Grade 4

QUESTION GUIDE A Letter to the Future Reading Level: V Text Type: Realistic/Fiction
Word Count: 328

Have students read the passage three times, each with a different Optional Question Bank
purpose. After each read, ask the questions below and discuss the
answers in small groups or as a class.
Read 1
1. Who is the intended audience for each letter?
2. What hopes did the class from 1917 have for the
Read 1 What Does the Text Say? future? How does this compare to the hopes of the
class from 2017?
1. What is this passage about?
2. What does each time capsule include?
Read 2
2
3. How do the cities chosen for the time capsules
Read How Does the Text Say What It Says? reflect the fictional nature of the passage? Why
do you think the author used these cities as the
3. Why do you think the author chose to organize the list of capsule contents in the
examples in this passage?
order they are in? How do the items compare?
4. How are a grocery store receipt and a supermarket
4. What is the value of the author writing this passage in the form of two letters?
flyer related?
5. What is an artifact? What would be considered the artifacts in the context of
5. What is the purpose of each illustration?
this passage?
Read 3
Read 3 What Is the Meaning and Value of the Text? 6. What do the descriptions of the bus and football
6. What is the purpose of the time capsules? Do you think the time capsules in this schedules tell you about where people gathered
passage were successful in accomplishing this? at the time the letters were written?
7. How would you summarize life in Thomasville, New York, in 1917 using the information
in this passage? How does this compare to life in Valley Stream, Texas, in 2017? Explain. Extension Text
Activity C nection
on
8. What artifacts would you use to describe your life today?

Extension Activity
How do artifacts tell a story?
Make a list of artifacts you would place in a class time capsule and explain your purpose
for including each.

This Close Read Passage has a text connection listed under

“Additional Resources” on this passage’s webpage.

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved. www.readinga-z.com


ANSWER GUIDE A Letter to the Future
Read 1 What Does the Text Say?
1. This passage is about two class time capsules, one hundred years apart.
2. Each time capsule includes a letter from the teacher and five items carefully
chosen by students to represent their life at the time.
Read 2 How Does the Text Say What It Says?
3. The author included the items in the order they are in because it helps to
see the comparison of like items during the different years. The first item
on each list is a newspaper, the second item shares the price of eggs during
each year, the third item compares a phone, the fourth item is a comparison
of photographs and technology, and the final item on each list shows where
people gather.
4. Writing this piece in the form of letters allows the author to seamlessly
change narrator, perspective, and time period to maximize the authenticity
of the piece.
5. An artifact is an object, typically made by humans, that holds cultural value.
In this passage, the artifacts are the items left in time capsules to help people
in the future understand the culture of those that left the objects behind.
Read 3 What Is the Meaning and Value of the Text?
6. The purpose of the time capsules is for people in the future to have a concrete
way of seeing how life was at some point in the past in a specific location
for a specific set of people. The time capsules in this piece were successful
in accomplishing this.
7. Answers will vary.
8. Answers will vary.
Extension Activity
Student responses will vary based on students’ discussion and research.
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
Grade 4
Reading Level: V Text Type: Realistic/Fiction
Word Count: 328
Optional Question Bank
Read 1
1. The intended audience of the first letter is for a present-day
class. The second letter is in response to the discovery of the
first letter and is intended for a class of the future.
2. The class of 1917 lived during war; they hoped for peace in
the future. The class of 2017 also hopes for a peaceful world
in the future.
Read 2
3. Both cities in the passage are not real locations. The author
likely made this choice because these are just examples of what
life may have been like at the time.
4. Both objects would show the cost of the items purchased at
a store at the time.
5. The illustrations show an example of the clothing and style of
that century along with some of the technology and examples
of the artifacts as well. This gives readers an additional layer of
comparison to visually see the two time periods.
Read 3
6. The bus schedule from 1917 shows that people gathered at bus
stops to get to and from school and work. The football schedule
shows that people spent time gathering at sporting events.
www.readinga-z.com