Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ b0fa825 (v2, 2 Oct 2026: the blind read and the guidance / questions review applied; the changed items are listed in BUILD_RECORD_G4T17.md "v2 — reviews applied")
Topic 17 — What a rock is made of — the PP100's thirteen question types, with their exemplars
What this page is. James reads a bank as its question TYPES first (vault: A bank is reviewed as its question types first, one exemplar each). Under the Grade 4 standing brief the bank is built straight away (53 items in content/G4T17_pp100_bank.py); this sheet is the way in. Each type line says what the stem asks, what the four options (or the accept list) are, and prints one exemplar in full.
Rulings already applied. Four options on every MCQ; no option bundles a verdict with its reason (claims are 'which sentence is true' with the claim in the stem, or bare yes / no in the quizzes); every stem is a positive question, at most two sentences below hard; a drawn test table on an item names its minerals by letters outside A–D and its blind text lists every cell as DATA, never the verdict (the coordinator, 2 Oct); the five coined terms are typed only at the hard end, each after recognition items in the quizzes and practice; 'lustre' is accepted everywhere 'luster' is; every claim-maker (Gloria, Hadley, Heidi) appears once in the bank; US spelling. v2: the typed luster items ask for "the geologist's word" and their why-line names the sister term ("'Shine' is the everyday word. The geologist's word is luster."); "shine", "shiny", "shininess" and "lustre" are accepted on every typed luster item and "hard" on every typed hardness item, because the course's own card prints SHINE and L01 asks "shiny or dull" (the blind read); the bank's grain boxes are a gray driveway stone and a mid-gray pebble, never the quiz's taught-rock colours, and every item grain box displays at the teaching figure's scale (disp=320). v3 (the re-read's polish): the bank's big-grain box is a black playground stone with 12 white, yellow and light gray speckles (the gray stone with white, dark gray and black speckles was granite's look moved to a driveway); type 7 carries a quilt's patches (the fruitcake was the lesson's cookie and the quiz's muffin with a new noun).
The bar list (real things a generated item must never name, because the taught class claim or the honest test result would break): granite, sandstone, limestone, quartz, calcite, pyrite, gold, feldspar, mica (the lessons' own cases); hematite or galena with a HARDNESS result (their kit samples sit on the steel-nail line); obsidian or pumice as 'grains too small to see' (one is glass, one is holes); marble or any one-mineral rock as 'a mineral' (a rock of many grains of one mineral is still a rock — the item must say 'made of grains'); halite with a fingernail result (on the line); any 'minerals in food' sentence written as true; 'crystal' anywhere (the course says grain).
The thirteen types
| Type | Items | Atom | Tags | Form | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | EAR4-001 | easy, medium | MCQ | 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 | 'smooth', 'sparkly', 'speckled black and white'; a boy who writes only 'hard' |
| 2 | 2 | EAR4-001 | easy | MCQ, drawn | 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 | a black playground stone in Minnesota; a smooth Lake Michigan beach pebble |
| 3 | 5 | EAR4-001 | easy, medium | MCQ; one drawn | 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) | Rock M's card; two brown gritty riverbed rocks; two pale brown rocks that differ in feel |
| 4 | 1 | EAR4-001 | medium | MCQ, drawn | which rock matches a filled card | four rock descriptions in words | Rock L's card (brown with gray pebbles) |
| 5 | 5 | EAR4-002 | easy, medium | MCQ | 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 | a pink chunk the same all the way through; a stone with green and white grains |
| 6 | 4 | EAR4-002 | easy, medium | MCQ | 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 | a Colorado riverbed chunk; a Georgia garden chunk; a Utah desert rock; a kitchen countertop |
| 7 | 1 | EAR4-002 | medium | MCQ | the made-of analogy carried to a new made thing, not a food | four parts of the scene | a quilt's patches of cloth |
| 8 | 5 | EAR4-002 | medium, hard | MCQ | 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 | a chip off a stepping stone; a rock broken in half; Heidi's 'just sand'; Hadley's big park rock; a boy's 'no grains show' |
| 9 | 4 | EAR4-003 | easy | MCQ | which test a described action is | color / luster / hardness / streak (TEST4) | Miss Burke and the light; a geologist and the nail; a boy and the tile; a girl and 'dark red' |
| 10 | 5 | EAR4-003 | easy, medium | MCQ | 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 | a mineral that stays smooth; a spoon's shine |
| 11 | 3 | EAR4-003 | medium, hard | MCQ, drawn; one multi-select | which test (or which two tests) tells two lettered minerals apart, read from a drawn test table | color / luster / hardness / streak (TEST4) | minerals N and P (luster); R and S (hardness); T and V (hardness and streak, the multi) |
| 12 | 5 | EAR4-003 | medium, hard | MCQ; one drawn | 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 | two green dull minerals; mineral W (pink, glassy) and a second pink glassy mineral; Gloria's two red minerals; a blue mineral with a white streak |
| 13 | 5 | all three | hard | typed | 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 | a geologist's glassy grain; a girl's 'shiny like metal' |
One exemplar per type
Type 1 — which describing question a word answers
Stem. A geologist describes a rock. Which four things does she say about it?
