Read the passage 'The Lost People of Mesa Verde.' Then answer the following.

Write a summary of paragraphs 6 through 11 of "The Lost People of the Mesa Verde." In your response, include the important ideas from paragraphs 6 through 11.

Write your answer on your answer document.

Annotation: The reader responds that "Archaeologists think that mesa verde is not a good place to live" and continues that the land ‘wore out’ "as did the people." The reader concludes that then "a lot of women died young" and follows with an incomplete sentence. The reader provides a partial summary of the required paragraphs and does address big ideas from the beginning and end of the required paragraphs. The middle of the text is neglected and the information about women dying young is a detail, not a big idea. To improve this response, the reader should address important ideas from the beginning, middle, and end of the text.

Annotation: The reader references "a bad drought and how the Anasazi tried to survive with a scarce amount of food." The reader provides a partial response and focuses on details rather than important ideas from the beginning and middle of the required paragraphs. To improve this response, the reader needs to learn to distinguish between details and important ideas.

Annotation: The reader notes the poor living conditions caused by "long periods of cold, not much rain fell, the population grew meaning the top had to be farmed, there food was scarce"…caused the people to leave. The reader provides a partial response giving big ideas from the beginning and middle of the required paragraphs. To improve this response, the reader should encapsulate details into their bigger ideas. For example, the references to cold and rain should become bad weather. Finally, addressing the big ideas at the end of the required paragraphs would complete the summary.

Annotation: The reader addresses the bad weather, the misuse of the land, the diminishing animal life, and the illness of the Mesa Verde people, which caused them to leave the area. The reader provides a complete summary of the required paragraphs by noting the important ideas across the required paragraphs. To improve this response, the reader could point out the cause and effect relationships among the ideas. For example, the misuse of the land was a direct cause of the wild life leaving the land.