foundation skills assessment - british columbia · pdf filefoundation skills assessment 7 ......

Foundation Skills Assessment7
Reading Choice 2
Reading Choice 1
Writing
Numeracy
OR
Name of Student:
School Name:
Student PEN:
Student Response Booklet
2017 Province of British Columbia
SAMPLESAMPLE

2017 Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Grade 7 FSA Student Response Booklet Sample 1
Overcoming Obstacles
If you chose
go to page 3
Survival
If you chose
go to page 15
Choices

2 Grade 7 FSA Student Response Booklet Sample 2017 Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved.
Overcoming Obstacles
Choice 1

PART 1: READING
Keys to Reading
Activate prior knowledgeI use past experiences to help me understand what I am reading.
What do I already know about the topic? Thinking about my past experiences, what might
happen next?
PredictI make guesses about what might happen in the text.
What might happen next in the text? What might the character do next?
InferI use my experiences and clues in the text to help me figure out what the author has not directly said.
What is the author telling me that is hidden in the text?
What clues are in the text that will help me understand what I am reading?
SynthesizeI put small ideas together to make a big idea.
What are the ideas in the text? What connections can I make between the ideas? How will the connections help me understand the
text more deeply?
Keys t
Before you start reading, think about what readers do
to help them understand what they are reading.

Part 1: Reading Overcoming Obstacles
Instructions for Students
There are two texts and three questions in this part of the booklet. Read each text and the questions carefully.
When answering the questions:
think about the Keys to Reading that will help you answer the questions.
clearly show your understanding of what you read by using details from the texts.
give complete, correct and clear answers.
use legible handwriting and press hard enough so your writing is clear.

Overcoming Obstacles Part 1: Reading
Ed Stafford of Great Britain became the first person to hike the length of the Amazon
River in South America. It took him nearly two-and-a-half years and nine pairs of shoes to complete this ambitious undertaking. Along the way, he encountered 6-metre-long anaconda snakes, electric eels, and caiman crocodiles. He faced starvation and the threat of drowning as he waded, chest-deep, through the river.
For Stafford, this trek was about more than just adventure. He took on the challenge to see firsthand the problems facing the Amazon rain forest, through which the long river winds. He hoped his journey would inspire others to take action to protect this precious resource. The planet wont survive without large rain forests, Stafford says. The more people who care about the Amazon, the better.
A Tough Journey
Stafford began his expedition on April 2, 2008, at the source of the Amazon, in Camana, Peru, and headed for the mouth of the river, in Maruda, Brazil. The river flows 6,800 kilometres eastward and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. In August 2008, a guide named Gadiel Cho Sanchez Rivera joined Stafford. After 860 days of walking, Stafford finally reached the Atlantic Ocean. He and Cho jumped in the water to celebrate their journeys end.
I was proud and somewhat defiant, Stafford says. Everyone told me it was impossible to go that far into the jungle. Although Stafford proved the naysayers wrong, the trek was certainly a challenge. In addition to facing deadly animals and crossing rough terrain, Stafford was stung by hundreds of wasps, thousands of mosquitoes, and countless other biting insects. He also encountered hostile native tribes. One tribes chief threatened to kill him if he stepped on tribal land.
Adventure in the Amazon
Ed Stafford photographed in the Peruvian Amazon in December 2008.

But once most people learned that Stafford wasnt a threat, they were happy to help him.
5 The jungles stifling heat and high humidity made the trek even more tiring and difficult. [I was] soaking wet with sweat every day, all day, Stafford says. Facing the threat of starvation, Stafford survived on piranha and trout. He got leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease spread by sand-flies. The disease could have eaten away his nose and face. Each night, he slept in pitch darkness on a hammock strung between trees.
A Forest in Peril
Despite the dangers, Stafford persisted on his walk, knowing it was all for a good cause. The Amazon is the worlds largest tropical rain forestand its in trouble.
Tropical rain forests are dense groups of trees located in very warm regions with annual rainfall of at least 254 centimetres. The Amazon rain forest covers about 40 percent of South America and stretches across eight countries. But roughly 17 percent of it has been lost to deforestation, or the clearing of trees. Huge areas of land have been destroyed to make room for agriculture, roads, dams, and more.
If deforestation continues at existing rates, 55 percent of the Amazon could be destroyed by 2030, says Margaret Symington, a biologist with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
People around the world rely on rain forests for food and medicines made from their plants. Rain forests also stabilize the worlds climate. Their trees absorb and store carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen.
10 If you cut down all of the Amazon tomorrow and burned it, the carbon that would be emitted would be the equivalent of 15 years of total man-made emissions, says Symington. That would have a huge effect on global climate.
Deforestation of Amazon Rainforest

Saving the Amazon
Many people are working to save the Amazon. Brazil has put a portion of it under government protection. In 2009, the number of trees cut down in Brazils rain forest dropped to its lowest level in 20 years.
Stafford is helping the cause by making people aware of the vital need to keep Earths rain forests intact. Its vital that people realize that deforestation is still going on, says Stafford. If they know how valuable the rain forest is, then the Amazon can be saved.
Adventure in the Amazon by Jennifer Marino Walters. Published in SCHOLASTIC SCIENCEWORLD, January 2011.
Copyright 2011 by Scholastic Inc. Used by permission.

1. Explain how the environmental issues facing the Amazon and the planet are related to Ed Staffords reasons to go on his journey.
Score

Thirteen-year-old Karl has always wanted to fish for herring like his father. His father has recently been injured in a fall, but is ready to return to fishing. For the first time, he has asked Karl to go along to help him.
It took almost two hours to clear and reset the net. We still had two more nets to tend. I was already exhausted. I hadnt realized how demanding the work would be. Or how tedious.
But we got a break. The second net was some distance away. My father offered me hot coffee as he guided the boat to our next stop. He had never offered me coffee before. I felt proud. Older. Bigger. The hot coffee warmed my hands as I held the cup.
The second net went faster than the first. I knew what I was doing. By the time we finished, herring covered the bottom of the boat as deep as my calves. For the first time in days, my father seemed happy.
Then he looked at the western sky, and his smile faded.
5 They are called Northwesters. Theyre storms that sweep out of Canada hard and fast. No one can predict their arrival. All fishermen fear them.
Were going back, my father said.
He started the motor, wincing from the pain as he pulled the cord.
We were only two miles out, but the shoreline looked to me to be as far away as the moon. Over the distant hills, black clouds galloped toward us like wild horses. My father set a course directly for them.
We made it only halfway home before we met the storm.
The Herring ChokerThe Herring ChokerThe Herring Choker
Then he looked at the western sky, and his smile faded.

10 The wind came first. It lifted the lake in whitecaps. The weight of the herring made us ride low in the water, and the waves broke over our bow. The spray was icy cold, needles against my face. I grasped the gunwales1 as the boat bucked. In the stern, my father struggled to hold us on

foundation skills assessment - british columbia · pdf filefoundation skills assessment 7 ......

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