Skill: write-like-james @ b0fa825 · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script, review-lesson (two blind reads and a re-read), review-figures, review-accuracy @ b0fa825

Topic 17 "What a rock is made of" — your read (2 October 2026)

Skim first

The lessons in teaching order, each with its one rule sentence; then the intro script; then the question types. The review page follows.

The lessons and their rules

Lesson	Atom	Rule sentence
L01 Describe a rock by its grains and its shine	EAR4-001	The small pieces you can see are grains. Say its colors and whether you can see its grains. Say how it feels, and shiny or dull.
L02 Rocks are made of minerals	EAR4-002	A rock is made of grains of minerals. A mineral is one kind of stuff. The same all the way through.
L03 Test a mineral to tell it apart	EAR4-003	Test its color and its luster. Test its hardness and its streak. Write each result in a table.

The intro script (114 words, about 57 s)

Here's Gloria at Enchanted Rock in Texas, a huge pink dome of rock. She picks up a loose chunk. Up close, it has white bits, glassy gray bits, and black bits that glitter in the sun. Her dad says it is one rock. But it looks like lots of little pieces stuck together. So is a rock one thing, or many? And if it is many things, Gloria would need a way to tell them apart. To find out, we will look at how to describe a rock, what rocks are made of, and how to test the pieces inside. Okay, so are you ready to find out what a rock is made of?

The question types (from `TYPES_G4T17.md`)

Type 1 (easy, medium · MCQ · EAR4-001): which describing question a word answers; which four things a geologist says; why 'hard' alone is not a description — the four describing questions (ASK4), or four statements
Type 2 (easy · MCQ, drawn · EAR4-001): what a geologist writes about the grains of a drawn close-up (the box drawn at the teaching figure's scale, in the stone's own colors) — big enough to see / you can just see them / too small to see / glittery
Type 3 (easy, medium · MCQ; one drawn · EAR4-001): which describing question is still unanswered (a card with an empty row; three facts given); which question could still tell two alike rocks apart — the four describing questions (ASK4)
Type 4 (medium · MCQ, drawn · EAR4-001): which rock matches a filled card — four rock descriptions in words
Type 5 (easy, medium · MCQ · EAR4-002): what a rock is made of; what a mineral is; which sentence is true of every rock; which of four things is a mineral; the cereal-box meaning — four things or four statements
Type 6 (easy, medium · MCQ · EAR4-002): rock, mineral, soil or a grain of sand from a description; which sentence is true of a described rock — a rock / a mineral / soil / a grain of sand (WHAT4), or four statements
Type 7 (medium · MCQ · EAR4-002): the made-of analogy carried to a new made thing, not a food — four parts of the scene
Type 8 (medium, hard · MCQ · EAR4-002): which sentence is true when a size, inside or 'just sand' claim is made (the claim in the stem, four single statements as options) — four single statements
Type 9 (easy · MCQ · EAR4-003): which test a described action is — color / luster / hardness / streak (TEST4)
Type 10 (easy, medium · MCQ · EAR4-003): the hardness result from a scratch story; which thing to try first; which luster word fits — a fingernail / a penny / a steel nail / nothing (SCRATCH4), or the luster words
Type 11 (medium, hard · MCQ, drawn; one multi-select · EAR4-003): which test (or which two tests) tells two lettered minerals apart, read from a drawn test table — color / luster / hardness / streak (TEST4)
Type 12 (medium, hard · MCQ; one drawn · EAR4-003): reasoning about results: what to say when all four match; which result shows a second mineral is different (read against a drawn one-row table, mineral W); a color-only claim; a streak that differs from the color — four statements or four results
Type 13 (hard · typed · all three): the coined term recalled from its meaning on a fresh case — accept lists: grain · mineral · luster · hardness · streak, with article, plural and child spellings; lustre accepted

Three lessons: a geologist describes a rock by its colors, whether you can see its grains, how it feels, and whether it is shiny or dull, and the small pieces you can see are called grains; a rock is made of grains of minerals, and a mineral is one kind of stuff, the same all the way through; two minerals that look alike are told apart by four tests (color, luster, hardness and streak), each result written in a table. This topic opens Earth and Space, so it also carries a 90-word opening video that teaches nothing. Two cold readers failed one key (fixed, below), a third reader agreed every key on the rebuilt bundle, and the figure review and the guidance-and-accuracy review are applied. Pictures are placeholders until you answer.

The questions the author put to you (built as recommended)

1. Does "how it breaks" (cleavage) stay out of L03?

Florida's standard lists cleavage among a mineral's properties. L03 already carries four tests in a 147-word video and a five-column table, and no released Grade 5 item asks about cleavage. Mica's "black flaky" sheets in L02 carry the idea as a describing word.

Built: left out.

Recommendation: leave it out. If you want the Florida word honoured, one caption on the three-minerals picture does it and nothing else changes: "Mica breaks into thin flat sheets. How a mineral breaks is another clue geologists use."

Leave out / add the caption

2. Should Topic 17 say once that glassy obsidian is the one rock with no grains you can see?

Topic 17 teaches that a rock is made of grains of minerals. Topic 18 meets obsidian, a black rock that is smooth like glass, and its review softened that lesson's line to "no grains you can see, even up close", so the two topics no longer contradict each other. Topic 18's reviewer asked whether Topic 17 should carry a scope line too.

Built: no line in Topic 17.

Recommendation: no line. A child meets obsidian in Topic 18, where the softened line sits, and naming an exception before the fact is learned blurs the fact.

No line / add one line

3. Should the register's mineral definition carry "natural / not from a living thing" as a scope line only?

The register's atom says minerals are "natural, non-living material". The lesson says "one kind of stuff a rock is made of, the same all the way through", and the accuracy reviewer confirmed that as right for the grade. Grades 3-5 never say "non-living", so the words would sit on the register, not on a page.

Built: no student line; the definition stands as written.

Recommendation: yes, a scope line on the register only (an atom edit in the knowledge-graph repo; no student text changes).

Scope line / leave the register

The lessons

4. L01 Describe a rock by its grains and its shine — Hadley and Heidi each write "gray and hard" for their rock, and nobody can tell which rock is whose; a geologist asks four questions instead, worked on a chunk of granite from Enchanted Rock, then sandstone and limestone; the small pieces you can see are called grains. page

5. L02 Rocks are made of minerals — Gloria's granite under a magnifying glass is three kinds of grain, each one kind of stuff the same all the way through: feldspar, quartz and mica; a cookie is made of flour, sugar and chocolate chips the same way; a pebble off a boulder is the same rock. page

6. L03 Test a mineral to tell it apart — Hadley's two white minerals look alike; color, luster, hardness and streak go in a table, and the one test with two different results (a penny scratches calcite) tells them apart; pyrite's greenish black streak shows why color alone is not enough. page

Applied without asking

Two cold readers failed one key: the drawn "you can just see them" box showed its speckles at five times the teaching figure's size, so both answered "no" to "Can you see the grains?" where the key said "yes"; the three grain items now ask which of the three taught labels goes in the GRAINS row, every item box draws at the teaching figure's size, and the re-read agreed all three. Also applied: L03 says on the page how Hadley knows the scratched mineral is calcite (Miss Burke's mineral chart) and states the deciding rule in the body; the quartz and calcite streaks are tested too; the streak card's mark is greenish black, not olive; the hardness card has one arrow style and shows "nothing" as a result, not a thing to scratch with; "shine" and "lustre" are accepted on every typed luster item and "hard" on the hardness ones; the worked quartz-and-calcite case left the bank (a pink glassy mineral on its own table replaces it); five re-skinned items got fresh scenes; a "why not" stem became a positive one; one article line joins "a sand grain is a bit of rock" to "a grain of a mineral"; and the re-read's five soft notes are in (a "polished" face, the cookie analogy as a fruitcake, a granite-looking driveway stone, a rock of one mineral, the hardness stem).

Also on the site

Topic intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the PP100 bank · the type sheet

After you answer

Nothing on the page changes if you keep all three. The caption is one line in L02; a Topic 17 scope line is one article line; the register line is an atom edit in the knowledge-graph repo. Either way the picture pass starts, and the five-video batch is built and checked, ready to send once you have read the scripts.

