Hello sixth graders!   Sep-17-15
This is the reading selection that you are going to use in order to answer questions for the next Wednesday. Read it out and answer the questions. Remember, you are practicing to beat the PPAA test. You can do it.

Skateboarding Family

I cannot remember the first time I picked up a skateboard. My father taught my older brother Jacobo to ride one. Then, when I was old enough, Jacobo taught me. Every day after dinner, we would get our boards and ride until it was time for us to go to bed. We never missed a day. Even when I got sick and couldn’t go outside, Jacobo would ride his skateboard in front of the house, so that I could observe him from my bedroom window.

I was never as good as he was, but he always had some words to encourage me. As I got older, I did get better. Jacobo and I would go down by the beach and skate in the parking lot with our friends. It was great fun—until one day when our little sister Valentina insisted that she wanted to come along. Jacobo didn’t seem to mind. He helped put her helmet on and then he’d hold her hand as she tried to balance on the skateboard. To me, it seemed that she was just slowing us down.

Sensing my frustration, Jacobo pulled me aside. He told me that it was my turn to teach Valentina how to ride. I tried to argue, but he wouldn’t have it. Jacobo calmly asked me to think about how I would have felt if he had chosen to leave me behind to go off with his friends. That was the first time I realized what it really meant to be a big brother.

From that day on, I practiced with Valentina every day. When she got sick, I rode outside her window. When she fell, I picked her up. And when Valentina won the national skateboarding championship, I almost cried.