Opposite Ollie Reading Comprehension Worksheet

Some children solve problems by going straight at them, and some get there by turning the problem around. This Opposite Ollie Reading Comprehension Worksheet gives 3rd grade students an original 241-word story about a boy whose habit of doing everything the other way around turns out to be exactly what his class needs. Oliver reads the last page first and puts on his left shoe before his right, and his class calls him Opposite Ollie. When every team’s flat paper bridge bends under a cup of marbles, his backward thinking is the thing that holds the weight. The passage is written to third grade, measured rather than guessed, so students meet the reading demand their state assessment will use.

The sheet prints as three pages. Page one carries the illustrated story on its own, so students read without a question in sight. Page two holds the questions, and page three is the answer key. Use it as a guided read-aloud, as independent practice during small-group rotations, or as a quick assessment of how well students track a story from problem to solution. Because the story also carries a life-skills idea worth talking about, it works just as well as a starting point for a class conversation about trying a second approach when the first one does not work.

What’s Included

• An original 3rd grade fiction passage with a full-color illustrated scene
• Four fill-in-the-bubble questions covering cause, sequence, character and main idea
• One vocabulary-in-context item asking students to find a word in the story
• One short written response that asks for evidence from the text
• A complete answer key on the final page

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• Not one question is plain recall. Every item asks students to work out why something happened, what came first, how a character feels, or what the whole story is about.
• The written item asks for proof. Students have to point back to a sentence in the passage, which is the habit that carries them through every later reading test.
• The story respects the reader. Oliver is not a problem to be fixed; his difference is the thing that solves the problem, and children who think sideways see themselves in him.

Ideas for Teachers and Parents

Before reading, ask your students to name one thing they do differently from everyone they know, and keep the list on the board. After reading, hand out straws and tape and let teams build a bridge for a cup of marbles the way Oliver did; the flat version really does bend and the rolled tubes really do hold. For 3rd grade reading passage practice at home, read the story aloud together and stop before the last paragraph so your child can predict how it ends. Older readers can rewrite the last scene from Rachel’s point of view. The four multiple-choice questions in this Opposite Ollie Reading Comprehension Worksheet also make a quick exit ticket on their own.

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