The build record (v1, v2 and the v3 polish)

Skill: course-build → write-lesson (L01 a describing routine with rock words, coins "grain"; L02 a fact true of every rock in the fact form, coins "mineral", the cookie analogy once; L03 a four-test routine worked on quartz and calcite then pyrite, recorded in a table, coins luster, hardness and streak) → write-example-sequence, design-check-sequence, sentence-atomise, write-explanation, write-mcqs; write-video-script (the Earth and Space opening video, the intro, three lesson scripts, the summary; the elementary micro-lesson anatomy); review-figures (author self-check on fourteen renders; a non-author pass is owed) @ b0fa825

Grade 4 Topic 17 — What a rock is made of — build record (v1, 2 October 2026)

What this is, in plain words

Three short lessons, one per atom, in one classroom: Miss Burke's, with Gloria, Hadley and Heidi. First the child learns that "gray and hard" describes almost every rock and so describes none — a geologist asks four questions instead (its colors; can you see its grains; how it feels; shiny or dull), and the small pieces you can see get their name, grains. Then the child looks at granite through a magnifying glass and finds it is not one thing: it is grains of three kinds, each one kind of stuff the same all the way through, and that kind of stuff is a mineral — granite is made of feldspar, quartz and mica the way a cookie is made of flour, sugar and chocolate chips. Last, the capstone: two white minerals that look alike are told apart by testing — color, luster (how shiny it looks), hardness (what can scratch it: a fingernail, a penny, a steel nail) and streak (the color of the mark on a white tile) — with each result written in a table. It is also the first topic of Grade 4 Earth and Space, so it carries the opening video "Before we start: Earth and space" (90 words, one scene, teaches nothing). Built with no blueprint, under the Grade 4 standing brief; the structural decisions are below.

Structural decisions (in place of a blueprint)

Lesson	Title (the skill in student terms)	Headache scene	Example sequence / worked cases	Check type	Video?
L01 EAR4-001	Describe a rock by its grains and its shine	Hadley and Heidi each have a gray rock and both write "gray and hard"; Miss Burke holds up the two rocks and asks which is whose; nobody can tell	a ROUTINE, so no example sequence: four describing questions worked on granite (the card fills row by row; the coin "grain" arrives in the GRAINS row), then the same four on sandstone (Arizona) and limestone (Florida), so three cards carry three rocks; the grain_sizes figure shows the three grain answers side by side	(a) fluency: one Grade 3 recall (property) → three "which question does this word answer?" on the fixed set → three drawn "Can you see its grains?" (y y n) → one apply → the "all rocks are gray and hard" claim → term recognition → term typed last	video and article (the video drops limestone for the word budget; the article keeps it)
L02 EAR4-002	Rocks are made of minerals	Gloria's dad said her granite chunk is one rock, but through the magnifying glass it looks like lots of little pieces stuck together; "Is a rock one thing, or lots of things stuck together?"	the FACT form (write-example-sequence's test: no non-example differs from "a rock" by one feature only — a single mineral chunk is the sibling class, not a near miss — so examples only, rule last): granite's three grains → each one kind of stuff, the same all the way through → the coin "mineral" → the three named → the cookie table once → sandstone (mostly quartz) and limestone (calcite, too small to see) carry the fact → the two things the word does not mean (cereal-box minerals; a pebble is the same rock as its boulder) → rule	(a) fluency with the claims: one Grade 3 recall (soil's bits of rock) → a four-item rock / mineral run (r m m r) → one analogy transfer → three bare claims (n n y; the TRUE one is the pebble) → term recognition → term typed last	video and article (the video drops sandstone / limestone and the pebble paragraph; the quiz and practice carry the pebble)
L03 EAR4-003	Test a mineral to tell it apart	Hadley has two white minerals, quartz and calcite, that look alike; Miss Burke asks "Which is which?"; looking is not enough	a ROUTINE worked on the page, one test per subtitle: color (same) → luster (same; the coin after "how shiny it looks"; the three luster words on a card) → hardness (different: a penny scratches calcite, nothing scratches quartz; the coin after the scratch test) → streak on pyrite (greenish black; gold's is yellow; the coin after the mark) → the finished three-mineral table → rule; Grade 3's table rule is recalled by one item	(b) scaffolded → bare: one SR3 recall (a heading on every column) → three scaffolded items on a SECOND case (a purple mineral) → two drawn "which test tells them apart?" tables (J / K streak; L / M hardness) → one bare "what next" → two claims (color-only gold, No; same color different minerals, Yes) → two recognition items → "streak" typed last	video and article

Why these calls: the atom titles give the order and the capstone. L01 is a routine (describe), so it has worked cases rather than an example sequence; the headache is the real one children produce — "gray and hard" (Ford 2005) — and the card is the thing that shows why four questions beat two words. L02 took the fact form after the write-example-sequence test: the only candidate non-example is a chunk of a single mineral, which is the sibling class and would need the full mineral definition grades 6-8 own; so the lesson shows the fact on three rocks and gives the rock | mineral table as its sorting figure. The cookie analogy is used once, in the article and the video, with its table (the coordinator's standing analogy). L03 is one routine with four tests inside it (Florida 4.E.6.2's menu); "cleavage" is not named (below). The minerals were chosen so that every hardness claim is honest on a classroom kit: calcite (a penny scratches it; a fingernail does not), quartz and pyrite (nothing in the kit scratches them). Hematite was NOT used because kit hematite sits on the steel-nail line (hardness 5–6.5 against the nail's 5.5), so pyrite carries the streak surprise (brassy yellow, greenish black streak, against gold's yellow) — the type sheet bars hematite and galena from hardness items for the same reason.

Questions for James

Should "how it breaks" (cleavage) be named once in L03, or stay out as built? Context: Florida 4.E.6.2 lists cleavage among the properties; the register's cross note says it may be named once as "how it breaks" if at all. Recommendation: leave it out — a fourth coined idea in a 147-word video and a five-column table would cost more than the standard gives back, and no released G5 item asks it. Built without it; the add is one idea line under "Test 4" and one bar-list line.

Counts

3 lessons · scripts 149 / 149 / 147 spoken words (cap 150) · intro 114 words, 2 question marks · summary 139 words (cap 175) · Earth and Space opening video 90 words (target ≤ 90) · article student text (idea + rule + subtitle lines) 281 / 280 / 296 words (Grade 3 median 308; brief's ceiling 300) · idea lines 17 / 17 / 17 (longest 20 / 18 / 17 words) · subtitles 3 / 4 / 5, figures 10 / 8 / 10 per article (never more than 8 idea lines without one) · quizzes 11 / 11 / 12 items · attached questions 3 + 3 (summary), key string in video order B A C C B B (B 3 of 6) · practice 13 (10 MCQ, 2 typed, 1 written; 3 Grade 3 retrievals) · PP100 bank 53 items: 47 four-option MCQs, 5 typed, 1 multi-select; EAR4-001 17 (11 easy, 5 medium, 1 hard) · EAR4-002 16 (6 / 7 / 3) · EAR4-003 20 (5 / 8 / 7); keys on the four-option MCQs A 9 · B 12 · C 13 · D 13 · figures 46 (29 SVG, 13 photo_ph, 4 cartoon_ph).

