Care and Support: Work That Holds Communities Together
Before a child heads to school, someone may prepare breakfast and make sure a backpack is ready. Across town, a worker may help an older person take medicine or get dressed. These actions may look small, but they are part of something much larger: care and support.
Care means helping people meet their needs and live well. Everyone needs care at some point, and many people both give and receive it throughout their lives. Babies depend on adults for nearly everything. People who are sick, older, or living with disabilities may need support with certain tasks. Care can also include listening to someone who is worried or helping a neighbor get to an appointment.
Some care is paid work. Child care workers, nurses, and home health aides earn money for helping others. Other care is unpaid. Family members and friends may cook meals, clean, help with homework, or look after a relative without receiving a paycheck. Both kinds of care take time, energy, and skill.
Why care matters to everyone
- depend:
- To need someone or something for help or support.
- relative:
- A person who is part of your family.
- recognition:
- Notice or appreciation for someone's work or actions.
- responsibility:
- A duty or task that someone is expected to handle.
- wages:
- Money earned for work.
- observance:
- A day or event set aside to recognize something important.
- affordable:
- Not too expensive for people to pay for.
One passage, many ways to practice
Reading-skill questions, word work and writing prompts — all built from this text.
Main Idea
Identify the central idea and explain how important details develop it.
Context Clues
Use clues in the passage to work out what words mean. A separate printable Vocabulary worksheet is also available.
Summarize
Select, organize, and restate the most important information without adding opinion.
Purpose
Analyze what the author aims to do and how choices serve audience and purpose.
Structure
Analyze how sections and organizational choices build the text's ideas or effects.
Vocabulary
Practice words from the passage with a printable worksheet.
Writing Prompts
Use the passage as a springboard for short written responses, from personal reflection to evidence-based arguments.
Fix the Sentence
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1What is the main idea of the passage, and which detail supports it?
- 2How are paid and unpaid care alike and different?
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About this explanatory article passage for Upper Elementary
“Care and Support: Work That Holds Communities Together” is a explanatory article reading passage about Care and support, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 3 minutes to read (509 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.