Options. its weight, its price, its age and its name / its colors, its grains, how it feels, and shiny or dull / where it was found, who found it, when and why / its colors, its size, its price and its age
Why. To describe a rock, say its colors, whether you can see its grains, how it feels, and whether it is shiny or dull. Price, age, name and who found it say nothing about the rock itself.
Tag. easy · EAR4-001
Type 2 — what a geologist writes about the grains of a drawn close-up
Stem. Look at the close-up of a black stone from a playground in Minnesota. What would a geologist write about its grains?
Figure. pp_grains_big
Options. big enough to see / you can just see them / too small to see / glittery
Why. The small pieces you can see in a rock are called grains. This surface shows separate white, yellow and light gray speckles, each easy to pick out. So the grains are big enough to see.
Tag. easy · EAR4-001
Type 3 — which describing question is still unanswered (a card with an empty row
Stem. Look at Rock M's card, which has one empty row. Which describing question has not been answered?
Figure. pp_card_m
Options. What colors is it? / Can you see its grains? / How does it feel? / Is it shiny or dull?
Why. The card has four rows: color, grains, feel, shine. The GRAINS row is empty. So 'Can you see its grains?' has not been answered.
Tag. easy · EAR4-001
Type 4 — which rock matches a filled card
Stem. Look at Rock L's card. Which rock matches the card?
Figure. pp_card_l
Options. a brown rock with grains too small to see / a brown rock with gray pebbles in it that you can see / a gray rock with brown pebbles in it that you can see / a smooth yellow rock with glittery flecks
Why. The card says brown with gray pebbles, grains big enough to see, bumpy, dull. A brown rock with gray pebbles you can see matches every row. The others differ in color, in grains or in shine.
Tag. medium · EAR4-001
Type 5 — what a rock is made of
Stem. What is a rock made of?
Options. one solid stuff with nothing inside / dried mud only / grains of minerals / tiny bits of metal
Why. A rock is made of grains of minerals. The grains may be big enough to see or too small to see, but they are there.
Tag. easy · EAR4-002
Type 6 — rock, mineral, soil or a grain of sand from a description
Stem. A chunk from a riverbed in Colorado is one kind of stuff, the same all the way through. What is it?
Options. a rock / a mineral / soil / a grain of sand
Why. A mineral is one kind of stuff a rock is made of, the same all the way through. This chunk is one kind of stuff all the way through. So it is a mineral.
Tag. easy · EAR4-002
Type 7 — the made-of analogy carried to a new made thing
Stem. 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?
Options. the whole quilt / the bed it lies on / one patch of cloth / the needle that sewed it
Why. A rock is 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.
Tag. medium · EAR4-002
Type 8 — which sentence is true when a size, inside or 'just sand' claim is made (the claim in the stem, four single statements as options)
Stem. A chip breaks off a big garden stepping stone. Which sentence is true about the chip and the stepping stone?
Options. The chip is made of smaller minerals. / The stepping stone is made of more kinds of mineral. / The chip has no minerals in it. / They are made of the same minerals.
Why. A rock is made of grains of minerals. The chip broke off the stepping stone, so its grains are the stepping stone's grains. So they are made of the same minerals.
Tag. medium · EAR4-002
Type 9 — which test a described action is
Stem. Miss Burke holds a mineral up to the light to see how shiny it looks. Which test is this?
Options. color / luster / hardness / streak
Why. How shiny a mineral looks is called its luster. Miss Burke looks at how shiny it is. So this is the luster test.
Tag. easy · EAR4-003
Type 10 — the hardness result from a scratch story
Stem. In the hardness test, which thing do you try first?
Options. a fingernail / a penny / a steel nail / nothing
Why. The hardness test goes from softer to harder: try a fingernail first, then a penny, then a steel nail. So the fingernail comes first.
Tag. easy · EAR4-003
Type 11 — which test (or which two tests) tells two lettered minerals apart, read from a drawn test table
Stem. Look at the table for mineral N and mineral P. Which test tells them apart?
Figure. pp_table_np
Options. color / luster / hardness / streak
Why. The test that gives two different results tells the minerals apart. Color, hardness and streak are the same for N and P. N is shiny like metal and P is dull. So luster tells them apart.
Tag. medium · EAR4-003
Type 12 — reasoning about results: what to say when all four match
Stem. Two green, dull minerals leave different marks on a white tile: one white, one green. Which test told them apart?
Options. color / luster / hardness / streak
Why. The test that gives two different results tells the minerals apart. The marks on the white tile are white and green. So streak told them apart.