The per-lesson table

Lesson	Coins	Lexicon sentences (word for word in the rule step and the script)	Recall item (Grade 3)	Misconception items	Term items
L01	grain	"The small pieces you can see in a rock are called grains." / "To describe a rock, say its colors, whether you can see its grains, how it feels, and whether it is shiny or dull."	q1: which is a property (MAT3-001, Topic 16 L03)	q9 every rock is gray and hard (Ford 2005; Happs 1982) — No	q10 recognition (crumbs / grains / chips), q11 typed
L02	mineral	"A rock is made of grains of minerals." / "A mineral is one kind of stuff a rock is made of, the same all the way through."	q1: where the bits of rock in soil came from (Topic 26 L02)	q7 one solid thing with nothing inside (Happs 1982) — No; q8 a mineral is a kind of vitamin (Happs 1982) — No; q9 a pebble off a boulder is made of the same minerals (Happs 1982; Kusnick 2002) — Yes	q10 recognition (grain / mineral / layer), q11 typed
L03	luster, hardness, streak	"How shiny a mineral looks is called its luster." / "What can scratch a mineral tells you its hardness." / "The color of the mark a mineral leaves on a white tile is called its streak." / "To tell a mineral apart, test it: its color, its luster, its hardness and its streak, and write each result in a table."	q1: a heading on every column (SR3; Topic 22 L04)	q8 yellow so it must be gold (Ford 2005: color as the sole identifier) — No; q9 two minerals can share a color — Yes	q10 luster, q11 streak (recognition among the four test words), q12 "streak" typed; hardness and luster recognition + typed in PR-10, PR-12, PR-13

design-check-sequence records

Skill: design-check-sequence @ b0fa825

Part: L01 (one part)

Type: (a) — the student sorts a describing word to its question, or reads a close-up for its grains: one step, one of four labels.

Plan: 11 items; 1 recall (3 options) → 3 fixed-set MCQs (ASK4) → 3 drawn yes / no (q_grains_big, q_grains_small, q_grains_none; key string y y n) → 1 apply (3 options) → 1 claim yes / no → 1 recognition (3 options) → 1 typed. Stems ≤ 20 words.

Belongs in practice/test instead: card-matching (PP type 4); two-rock comparisons with three facts (PP type 3 medium).

Part: L02 (one part)

Type: (a) with the three claim items — the student places a description in rock / mineral (one step) and judges three documented beliefs.

Plan: 11 items; 1 recall → 4 two-option sort (r m m r) → 1 analogy transfer (3 options) → 3 claims yes / no (n n y) → 1 recognition → 1 typed.

Belongs in practice/test instead: rock / mineral / soil / sand four-way sorts; "which sentence is true" claim forms (PP types 6, 8).

Part: L03 (one part)

Type: (b) — four tests in order, each with a right answer; the student can be right on luster and wrong on hardness.

Plan: 12 items; 1 recall → 3 scaffolded on a SECOND case (the purple mineral: which test is the tile; which thing to try next; which column 'shiny like glass' goes in) → 2 drawn bare reads on a THIRD and FOURTH case (tables J / K, L / M) → 1 bare "what next" → 2 claims → 2 recognition → 1 typed. The worked case (quartz / calcite / pyrite) appears in no item. [v2 correction: this claim was false — PP-51 was the quartz / calcite case with the names removed; it is now mineral W, pink and glassy, on its own drawn table, and L03 has three recognition items (luster, hardness, streak).]

Belongs in practice/test instead: the multi-select on a table (PP-51); results-reasoning items (PP type 12).

The key strings

Attached questions, video order: B A C C B B (B 3 of 6, under 60 %).
L01 quiz: 3-option 0 1; 4-option 2 0 1; 2-option 0 0 1 1. L02 quiz: 3-option 0 0 1; 2-option 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 (no four alternate). L03 quiz: 3-option 0 0; 4-option 3 2 1 3 2 0 3; 2-option 1 0.
Practice: 3-option 0 0 2 2 2; 4-option 2 1 3 1; 2-option 1.
Bank four-option MCQs: A 9 · B 12 · C 13 · D 13 (47 items); multi keys C D.

The example sequences, written out

L01 (routine, three worked cards): granite → pink, white, gray and black; big enough to see; rough; glittery flecks. Sandstone → red-brown; you can just see them; gritty; dull. Limestone → pale cream; too small to see; smooth; dull. The same four rows on every card; only the answers change.
L02 (fact form, examples only): granite's grains (three kinds, each one kind of stuff) → the coin → feldspar, quartz, mica named → the cookie table → sandstone (grains mostly quartz) → limestone (calcite, too small to see) → rule. Non-example considered and rejected: a chunk of one mineral (sibling class, not a one-feature near miss); the rock | mineral table is the sorting figure instead.
L03 (routine, one worked case then a second): quartz and calcite — color same, luster same, hardness differs (a penny / nothing), so hardness tells them apart; then pyrite — streak greenish black against gold's yellow, so streak tells pyrite from gold when color cannot.

The rules applied

Rule (vault note / brief)	Where it bites here
"grain" = the small pieces you can see in a rock, never "crystal" (the brief)	the coin line in L01's GRAINS row; "crystal" appears nowhere (grep 0)
The mineral definition rides inside EAR4-002 in Grade 3's style; the full condition test is grades 6-8 (cross note)	"A mineral is one kind of stuff a rock is made of, the same all the way through." — the lexicon sentence, L02's rule and every term item; no "natural", "solid", "crystal structure"
Grades 3-5 say "not alive", never "non-living" (2 Oct)	the register's "non-living" is not carried into any student line; the definition does without it
"stuff" beside "material"; the cookie analogy once with its figure (the brief)	"one kind of stuff"; the made_of_table figure in L02's article and video, nowhere else (the muffin and fruitcake items are transfers, not re-teaching)
US spelling luster / color / gray (S14 0); "luster" explained as "how shiny it looks" before the word	L03: "Hadley turns each mineral in the light, and both look shiny like glass." then "How shiny a mineral looks is called its luster."
A headache scene could really happen; the question from a person who would ask it	two children writing "gray and hard"; a dad who says "one rock"; a teacher asking "which is which?"
The headache figure is the teaching figure with the answer's layer off	`desc_card_headache` is the granite card with its right column blank and the question above; `test_table_headache` is the test table with blank cells
A verdict mark names its question	the hardness card ("What scratches it?"), the streak card ("What color is the mark?"), the luster card ("How shiny does it look?"), the grain figure ("Can you see the grains?")
Code draws what must be exact; David's pack renders what must look real (2 Oct)	29 SVG cards and tables; every real rock, mineral, penny, nail, tile and cookie is a `photo_ph`; the four classroom scenes are `cartoon_ph`; `IMAGE_BRIEFS` for all 17
An item figure's blind text is DATA, never the verdict (the coordinator, 2 Oct)	every grain box lists its fill and speckle count and size; every item table lists each cell; the one card item lists its four cells; grep of the bundle's `[Drawing:` lines for "tells them apart / the answer / differ / verdict / you can see the grains / is a rock / is a mineral" → 0
Every sentence has a subject and a verb (S38 0)	"Both minerals are white, and both look shiny like glass." (was "Both are white."); no colon fragment
Connectives carry cause; the positive word; compound names whole	"so" / "because" / "But" through every article; "stays smooth", "nothing scratches"; "magnifying glass", "steel nail", "white tile"
Lesson text states the fact, never the topic that taught it	"A property is something you can say about an object…", "One column for each thing you record, a heading on every column." as facts in fb / why; no "in Grade 3"
Recognition before recall; every coined term has both (S33 / S34 0)	grain: L01 q10 → q11; mineral: L02 q10 → q11; luster / streak: L03 q10 / q11 → q12 (streak), PR-10 → PR-12 (luster) and PR-13 (hardness); bank typed items PP-43, 44, 48, 49, 50
A typed answer only where the question is closed; every correct answer accepted (S30 0 / 0)	ten typed items, every key a coined term; accept lists carry article, plural and child spellings; "lustre" via TOPIC["synonyms"]
A stem never names its own answer (S13 0)	L03 q3 rewritten from "a steel nail scratches it → what is the result" to "which thing should she try next"
A quiz stem never names the lesson's own scene object (S10 0)	"A stone is made of grains…" (was "a chunk"); no quiz item names a notebook, a magnifying glass, a desk, quartz, calcite or granite
Hard means more of the skill; a three-sentence stem is hard (S23 0)	every hard item carries a "hard because"; two multi-sentence easy / medium stems were shortened
A test item is a fresh instance; freshness judged on the scene, re-performed (the brief)	the noun grep below; five shared nouns found on the first pass (gold, purple, dark gray, garden soil, pebble / boulder in the bank) were re-scened: tables R / S recoloured green, T / V silver-gray; a chip off a stepping stone; a blue mineral; Gloria's red minerals
One atom per bank item; coverage even; difficulty rises with atom order (S11, S31 clean)	17 / 16 / 20; EAR4-001 one hard (the typed term), EAR4-003 seven hard
A claim-maker once per topic in the bank; names from the topic's row only	Heidi (PP-33), Hadley (PP-46), Gloria (PP-52); the names run below
The intro coins nothing, ≤ 120 words, ≤ 3 question marks, ends on a ready line and a poll (S15 / S20 / S21)	114 words, 2 question marks; "To find out, we will look at how to describe a rock, what rocks are made of, and how to test the pieces inside."
The opening video ≤ 90 words, one scene, teaches nothing, names the year's subjects, "strand" never said (S37 0)	90 words; one hill at sunset; the map line names rocks forming, land wearing away and layers telling time, the ground shaking, water going round, weather and climate, energy, the Sun's path, the stars and the Moon
A summary opens "Here's everything we found out about…", recaps rules not examples, ≤ 175 words, three attached questions	139 words; every lexicon sentence spoken word for word (S15 no miss)
Every lesson video opens on its scene and people; "Okay, now your turn."; the rule spoken naturally	"Here's Hadley and Heidi in Miss Burke's class…"; L01 "So, to describe a rock…", L02 "So, a rock is made of…", L03 "So, to tell a mineral apart…"
Closing bullets a few words each; summary bullets ≤ 4 (R79)	`check_brief.py`: L01–L03 and the summary clean; the intro's "no closing bullets" hit is the standing accepted one (an intro has no rule slide)
Grade-level words questioned (S36)	26 words, each answered below

