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The Scratches on the Table

Read an original graphic novel page about a family's old kitchen table and analyze how colors, close-ups and lettering add meaning and mood.

Grade 5ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRL.5.7

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
10 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 5
Subject: ELA
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain how colors, panel size and close-ups in a graphic novel add to its meaning.
Students tell apart what the art shows and what the captions and speech tell.
Students describe how visual choices change the mood of a story.

How to use

Explain that each Art note describes the picture in a panel. Read the page together, then let students answer on their own and share their open responses.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RL.5.7

Analyze how visual and multimedia elements, such as in a graphic novel, add to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text.

Preview

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Name Date

The Scratches on the Table

Read a graphic novel page and think about what the art adds.

Read the graphic novel page

In a graphic novel, each panel has a picture. The Art notes describe each picture. Captions and speech are the words printed in the panel.

The Scratches on the Table

1Panel 1. Art: A small kitchen in gray morning light. Dad holds a sheet of sandpaper over a long wooden table covered with scratches, dents and round water rings. Ines stands in the doorway with her arms crossed and her mouth pressed into a flat line. Caption: Saturday, the day Dad decided our old table needed to look new. Dad: "One afternoon of sanding, and it will shine like the day Grandma bought it."

2Panel 2. Art: A close-up shows only Ines's hand and the wood. Her finger traces a jagged scratch shaped like a lightning bolt. There are no words in this panel.

3Panel 3. Art: The colors turn warm and golden, and the edges of the panel look soft. A much younger Ines zooms a metal toy truck across the table, carving the lightning-bolt scratch. Grandma laughs and lifts a steaming pot of rice out of the way. Caption: Six years ago.

4Panel 4. Art: The golden colors continue. Baby Tomás sits in a high chair at the end of the table, banging a spoon so hard that he leaves a small dent. Everyone around him is clapping and singing. Caption: Tomás's first birthday.

5Panel 5. Art: The colors snap back to gray. Dad switches on an electric sander, and huge jagged letters across the top of the panel spell BZZZZ. Ines rushes toward the table with one hand stretched out. Ines: "Wait! Don't sand away the lightning bolt!"

6Panel 6. Art: Dad switches off the sander and kneels beside Ines, so their eyes are level with the tabletop. Both of them study the lightning bolt from the same low angle. Dad: "I guess this table remembers more than I do."

7Panel 7. Art: This panel is as wide as the page and fills the whole bottom half. The kitchen glows with warm evening colors. The family sits around the table at dinner. The table is clean and oiled, but its scratches are still there. A small handwritten label beside the lightning bolt reads "Ines, age 5." Caption: Some things get better when you leave them a little bit old.

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