiting class two rules. Pick only apples that come off with a gentle turn. On the ladder, keep both feet on the same rung.

Devon reached for a green apple. It stayed tight on the branch, so he left it. A red apple beside it turned loose in his hand.

Then Devon put one foot on a higher rung and left the other foot low. The ladder wobbled. Ms. Hart said, "Both feet on the same rung." He brought his feet together, and the wobble stopped.

He climbed down with three red apples. The green apple was still on the tree. Ms. Hart said it needed more days.

At a farm stand in Traverse City, a sign said cherries were sold by the pound. Lila set her basket on the scale. The needle stopped at 2 pounds.

Her uncle read the price board. Cherries cost 4 dollars for each pound. He said, "Two pounds at 4 dollars a pound is 8 dollars." He counted out eight dollar bills.

The seller handed them a slip with the weight written on it. Lila checked the slip. It said 2 pounds, the same number the needle showed.

On the walk to the car, Lila ate one cherry. Her uncle laughed and said the scale had already done its job. That cherry did not change the 8 dollars they had paid.

A snowshoe trail in the Upper Peninsula was marked with blue posts. The map at the start said to turn around at the third blue post. Past that post, the trail was not packed for the class.

Camille and her brother Owen clipped on snowshoes. Boots alone sank too deep in the snow. The snowshoes spread their weight and kept them on top.

They passed the first post, then the second. At the third, Owen wanted to keep going because the woods ahead looked pretty. Camille stopped and read the map again.

They turned around. On the way back they met the markers in reverse: the third post, the second post, then the sign at the start. Owen said the pretty woods could wait until the trail was packed farther.

Before a trip to see the Great Lakes, Mr. Okon's class made a poster. He said Michigan touches four of the lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Lake Ontario was drawn on the poster too. He marked it as the lake Michigan does not touch.

Sasha began to write "Michigan" on the east side of the state. Mr. Okon turned the poster toward the class. Lake Michigan was the long lake on the west side. Lake Huron was the lake on the east.

Sasha had also swapped Superior and Erie. Superior was the lake across the top. Erie was the smaller lake at the southeast corner.

After the labels were fixed, the class traced a star on the state, on the land between those four lakes. Ontario stayed on the poster with a note that said "not a Michigan shore."

At a vegetable stand in Detroit, Mateo helped Aunt Ruth before the lunch rush. She sold peppers in bags of 5. A sign said each bag cost 3 dollars.

A customer asked for 2 bags. Mateo counted 5 peppers into the first bag and 5 into the second. That was 10 peppers. Aunt Ruth said, "Two bags at 3 dollars each is 6 dollars."

Mateo almost said the price was 5 dollars. He was thinking of the peppers in one bag. Aunt Ruth tapped the sign. The 5 was a count of peppers, not a price.

The customer paid 6 dollars and took both bags. Mateo wrote "10 peppers" and "6 dollars" on the order slip so he would not mix those numbers again.

From a kitchen window in Lansing, Noor watched a bright red bird at the feeder. She opened a pack of cards about backyard birds. The cardinal card said a crest is the pointed feathers on the bird's head. A male cardinal has that crest and a black mask.

The bird at the feeder had both the crest and the mask. A second bird on the fence was mostly brown, with only touches of red. The card said females are paler than males. Noor did not call the brown bird a different kind.

Her brother said every red bird is a cardinal. Noor turned to the house finch card. A house finch can show red, but it has no crest. The bird at the feeder had a crest, so she left the cardinal card on the table.

They kept the feeder full. The cardinal card said to watch without tapping the glass. Noor folded her hands in her lap.