Misconception rows (the catalogue is silent on rocks; the literature named)

Belief	Source	Where the lesson confronts it	Items
All rocks are gray and hard	Ford 2005 (third graders' rock descriptions); Happs 1982 (LISP, rocks and minerals)	L01's headache ("gray and hard" fits both) and the three cards (pink, red-brown, pale cream)	L01 q9 (No); PP-16 "which sentence is true of every rock" (gray as a distractor); PP-26 why "hard" is not a description
A rock is one solid thing with nothing inside it	Happs 1982	L02's headache and its answer: "No, a rock is not one thing"	L02 q7 (No); PP-12, PP-16 (distractor); PP-31 (broken in half); PP-45 (no grains show)
Minerals are vitamins / food	Happs 1982 (children link "mineral" to food and health)	L02 "Two things the word does not mean": the cereal box vs. science	L02 q8 (No); PP-17; distractors in PP-13, PP-27, PP-33, PP-34
A pebble is a different kind of thing from a boulder (size is a kind)	Happs 1982; Kusnick 2002	L02: "a pebble broken off a granite boulder is made of the same minerals… size is not a kind of rock"	L02 q9 (Yes, the true form); PR-6 (No); PP-31; PP-46
Color alone tells a mineral; a yellow shiny mineral is gold	Ford 2005	L03's pyrite paragraph: "the greenish black streak shows this is pyrite, not gold"	L03 q8 (No), q9 (Yes); PP-52; PP-53 (streak differs from color)

Checker: 0 FAIL, 26 WARN (`python3 build_tools_check_topic.py grade4/topic17_build/content/G4T17.py`)

All 26 WARNs are S36 (grade-level words). Answered one by one:

Word	Count	Answer
granite, quartz, calcite, pyrite, feldspar, mica	24, 16, 13, 13, 5, 5	kept — the topic's named rocks and minerals; each is introduced with its look before its name; every one is a word the standards and the released items use
geologist	15	kept — defined in L01 ("A geologist is a scientist who studies rocks."); the atom title's word
gritty	20	kept — the feel word for sandstone and sand; Grade 3 Topic 26 taught "gritty" for sandy soil
chunk	17	kept — an everyday word for a broken-off piece; "piece" is used beside it
boulder	15	kept — the misconception's own word (pebble / boulder), needed to confront it
speckle, glassy, glittery, glitter, sparkly, flecks, flaky	9, 8, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3	kept — the describing words the lesson teaches children to use; each is shown on a photo or card before it is asked
greenish, brassy	6, 2	kept — pyrite's honest colors; "brassy yellow" is the standard description
vitamin, vitamins	5, 1	kept — the misconception's own word
muffin	4	kept — one quiz transfer item; a US child knows it
dome	2	kept — Enchanted Rock is a dome; said with "as big as a hill" removed for words, "a huge pink dome of rock" is pictured on the photo
climate	1	kept — the opening video must name "weather and climate" (the brief); Topic 27 teaches it
scientist	1	kept — Grade 3 vocabulary
bumpy	1	kept — Rock L's feel word; everyday

Names run (`python3 build_tools_names.py Burke Gloria Hadley Heidi` → exit 0, all four free)

Miss Burke; Gloria, Hadley, Heidi — the Topic 17 row of grade4/NAMES_POOL.md. No other name appears in a student string.

Bank freshness (re-performed; the scene-noun grep)

Scene nouns of every lesson, quiz, attached and summary item: granite, Enchanted Rock, Texas, sandstone, Arizona, limestone, Florida, cookie, chocolate chips, feldspar, quartz, mica, calcite, pyrite, gold, notebook, magnifying glass, pebble / boulder, muffin / blueberries, the purple mineral, the gray rocks, dark green, the smooth brown stone, garden soil, the yellow shiny mineral. Grep of the bank and the practice set: granite 0 · Enchanted 0 · Texas 0 · sandstone 0 · Arizona 0 · limestone 0 · Florida 0 · cookie 0 · chocolate 0 · feldspar 0 · quartz 0 · mica 0 · calcite 0 · pyrite 0 · gold 0 · notebook 0 · magnifying 0 · muffin 0 · blueberr 0 · purple 0 · "gray rock" 0 · "dark gray" 0 · "dark green" 0 · "smooth brown" 0 · "garden soil" 0 · "yellow mineral" 0. Pebble / boulder: the bank keeps "a pile of mixed pebbles" (an option, not the misconception scene) and "gray pebbles" on Rock L's card; the two size-claim items were re-scened (a chip off a stepping stone; a big park rock); PR-6 keeps the taught scene as the practice claim, by design (practice may recall; the bank must not). Bank scenes: a driveway in Ohio, a Lake Michigan beach, a Colorado riverbed, a Georgia garden, a Utah desert, a kitchen countertop, a garden stepping stone, a fruitcake, minerals N / P, R / S, T / V, a spoon's shine, red, blue and green minerals.

grade4/topic17_build/blind/2026-10-02/BLIND_BUNDLE_G4T17.md (94 MCQ, 10 typed, 1 written, 1 multi; keys sequestered). Every [Drawing: …] line is data (fill, speckle count and size; every table cell; every card cell); grep for "tells them apart", "the answer", "differ", "verdict", "you can see the grains", "is a rock", "is a mineral" → 0.

Sentence-atomise self-check (one row per lesson; every paragraph read; S1 / S38 clean)

Lesson	Ideas counted	Fixes applied
L01	17 idea lines, one idea each; longest 20 words	"Back at the table, Hadley writes…" (24 words) → "Hadley writes…" (19); the four questions each get their own line with the answer in the next clause
L02	17 idea lines; longest 18 words	three lines cut for the 300-word ceiling (the grain colors moved to the caption; "Think of a cookie" into the caption; the "every rock" restatement dropped because the rule says it); "that is exactly right" → "she is right"
L03	17 idea lines; longest 17 words	the two color lines merged ("Both minerals are white, so color does not tell them apart."); the two hardness-result lines merged; the luster words moved to the card's caption; "Both are white." → "Both minerals are white" in the script
Scripts	every beat one or two sentences (S8 0)	three-sentence beats split in all three scripts (L01 10 beats, L02 8, L03 10) at no word cost
fb / why	≤ 30 / ≤ 60 words (S5 0); one causal link per `<br>` line	claim items' two fb differ (confirming fact / correction)

Figures (46; author's review-figures self-check on fourteen renders, a non-author's pass owed)

Rendered with headless Chrome at 1000 px and opened: desc_card_granite, desc_cards_three, desc_card_headache, pp_card_m, grain_sizes, q_grains_small, test_table_three, test_table_headache, q_table_jk, hardness_card, streak_card, luster_card, made_of_table, rock_vs_mineral. Every cell's text sits inside its column (the table drawer asserts tw(v) < cw − 8); the speckle guard places 15 / 90 non-overlapping speckles per box from one seed; the headache card and table carry their question and blank cells; no item figure carries a chip, a tick or a verdict. Two item cards drawn but unused (Rock J, Rock K) were removed. Photo and cartoon placeholders render as the pale box with grey text; IMAGE_BRIEFS carry the 17 picture briefs (David's pack, after James's sign-off on the question above).

