About This Worksheet
This Grade 7 reading worksheet helps students notice how loaded language can shape the way an informational text feels. The article presents a debate about electric scooters in public spaces and includes both positive and negative descriptions. Students study the author’s word choices to see whether certain phrases make scooters sound helpful, dangerous, convenient, or annoying. For example, calling scooters “affordable and eco-friendly” creates a positive impression, while describing sidewalks as “chaotic” pushes the reader toward concern.
Learning Goals
The main goal is to help students recognize that word choice can reveal perspective and influence a reader’s opinion. Students should already know how to identify an author’s main idea and supporting details. This activity moves them toward comparing positive and negative language and deciding whether a text feels balanced. It supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.4 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.6, which focus on word meaning, tone, purpose, and point of view.
Student Tasks
On this worksheet, students will read an article about the benefits and problems connected with electric scooters. They will find two words or phrases that present scooters in a positive way and two that make them sound negative. Students must think about how each phrase affects the reader rather than simply copying any descriptive language. The larger goal is to decide whether the article treats both sides fairly.
Common Challenges
Some students may choose ordinary facts instead of language that carries a strong feeling. Others may assume that any sentence about a problem is automatically biased. Explain that loaded language usually adds approval, blame, excitement, fear, or another emotional push. Teachers can ask students to replace the phrase with a more neutral one and compare how the tone changes.
Teaching Suggestions
A teacher can read one positive and one negative phrase aloud before students begin and ask what picture each creates in the mind. Partners can then sort the article’s language into favorable, unfavorable, and neutral groups. At home, a parent might ask the child to describe the same scooter ride as “quick and convenient” and then as “reckless and disruptive.” Hearing the contrast makes the effect of loaded language much easier to understand.
Worksheet Features
The passage presents viewpoints from supporters, critics, scooter companies, city officials, and residents. This variety gives students several perspectives to compare while examining tone and balance. Two focused questions ask readers to locate exact examples of positive and negative wording. The one-page format works well for close reading, media literacy, partner discussion, or independent practice.