Skill: write-like-james @ a5ff054 · typed hard types: write-mcqs @ a5ff054
Topic 13 "Light: sources, straight lines, shadows" — your read (28 September 2026, night)
Four lessons, one per atom: light comes from a light source · light travels in straight lines · where the shadow is · you see it when light reaches your eye. Written by the author as you, then a non-author review (30 findings, 29 applied) and one cold read of every changed item (21 of 21 keys agreed). Reply by number.
The four that need your word
1. Is "a light source makes light" the sentence you want?
Lesson 1 sorts things into two kinds: a light source, and everything else that is only lit up.
The first draft said "light comes OUT of a light source; NO light comes out of the book" — and Lesson 4 then says "light comes FROM the dinosaur to your eye", which is how seeing works.
An eight-year-old cannot hold both. The reviewer caught it; the coordinator ruled for one word: a light source makes light, and "the book does not make light — the lamp's light lands on it." That is also the physically true sentence, so Topic 14's reflection lesson will not have to undo it.
Recommendation: keep "makes light". Keep / say the sentence you prefer
2. Does the Moon stay in Lesson 1?
Research says the Moon is the bright thing children most often call a light source (only 3 % of fourth graders know it is not).
It is in as one non-example line ("Does the Moon make light? The Moon does not make light. Sunlight lands on the Moon. The Moon is lit up."), one yes / no quiz item and one bank case — the same move the snowman-in-sunshine item already makes, with no reflection needed.
Recommendation: keep it. Keep / strike
3. Do you accept the new atom "What a shadow is" (ENE3-P01)?
The register goes straight from "light travels in straight lines" to "predict where a shadow forms" without ever saying what a shadow IS.
Your own rule for these registers is "what a thing is before what it does". Lesson 3 teaches the what first (the hand in front of the flashlight: behind it, no light reaches the wall, and that dark place is the shadow) and then the where.
If you accept, Lesson 3 becomes two 40-second lessons at the seam the script already has; if you strike it, Lesson 3 stays as built. The proposal, with two splits considered and rejected
Recommendation: accept. Accept / strike / fold into ENE3-012's wording
4. Do the seven question types stand — and the two typed hard items in particular?
Your ruling of tonight is applied without asking: the bank's hard items are text entry, not multiple choice. Both were re-authored after the review so that neither stem prints its answer and each takes two steps:
- A lamp is to the right of a bottle on a table. Then the lamp is moved to the other side of the bottle. On which side of the bottle is the shadow now? — types right (and its natural forms).
- Soren is in a shed with no light at all. He turns on a flashlight, points it at a shelf, and now he sees the shelf. Just before the light reaches his eyes, which thing does it come from? — types the shelf. Most children will type "the flashlight"; the key needs the second step.
Five easy and medium types are four-option multiple choice; every atom is tested alone and in a pair; no atom carries more than two types.
The seven types, the coverage table, every exemplar in full Approve all / strike these / edit these
Applied without asking: hard bank items are typed (your 28 Sep night ruling) · every attached question stands alone with its own drawing, in the present tense (your rocket ruling) · light is never said to "stop" when it hits something (the atom's own "until it hits something" is where the sentence ends) · figures carry an image kind (drawn / cartoon / photo) · student names checked against every other topic.
The lessons
5. L01 Light comes from a light source — a lamp lights a book; a flashlight, the Sun, a candle; then the bright page that does not make light, and the Moon. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
6. L02 Light travels in straight lines — a beam in the dust, a sun stripe through a gap, a lamp seen down a straight tube and lost in a bent one. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
7. L03 Where will the shadow be? — the hand in front of the flashlight; the same ball with the light on the left, the right, above; take the ball away and the shadow goes. The shadow's edges in every drawing are computed from the lines that graze the object. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
8. L04 You see it when light reaches your eye — the same box, toy and eyes; lid open you see it, lid closed nothing; a cave with no light for an hour, still nothing; your eyes make no light. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
Also on the site
Intro and poll · summary and three questions · the two photos (a candle-lit table; a sun stripe through curtains) are placeholders until sourced.
After you answer
1–4 → bank of about 50 from the approved types, a second cold read of the whole topic, hand-over folder for David (the videos file, the image briefs).