Judgement calls, recorded

Pyrite, not hematite, carries the streak test. Hematite is the textbook streak mineral, but a kit hematite's hardness sits on the steel-nail line, and the table prints a hardness cell for every mineral. Pyrite's results are honest on any kit (nothing in the kit scratches it; greenish black streak). Hematite appears nowhere; the type sheet bars it from hardness items.
The hardness result is "the first thing that scratched it" (a fingernail / a penny / a steel nail / nothing), not a number. Mohs numbers are grades 6-8; the four-word result is what a Grade 4 table can hold and what the released items ask.
"Cleavage" is not named. Question for James above.
The L02 fact form. A single-mineral chunk was rejected as a non-example (sibling class); the rock | mineral table does the sorting instead.
The opening video is exactly 90 words after three trims; the warm rock underfoot went. Eight subjects are named in one map sentence (the brief's list), the longest beat in the topic (50 words) — the generator should read it at speech pace; check_brief.py passes it.
The intro's second question became a statement ("Gloria would need a way to tell them apart") to sit at two question marks instead of three.
L03's article is 296 words, the longest in the topic, because its rule step carries four lexicon sentences (three coins and the routine). Subtitles sit every 2–4 idea lines, so no stretch runs long.
The quiz claim items are bare yes / no; the bank's are "which sentence is true" with the claim in the stem, so no option bundles a verdict with its reason (the bank needs four options).
Written to /tmp only. The brief scopes writes to grade4/topic17_build/; the page was built to /tmp/g4t17_test.html (with the opening-video card added by content/add_strand_intro.py), the batch to handoff/G4T17/videos/ (the tool's own output path; NOT sent), the bundle to grade4/topic17_build/blind/2026-10-02/.

Owed

A non-author review-figures pass and review-questions pass; the blind read of the bundle (keys unverified until a cold reader agrees).
The picture pass (17 placeholders) after James answers the one question above.
James's word before the batch is sent (Grade 4's first batch rule); the opening video goes through handoff/STRAND_INTROS/ on his word, as Grade 3's did.
The S36 additions list: if James accepts "geologist", "gritty", "chunk" and "boulder", they go to reference/grade3_word_additions.txt (not written here — outside this topic's folder).

v2 — reviews applied (2 October 2026)

Skill: course-build → write-lesson (the article lines) → write-video-script (the L03 chart beat) → write-mcqs (every item change) → write-explanation (the fb / why lines) → sentence-atomise (every new sentence) @ b0fa825

In plain words. Three review records went through the topic in order of authority — the blind read (one key did not survive), the guidance / questions / accuracy review, and the figure review — and every Essential and Worth-fixing row is now in the files. The failed key is fixed at its root: the three drawn grain items no longer ask yes / no about a drawing that sits on the boundary; they ask which of the three taught labels goes in the GRAINS row, and the drawing renders at the teaching figure's size, so the right answer is the level the picture plainly shows. L03 now says on the page how Hadley knows the scratched mineral is calcite (Miss Burke's mineral chart) and states the deciding rule in the body. Nothing was cut from the bank, so no renumbering; every count the brief asks for still holds. Commit nothing was the instruction; nothing is committed.

Finding → change

Record	Finding	Change
Blind	L01-06 key failed: both readers said "no" on the 90-speckle box	L01 q5–q7 are three-label items ("What would you write in the GRAINS row of its card?", options GRAINS3 = big enough to see / you can just see them / too small to see; keys 0 1 2), with fb for every option; `_grain_item` passes `disp=320`, so a 120-wide box renders at 240 px (2×, the `grain_sizes` scale) and a 1.6 px speckle stays a 3 px dot. Opened at page width: `q_grains_big` shows separate pea-sized speckles — plainly big enough to see; `q_grains_small` a fine texture of tiny dots — plainly you can just see them; `q_grains_none` one even cream fill — plainly too small to see
Blind	PP-06 two defensible at three levels; PP-06 / 07 / 09 are lesson scenes renamed	PP-06 is pinned by L01's three-label run at the same scale; PP-06 and PP-07 re-scened as a gray driveway stone (light gray fill; white, dark gray and black speckles) and a smooth mid-gray pebble (fill `#a3a7aa`), new seeds, stems name the stone and the pebble; PP-09 re-scened as a dark green gritty rock whose grains you can just see (the reviewer's wording)
Blind	hardness has no definition item in L03	L03 q11 added: "What do we call what can scratch a mineral?" (TEST4, key C); streak recognition and the typed streak item move to q12 / q13
Blind + Review	"shine" refused on typed luster; "lustre" everywhere; "hard" on PR-13	`LUSTER_ACCEPT` += shine, shiny, shininess, the shine, its shine, how shiny it is; `HARDNESS_ACCEPT` += hard, how hard it is; PR-12 and PP-47 ask for "the geologist's word" and their why opens "'Shine' is the everyday word. The geologist's word is luster."
Blind	"geologist" in eight bank items, no lesson item	kept: L01's article names it ("A geologist is a scientist who studies rocks.") and L01's script speaks it ("like a geologist does") — the lesson line the ruling asks for already stands in both alternatives; no stem cut
Blind + Review	PP-26 "why not" stem; "hard" does describe the rock	"A boy writes 'hard' as the only word for a rock. Which sentence is true about the word 'hard'?" — key "'Hard' fits almost every rock."; the why ends "does not tell this rock from other rocks"
Blind	PR-04 vs PP-33 read as a contradiction	L02 article: "Sandstone is made of minerals too: its tiny grains of sand are mostly quartz." then "So a grain of sand is a tiny bit of rock, and it is also a grain of a mineral."
Blind + Review	PP-51 long stem; the worked case with the names removed (the reviewer's "PP-52")	PP-51 is a drawn item on the one-row table `pp_table_w` (mineral W: pink, shiny like glass, a penny, white); "A second pink, glassy mineral gets one different result. Which result shows it is a different mineral?" — key "A fingernail scratches it." (C)
Blind	quiz term order (grains, streak, luster used before their recognition items)	no change: the lessons coin each term before the quiz; the guidance review confirms
Review (Essential)	L03: how does Hadley know the scratched one is calcite; the deciding rule not in the body	Article, after the scratch result: "The test that gives two different results tells the minerals apart." / "Miss Burke's mineral chart says a penny scratches calcite, and not even a steel nail scratches quartz." / "So the scratched one is calcite, and the other one is quartz." Script beat 6: "Miss Burke's chart says a penny scratches calcite, so that one is calcite, and the other is quartz." (the screen shows the chart as a two-row card). The reviewer's "nothing in the kit" became "not even a steel nail" — "kit" was never introduced and S36 flagged it
Review	quartz / calcite streaks untested in the article	Test 4: "Hadley rubs the quartz and the calcite on the tile too." / "Both leave a white mark, so streak does not tell those two apart." (two lines: S1 caps an idea line at 22 words)
Review	L03 q3 offers "nothing" as a thing to try	options a fingernail / a penny / a steel nail, key C; the fourth fb cut
Review	PP-5 "speckled" also answers the grains question	"A rock is described as 'black and white'."
Review	PP-9, PP-12, PP-20, PP-49 (the reviewer's number; PP-48 in the bundle), Summary Q1 re-skinned	PP-9 dark green gritty rock; PP-12 "A rock's card reads 'gray, smooth, dull', and its GRAINS row is still empty. What is the rock made of?"; PP-20 "In a geologist's table, one column holds the color of the mark each mineral left on a white tile. Which test is this column?"; PP-48 "Nothing scratches an orange mineral, not even a steel nail." (the reviewer wrote green; PR-7 is already Gloria's green mineral and hardness, so green would re-skin the practice item); Summary Q1 "A rock has a polished cut face. The face is black and shiny, and its grains are too small to see." → key "How does it feel?"
Review	L02 attached: both fb identical	the no-fb is now "Each pink grain and each black grain is one kind of stuff, the same all the way through. So each grain is a mineral."
Review	`hadley_heidi_cartoon` brief drew four rocks; `made_of_table` aria-label "colour"	brief: exactly two gray rocks, both in Miss Burke's hands; aria-label "color"
Review	record line "the worked case appears in no item"; ⟂ pairs	corrected below; PP-37 ⟂ PP-48 and PP-20 ⟂ L03 attached added to the type sheet
Figures 1	`streak_card` olive	mark `#1f2a1e` (opened: a near-black green)
Figures 2	item grain boxes at 5.5×	`disp=320` on every item box; the bank's "none" box in the pebble's mid gray
Figures 3	rule cards' last line on the edge	`h = 40 + 20·n` (opened: clear on all three)
Figures 4	`hardness_card` two arrow styles; glyphs cross edges; arrow into "nothing"	boxes 90 wide at step 110; two joins drawn by `_arrow` with the same 7 px head as the softer → harder line; "nothing" a grey fourth card with no arrow into it (opened)
Figures	`desc_card_limestone` unplaced	deleted (its values still feed `desc_cards_three`)
Figures	`streak_plate_photo` unplaced	placed in L03 between "Hadley rubs the pyrite across a white tile…" and `streak_card`; caption "Hadley rubs the pyrite across the white tile." (the reviewer's "Rubbing a mineral across the white tile." has no subject and verb; S38)
Figures minor	`luster_card` pyrite-yellow chip; `pp_card_m` empty text node; two brief lines; `desc_cards_three` small on a phone	LIGHT for all three chips; an empty cell emits no text; "quartz on the LEFT … calcite on the RIGHT"; "cubic faces (square, flat, meeting at right angles)"; the three-card figure accepted as is
Leave rows	mineral defined without "natural / not alive"; the penny on calcite; calcite fizzing absent; quartz streak white; pyrite "nothing"; hematite excluded; limestone's grains; the opening video	left as they say

