About This Worksheet
This Grade 7 reading activity helps students separate facts from interpretations in an informational text. The article explains how habits form through a repeating loop made of a cue, a routine, and a reward. Students learn that a fact can be checked or supported by evidence, while an interpretation explains what someone believes the information means. For example, repeated behavior strengthening brain connections is a research-based fact, while saying motivation matters more than the habit loop is an interpretation.
Learning Goals
The main goal is for students to read scientific information carefully and decide which statements are directly supported. Before completing this page, students should be comfortable locating details and summarizing short sections of nonfiction. The activity prepares them to compare research findings with conclusions, opinions, and broader explanations. It supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1, which focuses on citing textual evidence, and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.8, which includes evaluating how claims are supported.
Student Tasks
On this worksheet, students will read an article about why people repeat behaviors and how those patterns may be changed. They will decide which statements are facts and which ones are interpretations. Students must use information from the passage rather than relying only on personal experience with habits. The questions encourage them to notice where the author reports research and where the text discusses what that research may suggest.
Common Challenges
Students may believe that any sentence containing scientific words must be a fact. They may also label a statement as an opinion simply because experts disagree about it. Explain that interpretations can still be thoughtful and reasonable, but they go beyond what has been directly proven. Have students ask, “Can this statement be checked in the article, or is it explaining what the facts might mean?”
Teaching Suggestions
A teacher can model the difference with a simple classroom example before students begin. “The student studied for twenty minutes” is a fact, while “The student is becoming more responsible” is an interpretation of that fact. At home, a parent can ask the child to name one habit and separate what actually happens from what they believe causes it. This everyday connection can make an abstract reading skill feel much more natural.
Worksheet Features
The passage introduces psychology and brain science without using language that is too advanced for Grade 7 readers. It explains the habit loop clearly and includes several research findings and expert viewpoints. The fact-versus-interpretation task requires students to think about the type and strength of information they are reading. Its clean printable format fits independent work, small-group instruction, or a lesson about evaluating informational sources.