Bessie Coleman Biography — Reading Comprehension — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the 6th Grade reading comprehension comprehension exercise.
Success TutoringWorksheetsAnswer sheet6th Grade · English · Reading ComprehensionBessie Coleman Biography — Reading Comprehension — Answers
Part A: Find the facts
Answer: She was born in Atlanta, Texas, and grew up in Waxahachie.
Answer: She was needed to help her family by picking cotton in the fields.
- AShe was too young.
- BShe could not afford the lessons.
- CShe was a woman and she was Black.
- DShe had never been to school.
Answer: She was a woman and she was Black.
The text says every school turned her down “because she was a woman and because she was Black.”
Answer: She took French lessons and saved her money (then sailed across the Atlantic).
Answer: True
“In 1921, she earned her international pilot's license.”
Answer: False
“She did not live to see it.”
Part B: Think about it
Answer: c, b, d, a.
Answer: Instead of being discouraged, she turned the teasing into a goal. This shows she was determined and would not let other people decide what she could do.
Answer: She was very brave and committed to her dream, even though she knew flying could be deadly.
Answer: She wanted to stand up against unfair treatment and segregation in her own hometown. She used her fame to demand that Black audience members be treated with more respect.
- AFlying airplanes was dangerous in the 1920s.
- BBessie Coleman overcame unfair barriers through determination and became a pioneering pilot who inspired others.
- CFrance had better flight schools than the United States.
- DBessie Coleman was good at math as a child.
Answer: Bessie Coleman overcame unfair barriers through determination and became a pioneering pilot who inspired others.
The other choices are details, not the main idea of the whole text.
Answer: They follow her life in time order (chronological order), from childhood to her legacy, so the reader can follow how one event led to the next.
Part C: Words in the text
- Amaking someone lose confidence or hope
- Bmaking someone laugh
- Cteaching someone a skill
- Dpaying someone money
Answer: making someone lose confidence or hope
The word “Instead” shows the opposite happened: his words gave her a goal.
- Aasked quietly once
- Bdemanded firmly and would not back down
- Cforgot
- Dmade a joke
Answer: demanded firmly and would not back down
She would not perform unless the rule changed, so she demanded it firmly.
Answer: A pioneer is one of the first people to do something new, opening the way for others to follow, as Bessie did for Black pilots.
Part D: Write about it
Model answer: The quality that best explains Bessie Coleman's success is determination. When every flight school in the United States turned her down because she was a woman and because she was Black, she did not give up. Instead, she took French lessons, saved her money and sailed to France so she could train there. Even though flying was dangerous and accidents were common, she kept going and earned her license in 1921. These examples show that Bessie never let obstacles stop her, and that is why she became the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license.
Success criteria:
- Names one quality clearly in a topic sentence
- Gives at least two accurate examples from the biography
- Explains how each example shows the quality
- Ends with a concluding sentence; correct spelling and punctuation
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.
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