The question for James (cleavage) — built as recommended: left out. The reviewer's zero-cost alternative (one caption on three_minerals_photo: "Mica breaks into thin flat sheets. How a mineral breaks is another clue geologists use.") is offered on the type sheet under "Questions for James — built as recommended".

Counts after v2

3 lessons · scripts 150 / 149 / 147 spoken words (cap 150; L03's beat 6 grew by five words and beats 3 and 7 gave five back) · intro 114 · summary 139 · opening video 90 · articles 281 / 302 / 343 words (check_g4_articles.py WARNs above 300; L02 carries the one sand line the blind read asked for, L03 the Essential chart lines and the streak line — kept, the Grade 3 approved range runs to 505) · idea lines 17 / 18 / 21 · quizzes 11 / 11 / 13 · attached 3 + 3 · practice 13 · bank 53 (47 four-option MCQs, 5 typed, 1 multi; EAR4-001 17 · EAR4-002 16 · EAR4-003 20; easy → medium → hard sorted; mean depth 0.41 / 0.81 / 1.10 rising with atom order; four-option keys A 9 · B 12 · C 13 · D 13 unchanged) · figures 46 (29 SVG, 13 photo, 4 cartoon: desc_card_limestone out, pp_table_w in).

Key strings. Attached (video order) B A C A B B (B 3 of 6). L01 quiz: 4-option 2 0 1; 3-option 0 0 1 2 2 1; 2-option 1. L02 quiz: 3-option 0 0 1; 2-option 0 1 1 0 1 1 0. L03 quiz: 3-option 0 2 0; 4-option 3 1 3 2 0 2 3; 2-option 1 0. Practice: 3-option 0 0 2 1 2 (the v1 record's "0 0 2 2 2" misread PR-7's key, which is 1 and was not changed); 4-option 2 1 3 1; 2-option 1. Bank: A 9 · B 12 · C 13 · D 13; multi C D.

Record line corrected. v1's design-check-sequence note "The worked case (quartz / calcite / pyrite) appears in no item" was false: PP-51 was the quartz / calcite case with the names removed. It is now mineral W, pink and glassy, on its own drawn table.

Checker results

build_tools_check_topic.py → 0 FAIL, 24 WARN, all S36, the same 24 words as v1 (one new word, "kit", was written and taken out again).
grade4/check_g4_articles.py → 0 FAIL (two article-length WARNs, above); opening video 90 words.
build_tools_names.py Burke Gloria Hadley Heidi → exit 0, all four free.
build_tools_build_topic_site.py … /tmp/g4t17_v2.html built (46 figures, 0 missing), add_strand_intro.py added the opening-video card.
build_tools_video_batch.py rebuilt handoff/G4T17/videos/batch_G4T17.json (5 videos; key string B A C A B B); check_brief.py: L01, L02, L03, SUMMARY clean; the INTRO's one standing R79 hit. Not sent.
Figures re-rendered to /tmp/g4t17_figs/ (headless Chrome, 880 px column) and opened: the three quiz grain boxes (verdicts above), pp_grains_big, pp_grains_none, grain_sizes, hardness_card, streak_card, rule_describe, rule_test, luster_card, pp_table_w.
Fresh bundle blind/2026-10-02-v2/ (95 MCQ, 10 typed, 1 FRQ, 1 multi; keys sequestered). [Drawing: lines matching luster|hardness|streak|mineral|rock|grain|see: 8 hits, every one a table or card heading the student also sees — the five item tables J/K, L/M, N/P, R/S, T/V and the new W, each listing its cells under the column heads color / luster / hardness / streak with "mineral J" as the row name; Rock M's card (GRAINS empty) and Rock L's card (GRAINS big enough to see — the card's own cell, which the student reads on the figure). No hit is a verdict.

Items whose stem, options, key, model, figure, blind text or accept list changed

L01-05, L01-06, L01-07 (stem, options, key, fb, why; figure display size and blind text) · L02-V1 (fb) · L03-03 (options, fb) · L03-11 (new; hardness recognition) · L03-12, L03-13 (renumbered from q11, q12; unchanged) · SUMMARY-01 (stem, key, fb, why) · PR-12 (stem, why, accept list) · PR-13 (accept list) · PP-05 (stem, why) · PP-06 (stem, why, figure colours and blind text) · PP-07 (stem, why, figure colour and blind text) · PP-09 (stem) · PP-12 (stem, why) · PP-20 (stem, why) · PP-26 (stem, options, why) · PP-47 (stem, why, accept list) · PP-48 (stem, why, accept list) · PP-51 (stem, options, figure added, why). Article and script lines changed: L02 a19–a20 (sand), L03 a20–a22 (the rule and the chart), a27–a28 (streak plate photo; quartz and calcite rubbed), L03 script beats 3, 6, 7.

