Some objects in a story mean more than they first appear to. A crooked tree is just a tree, until a story keeps returning to it, letting it carry more and more meaning each time it reappears. This worksheet uses an original short story built around exactly that technique, giving tenth graders focused practice tracking a symbol across an entire narrative.
Grade 10 Symbolism Worksheet
For More grade 10 worksheets, Visit Grade 10 Reading Comprehension Worksheets.
Why Symbolism Belongs in Grade 10 Reading Practice
Tenth grade literature standards ask students to recognize when an object, image, or detail in a story is doing more than describing the physical world, when it is standing in for a larger idea. This is a genuinely demanding skill, since symbols are rarely announced directly. A reader has to notice that a detail keeps reappearing, track how its context shifts each time, and piece together what it might represent.
This worksheet gives students a clear, well-defined symbol to practice with: a crooked apple tree that appears at the story’s beginning, its emotional turning point, and its conclusion. Because the symbol shows up at three distinct moments, students can practice comparing how its meaning develops rather than only identifying it once.
How to Track a Symbol Across a Story
It’s worth naming this process directly. A symbol usually appears more than once, and its meaning often becomes clearer, or shifts slightly, with each appearance. In this story, the crooked tree is first introduced through a family story about hard-won growth. It reappears as the specific place where Clara’s decision changes. And it appears again at the story’s end, now confirmed as literally producing the sweetest fruit on the property, closing the symbolic loop the story opened.
Encouraging students to physically mark or note each appearance of a symbol while reading, rather than trying to interpret it only after finishing the story, makes this kind of tracking far more manageable and far more accurate.
What’s Inside This Worksheet
This worksheet features an original short story, “The Orchard,” about a young woman named Clara who must decide whether to sell her family’s three-generation apple orchard to a developer or continue her grandfather’s legacy. The story centers on a single crooked apple tree that recurs at key moments, symbolizing resilience and the value of hard-won growth, while also exploring the tension between practical, financial reasoning and emotional, generational connection.
The worksheet includes:
- Multiple Choice. Questions about characters, events, and key details in the story.
- True or False. Quick recall checks that reinforce careful reading.
- Fill in the Blank. Vocabulary and phrase practice pulled directly from the text.
- Think and Explain. Two short-answer questions: one asking students to trace the crooked tree’s symbolic meaning across the story using specific evidence, and one asking them to analyze how Clara’s internal conflict between practicality and emotion develops the story’s theme.
That combination asks tenth graders to do genuine literary analysis: not just identifying a symbol once, but tracking how its meaning builds and connects to the story’s central internal conflict and theme.
How to Use This Worksheet
Before diving into the worksheet questions, ask your student to find and mark every place the crooked tree appears in the story. This simple tracking exercise makes the symbolism question at the end far more concrete and evidence-based, rather than relying on a single vague impression. From there, discuss what the tree seems to represent, and whether that meaning shifts or deepens by the story’s end.
This worksheet fits well in a high school English classroom studying symbolism and theme, as independent reading practice at home, or in a homeschool setting building toward more advanced literary analysis. It also pairs naturally with our other Grade 10 worksheets, the poem “Harbor at Low Tide” and the speech “Remarks to the Graduating Class,” rounding out a mix of poetry, rhetoric, and fiction at this grade level.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of It
Read the story twice: once for plot, and once specifically tracking the tree’s three appearances and how the context around each one changes. Ask your student what the tree might represent if it were removed from the story entirely, as a way of clarifying just how much symbolic weight it’s actually carrying. And for the theme question, encourage them to connect Clara’s internal conflict directly to the story’s resolution, rather than treating the two as separate ideas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is “The Orchard” part of a longer novel?
No, it’s a standalone short story written specifically for this worksheet, designed to give focused practice with a single, traceable symbol.
How long does this worksheet take to complete?
Most tenth graders finish in about 25 to 35 minutes, including the two short-answer questions.
Is an answer key included?
Yes, as a separate PDF, so you can print just the worksheet for your student and keep the key handy for grading.
Download the Worksheet
The printable literary fiction worksheet and its separate answer key are ready to download. It’s a symbolism-focused addition to your Grade 10 reading library, giving students genuine practice tracking how a single image can carry a story’s deepest meaning.
Happy reading.