What Each Version Changes is a free printable Grade 2 English worksheet on finding where two related stories differ, aligned to Common Core standard RL.2.9. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 23 of them with different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.
Set 24 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 23 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.
What Each Version Changes
RL.2.9
NameDate
Read the story, then answer the questions.
1.Read the text, then answer the questions.
What the Tide Left
Every low tide, Grandad and Tess walked out to the rock pools.
Tess wanted to take a starfish home. Grandad said no. "It would die in a bucket," he said. "Look at it here instead."
Tess crouched for a long time. She saw the starfish move — slowly, on hundreds of tiny feet she had not known it had.
She did not ask again. On the way back she said, "It's better in the pool anyway."
1. How is this story different from "The New Boy"?
2. How is Tess like Iosif in "The New Boy"?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Kite in the Elm
Sami's kite caught in the top of the elm on the very first day.
He tried throwing a ball at it. He tried a long stick. He tried shaking the trunk with both arms. The kite stayed exactly where it was.
His sister Rana came out with a bucket and a length of washing line. She tied the line to the bucket handle, threw the bucket over the branch, and pulled.
The branch bent. The kite slid off and dropped into the grass.
"How did you know that would work?" said Sami. "I didn't," said Rana.
1. How is Sami's problem different from Ada's?
2. How is Rana like Ada in "The Bread That Would Not Rise"?
LessonPrint · RL.2.9 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — What Each Version Changes
Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. This one is about Tess leaving the starfish in the pool; that one is about Iosif joining in with the football. 2. Both change after watching — Tess watches the starfish move, and Iosif watches the football.
2.1. Sami's problem was outside his control; Ada's came from her own mistake. 2. Both keep trying rather than giving up when something goes wrong.
Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.2.9 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.