Sentence-atomise, the new lines

Line	Ideas	Check
"The test that gives two different results tells the minerals apart."	1	named actor (the test), verb carries the cause
"Miss Burke's mineral chart says a penny scratches calcite, and not even a steel nail scratches quartz."	2 facts the chart states, one source	the chart is the actor; "not even" the positive form of "nothing scratches"
"So the scratched one is calcite, and the other one is quartz."	1 conclusion	"So" joins cause to effect
"Hadley rubs the quartz and the calcite on the tile too." / "Both leave a white mark, so streak does not tell those two apart."	1 + 1	split from one 24-word line (S1)
"So a grain of sand is a tiny bit of rock, and it is also a grain of a mineral."	1 (two faces of one thing, joined with "also")	the second-face rule
L03 beat 6	1	spoken at 18 words, under the two-sentence cap

v3 — polish (2 October 2026, the re-read's five soft notes)

Skill: course-build → write-mcqs (SUMMARY-01, PP-06, PP-28, L03-11) → write-lesson (the one L02 article line) → write-explanation (the PP-06 and PP-28 why lines) → sentence-atomise (every new sentence) @ b0fa825

In plain words. Reader C agreed every key on the v2 bundle and left five soft notes. All five are in: the summary question no longer half-answers the feel question with "polished"; the bank's made-of analogy is a quilt of cloth patches, not the lesson's cookie or the quiz's muffin with a new noun; the bank's big-grain stone is black with white, yellow and light gray speckles, so it no longer looks like granite moved to a driveway; L02 says in one line that a rock can be many grains of one mineral, so PP-29 sits on taught ground; and L03's hardness recognition item names the test plainly. Nothing was cut or moved, so no renumbering and no key change. Commit nothing was the instruction; nothing is committed.

Note	Change
SUMMARY-01 "polished" half-answers "How does it feel?"	stem "A rock is cut in half. The cut face is black and shiny, and its grains are too small to see. Which describing question is still not answered?" (key, fb, why unchanged)
PP-28 is the cookie analogy with a new noun (fruitcake; L02 q6 has the muffin)	grep of lessons, quizzes and bank for cookie / muffin / fruitcake / cake confirmed the family; the new instance is a made thing that is not a food: "A quilt is made of red, blue and white patches of cloth sewn together, the way a rock is made of grains of minerals. Which part of the quilt is like one mineral grain?" — the whole quilt / the bed it lies on / one patch of cloth / the needle that sewed it (key C, as before)
PP-06 is granite under a lens on an Ohio driveway (gray fill; white, dark gray, black speckles; 15 of them)	a black playground stone in Minnesota: fill `#2b2f33`, 12 speckles in white, yellow and light gray (`BLACK_STONE`, `BLACK_SPECKS`, `n=12`, seed 13), the same 5–7 px sizes, the same disp=320; the why names the three colours; blind text "black fill, 12 round speckles … in white, yellow and light gray". Opened the render at the item's page width: twelve separate pale discs on near-black, plainly big enough to see and nothing like granite's pink-white-black
PP-29 sits on a boundary L02 did not state (many grains of ONE mineral)	L02 article, after "Limestone is made of a mineral called calcite, in grains too small to see.": "So a rock can also be many grains of one mineral, stuck together." (the second-face rule's "also"; the sibling class, a single piece of one mineral, is met two steps later on `rock_vs_mineral`)
L03-11 stem "What do we call what can scratch a mineral?" reads loosely	"What do we call the test that finds what can scratch a mineral?" (options, key C, fb, why unchanged)

Changed ids. SUMMARY-01 (stem) · PP-06 (stem, why, figure colours, speckle count and seed, blind text) · PP-28 (stem, options, why) · L03-11 (stem) · L02 article a21 (one new idea line). Type sheet rows 2 and 7, their exemplars and inventory row 7 updated to match.

Checks. build_tools_check_topic.py → 0 FAIL, 25 WARN (v2's 24 S36 words plus "sewn" on PP-28 — fine, a grade-4 child knows sewing; kept). grade4/check_g4_articles.py → 0 FAIL; opening video 90 words; L02 article 315 (one line added; the Grade 3 approved range runs to 505). Site built to /tmp/g4t17_v3.html (46 figures, 0 missing) and add_strand_intro.py added the opening-video card. Four-option keys A 9 · B 12 · C 13 · D 13, unchanged. Fresh bundle blind/2026-10-02-v3/ (95 MCQ, 10 typed, 1 FRQ, 1 multi; keys sequestered); its 13 [Drawing: …] lines are data only.

Sentence-atomise, the new lines.

Line	Ideas	Check
"A rock is cut in half." / "The cut face is black and shiny, and its grains are too small to see."	1 / 2 givens of one face	named thing (the rock, the cut face); the feel is now unsaid, so the key stands alone
"So a rock can also be many grains of one mineral, stuck together."	1	"So" joins to the limestone line; "also" marks the second face of "made of grains of minerals"
"One patch of cloth is one of the pieces the quilt is made of." / "So one patch of cloth is like one mineral grain."	1 / 1	named actor, one link per line
"This surface shows separate white, yellow and light gray speckles, each easy to pick out."	1	the drawing described in colours and separateness, never the label

The guidance, questions and accuracy review

Skill: course-build → review-lesson (Roles B, B2) → review-questions → review-accuracy (non-author pass; filed by the coordinator from the reviewer's hand-back) @ b0fa825

Topic 17 — guidance, questions and accuracy review, 2 October 2026

The topic is sound and nearly ready. Every count the record claims is true when re-run (scripts 150 / 149 / 147; intro 114; summary 139; opening video 90; articles 281 / 280 / 296; bank 53, 17 / 16 / 20 per atom, difficulty rising; keys spread; five typed terms whose stems never print the key; "lustre" accepted; the three Grade 3 recall sentences word for word). The science on a school kit is right, and pyrite over hematite is the correct call. Two things want fixing before the keys ship: L03 has a reasoning gap a nine-year-old will feel ("how does Hadley know the scratched one is calcite?") and never states the capstone's deciding sentence in the article body; and the freshness claim is false for PP-52 (the quartz / calcite worked case with the names removed) and thin for four attached items re-skinned.

The author's question (cleavage): leave it out, as the author recommends; mica's "black flaky" sheets already carry the idea as a describing word. If James wants the Florida word honoured at zero cost, one caption on three_minerals_photo: "Mica breaks into thin flat sheets. How a mineral breaks is another clue geologists use."

Leave (science confirmed): mineral defined without "natural / not alive" (a register scope line, no text change); the post-1982 penny still marks calcite with firm pressure (a teacher note at the kit stage); calcite fizzing rightly absent; quartz streak "white" the standard table value; pyrite "nothing" right; hematite excluded rightly; limestone "grains too small to see" a fair simplification; the strand intro states no later rule.

where	finding	rule broken	severity	the rewrite
L03 article line ~300 and script beat 6	"Calcite is the softer one" with nothing on the page that told Hadley so; the deciding rule only in the forest and the whys	every causal link stated; the rule on the page	Essential	Article: "The test that gives two different results tells the minerals apart." then "Miss Burke's mineral chart says a penny scratches calcite, and nothing in the kit scratches quartz. So the scratched one is calcite." Script: "Miss Burke's chart says a penny scratches calcite, so that one is calcite, and the other is quartz."
PP-52	the worked case with the names removed	fresh instance	Essential	pink glassy mineral; second pink glassy mineral with one different result: "A fingernail scratches it." (key C)
PP-9, PP-12, PP-20, PP-49; Summary Q1	attached / summary items re-skinned; Summary Q1 is L01's limestone	check 43	Worth fixing	as the reviewer wrote (dark green gritty rock; the card with GRAINS row missing; the geologist's table column; the green mineral nothing scratches; the polished cut face)
L03 article, Test 4	quartz / calcite streaks in the table untested	the drawing shows what the text says	Worth fixing	"Hadley rubs the quartz and the calcite on the tile too. Both leave a white mark, so streak does not tell those two apart."
L01 q5–q7 (and L01-06's failed key)	yes / no on a three-label scale	options are the taught labels	Worth fixing → Essential given the blind read	"What would you write in the GRAINS row?" big enough to see / you can just see them / too small to see; drawn at the teaching figure's size
L03 q3	"nothing" offered as a thing to try	real distractors	Worth fixing	a fingernail / a penny / a steel nail; key C
PP-5	"speckled" also answers the grains question	one true option	Worth fixing	"A rock is described as 'black and white'."
PP-26	"why not" stem	positive stem	Worth fixing	"A boy writes 'hard' as the only word for a rock. Which sentence is true about the word 'hard'?"
PR-12, PP-48 (typed luster)	"shine" refused with no line	every correct answer accepted; sister-term line	Worth fixing	"Type the geologist's word for how shiny a mineral looks."; why: "'Shine' is the everyday word. The geologist's word is luster."
L02 attached fb	both fb identical	check 36	Worth fixing	no-fb: "Each pink grain and each black grain is one kind of stuff, the same all the way through. So each grain is a mineral."
hadley_heidi_cartoon brief; made_of_table aria-label	four rocks drawn, two in the story; "colour"	figures tell the truth; US spelling	Worth fixing	two rocks, one in each hand; "color"
record line "the worked case appears in no item"; ⟂ PP-37 ⟂ PP-49, PP-20 ⟂ L03 attached	—	—	record	correct; add

