Skill: write-like-james @ dea5d9e · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script @ dea5d9e; non-author review and one cold read done

Topic 39 "Plants respond" — your read (29 September 2026)

The Life strand's eighth topic, three lessons, one atom each. A bean plant on Liesl's windowsill stands straight on Monday and leans toward the glass on Friday, taller too, with nobody touching the pot: when the light comes from one side, a plant's stem grows toward the light, a little each day. Turn the pot round and a week later the new stem has grown back toward the window; a seedling in a box grows toward its one hole; under a lamp straight above it grows straight up. The light does not push the plant — it grows toward the light by itself. Eskil's jar holds three bean seeds, one upside down: a seed's root grows down, whichever way up the seed is planted, and lay the jar on its side and the root tips turn down again. Noemi's cat runs to its food tin in a second while her bean plant took five days: an animal responds by moving, quickly; a plant responds by growing, slowly, over days. A non-author review (37 findings, all applied or put to you below) and a cold read of the 26 changed items (26 of 26 keys agreed) are done.

The three that unblock the topic

1. Is L03's scope line worded right?

The rule "a plant responds by growing, slowly, over days" is true of everything this topic shows. But Topic 32's own items had a daisy closing its petals at night and a bean plant folding its leaves — a plant responding by moving. Without a scope line, a student who remembers Topic 32 is told it was wrong. So, just before the respond card and spoken in the video: "Most of the time, a plant responds by growing. A few plant responses are quick moves, like petals closing at night."

Recommendation: keep as written. "Quick" sets a move that takes minutes against growth that takes days.

Keep / reword (say how) / cut

2. Does L02 keep its one line about Earth's pull?

The atom is a prediction, and L02 describes the root's response without saying what makes it grow down. But Topic 3 taught that Earth pulls on everything, always, straight down, and a student who remembers it will ask whether the root is pulled. One line answers without teaching a cause, and it corrects Halvard's "because it is heavy" better than "a root does not fall" alone: "You've already seen that Earth pulls everything straight down. But a root is not falling. It grows down." The register's link to Topic 3 stays either way.

Recommendation: keep. Earth is the actor and the pull is never said to grow the root; the misconception checker reads the line clean.

Keep / cut it and describe only

3. Do the ten question types stand, with the two typed hard types?

The reviewer found six of the first ten exemplars were quiz or attached items with a noun changed; all six now sit on scenes and drawings no page item uses — a cress pot with a lamp to its left, a seed planted at a slant, a lamp moved to the other side of the room while the plant is untouched, how long a tipped root takes to turn (which gives the root atom its second alone-type), a pea tendril round a wire among a horse, a bee and a snow-bent branch, a goldfish and a mint plant. Hard is typed: the word for how the mint plant responded, after the goldfish's is given; and the rule run backward — a seedling in a closed box grew toward its one hole, so type the thing that came in. Easy and medium are four-option MCQs, keys A D A B C C D B.

Recommendation: approve the ten. The type sheet

Approve all / strike these / edit these

The lessons

4. L01 A stem grows toward the light — Liesl's bean plant, straight on Monday, leaning and taller on Friday, the pot untouched. The light comes in through the window; a Day 1 / Day 3 / Day 5 strip shows the stem taller and leaning more each day. Turn the pot round: a week later the lower stem still leans away, and a new top section has grown back toward the window (drawn as an S, so it reads as growing, not swinging back). A seedling in a box with one hole grows toward the hole; under a lamp straight above it grows straight up, toward the light — the everyday member, and the run ends there. The light does not push the plant; light only lands on it (Topic 13's word); the plant grows toward the light by itself. The seam with Topic 32 is said plainly: between breakfast and supper the young sunflower's top turned and the plant did not get longer in one day; Liesl's plant grew — it is taller, and the new stem points to the window. Thirteen quiz items on fresh scenes (a tomato seedling with the window on its right; a box with its hole top left; Colette's basil turned round; a lamp straight above; Eulalia's plant leaning toward her door), three claims, and two items that check the seam (a part turned / it grew toward the light); the attached question a seedling with a lamp to its right.

5. L02 A root grows down — Eskil tucks three bean seeds against wet paper in a clear jar: right way up, on its side, upside down. A week later every root has grown down; the upside-down seed's root came out of the top, turned, and grew down. Lay the jar on its side and the roots point sideways; within hours each tip has begun to curve, and three days later every tip points down again (the drawing is the Day 7 jar turned on its side, so the same three seedlings are seen). Earth pulls everything straight down — but a root is not falling; it grows down, a little each day, even a root as thin as a thread. A seed dropped into a garden hole lands any way up, and its root grows down. Ten quiz items (a pea seed upside down in a pot; Tabitha's seed on its side; Giselle's tipped pot; an acorn; a seed in a jar of water; Halvard's "because it is heavy", keyed no), the attached question a seed on its side.

6. L03 Animals respond by moving, plants by growing — Noemi opens the cat food tin and the cat comes running in a second — a cat you've met before, in Topic 36's kitchen; an animal senses something, then responds. Her bean plant has no ears, no eyes and no legs; it cannot run to the light. But it did something because of the light: its stem grew toward the window, over five days. A pea tendril touches a stick and, over days, grows round it; a root turns and grows down. Then the scope line (question 1) and the respond card: an animal — moving, in about a second; a plant — growing, slowly, over days. Eleven quiz items (a mouse and a cat; a sunflower on a shelf; Rosalia's pea; which takes a second, which takes days; Joaquin's "plants do not respond", keyed no), the attached question a blackbird flying up when a cat appears.

Applied without asking

Hard bank items typed; every attached question stands alone with its own drawing (a seedling with a lamp to its right; a seed on its side; a blackbird; the summary's basil seedling, upside-down sunflower seed and deer); every prediction figure shows the before moment only — Day 1, the stem straight, the light source drawn; the seed with no root; no option bundles a verdict with a reason and every claim is bare yes / no (four keyed yes, seven no); every stem a positive question; the surprising members first (a windowsill plant leaning; a seed turned upside down whose root turns down; a climbing pea tendril); a plant "responds" and never "senses" (Topic 36's word is an animal's); the causal sky line "so stems outside grow up" cut — shoots grow up in the dark too, as the jar shows; "nothing had changed by morning" replaced by "within hours each root tip had begun to curve"; the intro (Tindra's leaning plant, an upside-down seed, the cat at the tin) ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson; scene changes spoken with "let's" and "if you turn / if you lay", never an imperative at the viewer; three summary questions; scripts at most 150 words; colour, a photo for every real plant and animal, people never drawn as glyphs; no intention word in teaching (only Dorothea's "it wants to see outside", a claim the key corrects); the type sheet before the bank with a design-move inventory and fresh exemplars; a headache child in no item, each claim-maker once; names checked against the course register; US spelling; the bending mechanism untaught.

Also on the site

The three lessons · topic intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the blueprint's decisions · the type sheet

After you answer

1 → keep: nothing changes; reword: one idea line and one video beat; cut: the two lines go and the rule stands alone against Topic 32's daisy. 2 → keep: nothing; cut: one idea line and one forest line go, Halvard's why stands on "a root does not fall". 3 → a bank of about fifty from the approved types, a second cold read, the hand-over folder for David. Register notes (the FOR3 link, "grows toward" as LIF3-025's word, the scope line on LIF3-028) → the knowledge-graph repo.