De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Reversing the Chicago River [Pdf]

"Reversing the Chicago River" is a one page, nonfiction passage about how the leaders of Chicago reversed the polluted Chicago River so that it emptied into the Mississippi River instead of the lake. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes selecting one of three topics and underlining the information in the passage that supports the selected topic. This passage aligns with Common Core Anchor Reading Standards 1 and 2 requiring close reading, textual evidence, main idea, integrating ideas from different sources, and summarizing.