The figure review

Skill: course-build → review-figures (non-author pass; filed by the coordinator from the reviewer's hand-back) @ b0fa825 — figures at g3-5-science commit 0828919

Topic 17 — figure review, 2 October 2026

Clean, calm tables and cards that read in one glance: the four-row describing card, the five-column test table with a heading on every column, the three grain boxes side by side. The one picture that makes a claim with colour, the streak card, says the wrong colour: the text says "greenish black" and the tile shows a mid olive green. Every real thing (rocks, minerals, penny, nail, tile) is still a placeholder, so the lesson has no rock in it yet. Four fixes before a cold read, two unplaced keys.

streak_card mark is olive, not greenish black (#6b7a3a). Use a near-black green, about #1f2a1e, 9 px stroke.
Item grain boxes display at 5.5× the teaching size. _grain_item frames are 160 × 114 at width="100%", so the 1.6 px "you can just see them" speckles render at about 9 px on the page — plainly visible dots, three times the teaching figure's. The picture teaches that "just see them" looks like "big enough to see" (and both blind readers answered L01-06 the other way). Pass disp=320 so the item box renders at the teaching figure's 2×; same for pp_grains_*. Frame-floor rule.
Rule cards' last line sits on the card's bottom edge (rule_describe, rule_minerals, rule_test). h = 40 + 20·n.
hardness_card has two arrow styles and the small glyphs cross box edges. Boxes 90 wide at step 110; the three joins as short lines with the same head as the bottom arrow; "nothing" is a result, not a scratcher — keep it as the grey fourth card with no arrow into it.

Unplaced: desc_card_limestone — delete; streak_plate_photo — place in L03 between "Hadley rubs the pyrite across a white tile" and streak_card, caption "Rubbing a mineral across the white tile."

Minor: desc_cards_three small text on a phone (accept or stack); q_grains_none and pp_grains_none identical renders (give the bank one the pebble's mid grey); luster_card colours the SHINY LIKE METAL chip pyrite-yellow (LIGHT for all three); pp_card_m emits one empty <text>; quartz_calcite_photo brief needs "quartz left, calcite right"; pyrite_photo brief "cubic faces". Test-table truth confirmed (quartz nothing / white; calcite a penny / white; pyrite nothing / greenish black, metallic); the hematite exclusion is right. Blind texts and alts carry data only; headache figures show the answer's layer off; Grade 3 Topic 17's drawers imported as Grade 3 drew them; no caption says "real"; all 17 placeholder briefs complete and specimen-named.

key	kind	used by	verdict	what is wrong	the fix
desc_card_headache, desc_card_granite, desc_card_sandstone, grain_sizes, pp_card_l, made_of_table, rock_vs_mineral, test_table_headache, test_table_two, test_table_three, q_table_jk, q_table_lm, pp_table_np / rs / tv	svg	L01–L03, items	PASS	—	—
desc_card_limestone	svg	none	DELETE	unplaced	delete
desc_cards_three	svg	L01	minor	small on phone	accept or stack
rule_describe, rule_minerals, rule_test	svg	L01–L03	FIX	last line on the border	h = 40 + 20n
pp_card_m	svg	bank	minor	empty text node	skip ""
q_grains_big, q_grains_small, q_grains_none, pp_grains_big, pp_grains_none	svg item	L01 quiz / bank	FIX	5.5× display; twin renders	disp=320; grey fill on the bank one
hardness_card	svg	L03	FIX	two arrow styles; glyphs cross edges; "nothing" in the chain	lines + one head; no arrow into "nothing"
streak_card	svg	L03	FIX	olive, not greenish black	#1f2a1e
luster_card	svg	L03	minor	yellow metal chip	LIGHT chips
enchanted_rock_photo, granite_photo, two_gray_rocks_photo, sandstone_photo, limestone_photo, granite_lens_photo, three_minerals_photo, cookie_photo, pebble_boulder_photo, penny_nail_photo	photo	intro–L03	PASS	—	—
quartz_calcite_photo, pyrite_photo	photo	L03	minor	left/right; "cubic faces"	add
streak_plate_photo	photo	none	PLACE	unplaced	L03 before streak_card
gloria_enchanted_cartoon, hadley_heidi_cartoon, gloria_lens_cartoon, hadley_test_cartoon	cartoon	intro–L03	PASS	—	—

Three best: test_table_three, grain_sizes, made_of_table. Three weakest: streak_card, hardness_card, the item grain boxes as displayed.

The blind read and the v2 re-read

Skill: course-build → review-lesson (Role A blind key read, two readers; Role C adjudication by the coordinator) @ b0fa825

One key did not survive: L01-06. Both readers answered "no" to "Can you see the grains?" on a drawing of 90 speckles of 1.6 px; the key is "yes". A drawn fine texture reads as visible dots to one reader and as too-small-to-see to another, so the item has two defensible answers as drawn. Everything else agreed (106 items each; MCQ disagreements 1 of 106 for both; PP-50 multi B, C matched; the FRQ model in the key's words). The intro poll is not bundled by design.

Flags carried into the fix pass

Item	Who	Flag	Ruling
L01-06	A, B	key "yes" against two "no" reads; 1.6 px speckles are at the edge	redraw with a flat fill (the answer "no") or with grains plainly big enough (the answer "yes"), and say in the stem which drawing level it is; or use the three-level options
PP-06	A, B	two defensible: no drawing marks the boundary between "big enough to see" and "you can just see them"	pin the three levels with a reference strip in L01, or re-key to two options
PP-06, PP-07, PP-09	A, B	lesson scenes renamed (L01-05, L01-07, SUMMARY-01 with a place or colour added)	re-scene
hardness	A, B	luster and streak each have a definition item in L03; hardness has none	add one
PR-12, PP-47 (typed luster)	A, B	the rock card prints SHINE and L01 says "shiny or dull"	accept "shine" / "shiny" / "shininess", and "lustre" everywhere; PR-13 accept "hard"
"geologist"	B	eight bank items, no lesson item	one lesson line names it, or cut from the stems
PP-26 stem	A, B	"hard" does describe the rock; it fails to tell rocks apart	"Why does 'hard' not help tell this rock from other rocks?"
PR-04 vs PP-33	B	"a sand grain is a tiny bit of rock" and "a grain of a mineral" read as a contradiction	one line in L02 (sand grains are bits of rock, which are grains of minerals)
quiz order	B	"grains" used at L01-04 before L01-10 defines it; "streak" L03-02 before L03-11; "luster" L03-04 before L03-10	the lessons coin them first; the guidance review confirms
PP-51	B	long stem for the age	a small table

Readers' files: blind/2026-10-02/READER_A.md, READER_B.md.

v2 re-read, 2 October 2026 (Reader C on `blind/2026-10-02-v2`, the whole bundle)

Every key agreed (107 items; MCQ disagreements 0; PP-50 multi C, D matched; the five typed answers on the lists; the FRQ model in the key's words). The failed key is gone: the three grain items each pin one level (15 speckles at 10–14 px on the page = big enough to see; 90 dots at about 3 px = you can just see them; even fill = too small to see), and PP-06 / PP-07 reuse the two clear ends. Soft notes to the polish pass: SUMMARY-01 drop "polished" (it half-answers the feel question); PP-28 is the cookie analogy with a new noun; PP-06 is the granite-under-a-lens scene on a driveway; L02 should say in one line that a rock can be many grains of one mineral (PP-29 sits on that boundary); L03-11's stem wording. Reader's file: READER_C.md.