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Self-Correct as You Read is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on going back over an information text to fix understanding, aligned to Common Core standard RF.4.4. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask 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.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Self-Correct as You Read

RF.4.4

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Lichen

A lichen is not one organism. It is a fungus and an alga living as one body. The fungus provides the structure and holds water. The alga photosynthesises and makes sugar. Separated, the fungus starves and the alga dries out. Because it needs no soil, a lichen can grow on bare rock, on gravestones and on the roofs of cars that have not moved for a decade. Lichens grow extremely slowly — some crustose species less than a millimetre a year. Scientists use that rate to date rock surfaces, a method called lichenometry. Lichens also absorb whatever is in the air. Where the air is dirty, they disappear, which makes them a living measure of pollution.

  1. 1. What does "photosynthesises" mean?
  2. 2. What two organisms make up a lichen?
  3. 3. What is lichenometry?
  4. 4. What does "absorb" mean here?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Longitude Problem

A ship's latitude — how far north or south it is — can be found from the height of the sun at noon. Sailors could do that for centuries. Longitude, how far east or west, was the problem. It has no natural marker. The solution was known in principle: compare the time on board with the time at a fixed place. The Earth turns fifteen degrees an hour, so every hour of difference is fifteen degrees of longitude. That required a clock that stayed accurate on a rolling, salty, temperature-swinging ship. No such clock existed. John Harrison, a carpenter, spent forty-three years building four. The fourth, finished in 1759, was the size of a large pocket watch and lost five seconds in eighty-one days at sea.

  1. 1. How could sailors find their latitude?
  2. 2. How long did Harrison spend on the problem?
  3. 3. What is "longitude"?
  4. 4. How many degrees does the Earth turn in an hour?

LessonPrint · RF.4.4 · Set 4 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Self-Correct as You Read

Set 4. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Makes food from sunlight. 2. A fungus and an alga. 3. Using lichen growth rates to date rock surfaces. 4. Take in from the air around it.
  2. 2.1. From the height of the sun at noon. 2. Forty-three years. 3. How far east or west a place is. 4. Fifteen.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RF.4.4 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.