Tag. medium · EAR4-003
Type 13 — the coined term recalled from its meaning on a fresh case
Stem. A girl holds a mineral in the light and writes 'shiny like metal' in her table. Type the geologist's word for the property she tested.
Accept. luster, lustre, the luster, its luster, lusters, lustur, lustor, luster test, shine, shiny, shininess…
Why. 'Shine' is the everyday word. The geologist's word is luster. How shiny a mineral looks is called its luster. So she tested its luster.
Tag. hard · EAR4-003
Draw constraints (⟂ — never in one PP100 draw)
- PP-8 (Rock M's empty GRAINS row) ⟂ PP-3 (which question 'you can just see them' answers): the first's card prints the row names the second's options use — fine on a page, but the two together make one a reading of the other.
- PP-31 (a chip off a stepping stone, same minerals) ⟂ PP-46 (Hadley's big park rock) ⟂ PR-6 (Heidi's boulder claim): one move — size is not a kind — on three scenes; draw one.
- PP-13 (what is a mineral) ⟂ PP-17 (the cereal-box meaning) ⟂ PP-44 (typed 'mineral'): the first two print the definition the third asks the student to produce.
- PP-18 to PP-21 (which test is this) ⟂ PP-48 / PP-49 / PP-50 (typed luster / hardness / streak): the MCQs' option set prints the typed keys.
- PP-39 (table R / S, hardness) ⟂ PP-41 (table N / P, luster) ⟂ PP-51 (table T / V, the multi): the same reading move on three tables; two per draw at most.
- PP-22 (try the fingernail first) ⟂ PP-37 (fingernail scratches it → 'a fingernail'): the first states the order the second's why rests on.
- PP-37 (nothing scratches it → 'nothing') ⟂ PP-48 (typed 'hardness' on an orange mineral nothing scratches): the same result on two scenes, and the first's option set prints the word the second's why leans on (v2, the guidance review).
- PP-20 (the streak column of a geologist's table) ⟂ L03's attached question (Gloria rubs a mineral across a white tile): one move — the mark on the tile is the streak test — so PP-20 never sits in a draw taken straight after L03's video (v2, the guidance review).
Questions for James — built as recommended
- "How it breaks" (cleavage) is left out, as the author recommended and the reviewer confirmed: mica's "black flaky" sheets already carry the idea as a describing word, a fourth coined idea would not fit a 147-word video or a five-column table, and no released Grade 5 item asks it. The zero-cost alternative, if the Florida word is to be honoured: one caption on
three_minerals_photoin L02 — "Mica breaks into thin flat sheets. How a mineral breaks is another clue geologists use." — and nothing else changes. Say the word and it goes in.
The design-move inventory (move · scene kind · nearest lesson-side item)
| # | Move | Scene kind | Nearest lesson-side item |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sort a describing word to its question | a rock word in quotes | L01 q2–q4 (rough, dark green, too small to see); PR-2 (gritty) |
| 2 | read a drawn close-up for its grains | a stone from a named US place | L01 q5–q7 (the quiz boxes, different seeds) |
| 3 | find the unanswered or deciding describing question | two alike rocks / a card with a gap | L01 q8 (two gray rough rocks → shine); PR-3 (black rocks → grains) |
| 4 | match a filled card to a rock | a card of a pebbly brown rock | none on the lesson side (the cards there are the three taught rocks) |
| 5 | state what a rock / a mineral is; pick the one true sentence | definition stems; a pink chunk | L02 q10 (term recognition); summary Q2 |
| 6 | sort a described thing into rock / mineral / soil / sand | a chunk from a named US place | L02 q2–q5 (two-option rock / mineral run) |
| 7 | carry the made-of analogy to a made thing that is not a food | a quilt of cloth patches | L02 q6 (a muffin's blueberries); L02's cookie |
| 8 | judge a size / inside / 'just sand' claim as which sentence is true | a chip and a stepping stone; a rock broken in half; sand | L02 q7–q9 and PR-6 (bare yes / no claims) |
| 9 | name the test from the action | a named adult or child doing one test | L03 q2 (the tile → streak); attached L03 (Gloria and the tile) |
| 10 | give the hardness result from a scratch story; the order; the luster word | a mineral that stays smooth; a spoon | L03 q3 (which to try next); PR-10 (penny → hardness) |
| 11 | read a two-mineral table for the deciding test | lettered minerals N / P, R / S, T / V | L03 q5–q6 (tables J / K and L / M) |
| 12 | reason from results: all match; one differs; color-only claim; streak vs color | green dull minerals; red minerals; a blue mineral | L03 q7 (what next), q8–q9 (claims) |
| 13 | recall the coined term from its meaning | a geologist's grain; a girl's table | L01 q11, L02 q11, L03 q12, PR-12, PR-13 (typed) |