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Information in Other Forms is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on taking meaning from a visual or spoken presentation, aligned to Common Core standard SL.4.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 24 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.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 24 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.

Information in Other Forms

SL.4.2

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Wolves and the Rivers

Wolves were shot out of Yellowstone by 1926. Fourteen were brought back in 1995. With no wolves, elk had grazed the valleys freely for seventy years. Young willow and aspen were eaten as soon as they grew. The wolves killed some elk. More importantly, they changed where elk would stand still. Open valley floors became dangerous, so the elk stopped lingering there. Willow and aspen grew back along the rivers. Beavers, which need willow, returned. Their dams made ponds. Roots held the banks. The rivers narrowed, deepened and moved less. Some researchers describe this as wolves changing the shape of rivers, though others argue the effect has been overstated.

  1. 1. What overall structure does this text use?
  2. 2. How would a flow diagram help this text?
  3. 3. What would a diagram of this chain need to show?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What a Beaver Dam Does

A beaver does not build a dam for shelter. It builds one to make a pond, and it lives in a lodge in the pond. The dam raises the water so the lodge entrance stays underwater. A predator that cannot swim cannot get in. But the pond does far more than protect one family. Behind a dam, water slows, and slow water drops the silt it carries. Over years this builds rich wet ground. That ground holds water in a drought and holds it back in a flood. It supports plants, insects, amphibians and birds that were not there before. Where beavers have been reintroduced, the number of species in a valley typically rises within five years.

  1. 1. What overall structure does this text use?
  2. 2. What would a cross-section of a beaver pond need to label?
  3. 3. How would a before-and-after photograph help this text?

LessonPrint · SL.4.2 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Information in Other Forms

Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Cause and effect in a chain, from wolves to elk to trees to beavers to rivers. 2. It could show the chain from wolves to rivers in one picture, which the words take five paragraphs to build. 3. Wolves, elk behaviour, willow and aspen, beavers and dams, and the narrowed river.
  2. 2.1. Cause and effect, widening from the lodge to the valley. 2. The dam, the raised water, the lodge and its underwater entrance. 3. It would show the valley with and without the pond, which the text describes over years.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.4.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.