Skill: course-build → review-page → write-like-james @ 73121d6
Questions from the sample topics (16 October 2026)
Two small questions, each with its default already in force; nothing waits on them. They came out of the non-author reviews of the first two sample topics. Each is a wording choice where an earlier grade's coined line and this course's teaching meet.
1. Should Grade 4's keep-the-same line stand as the rule line in Topic 2, with one beat saying the result is not kept the same?
The course says: "Everything except the one thing you change must stay the same." (Grade 4 Topic 2's coined line), plus one beat in Topic 2 L05: the measured result is not kept the same, because it is the result.
- A coined line is used from then on; the Grade 4 line is what every student who took Grade 4 knows.
- Read literally, "everything except the one thing you change" includes the thing you measure, which changes by itself; the beat closes that gap.
- No item marks the ambiguity; a student who treats the result as a control variable is caught by the three-name items, not by this line.
Cost of changing it: one lexicon line in Topic 2 and the same line's recall in Topic 3; Grade 4's line is untouched either way.
My recommendation: Grade 4's line plus the beat.
A: Grade 4's line plus the beat / B: Rewrite the line to exclude the result (say how)
2. Does Grade 4's "checked, then set aside" stand for the odd result, with Topic 4 bridging to "keep it and check it"?
The course says: Grade 4 Topic 25 coined "A result that does not fit the rest is checked, then set aside." (one odd day does not change the climate). Topic 4 teaches that the odd result stays in the table and is checked, never crossed out. The recall item quotes Grade 4's line word for word and bridges it: set aside from the pattern, kept in the table.
- Grade 4's line is right for its case: an odd day is left out of the climate's usual pattern.
- Topic 4's case is different: a seedling by the heater is a real result with a real cause, and the misconception to confront is "cross out the odd one".
- The bridge says both in one breath; a student who took Grade 4 meets a familiar line, then its sharper form.
Cost of changing it: if Topic 4's wording travels back, Grade 4 Topic 25's blessed lesson is reopened.
My recommendation: Grade 4's line stands; the bridge is applied here.
A: Grade 4's line stands, bridged here / B: Topic 4's wording travels back to Grade 4
Two observations from the blind reads, filed as proposed, not applied as rules
Each came from a cold reader on Topic 6. The items concerned were fixed under rules you have already given (an odd-one-out shape is a key tell; a fresh instance changes the move). Whether the generalisation becomes a rule is yours.
3. In a "which conclusion claims more than the evidence supports" item, should the honest options be different kinds of honest conclusion?
The course says: nothing yet: Topic 6's two such items were fixed so their three honest options are a restatement, a hedge and a "more testing needed" line; no rule is written.
- A reader found the overclaim by elimination when the three honest options were one sentence said three ways.
- With three different honest conclusions, the student has to judge each one.
Cost of changing it: none now; a yes adds one scoped line to the distractor rule and the question-review checklist.
My recommendation: yes, as a scoped line, not a quota.
A: Yes, as a scoped line / B: No, leave it to the author
4. When a topic has several "Is the classmate correct?" items, should at least one classmate be right?
The course says: nothing yet: Topic 6's three such items all keyed "no", and one was rewritten so the classmate states the lesson's rule and is right; no rule is written.
- A reader noted a student could learn "the classmate is always wrong" and stop judging the claim.
- A right classmate is only possible where the lesson's rule gives a true claim to state; the documented-belief condition on wrong claims stands.
Cost of changing it: none now; a yes adds one scoped line to the misconception-item rule.
My recommendation: yes, where the lesson's rule gives a true claim to state.
A: Yes, where a true claim exists / B: No, leave it to the author