01 · Open the source
Start with the file, then read its headings.
Download the saved USBE workbook. Open the worksheet named Titles. The column headings are on row 4; Water for Elephants is on row 22.
If you’d rather stay in your browser, open the source reading view. It displays the same preserved cells without changing the original file.
Find row 22 in the original or reading view. Read the heading above each value before writing your finding.
02 · Identify the book
Match what the source actually names.
Cell A22 names Water for Elephants. Cell B22 gives the author as Gruen, Sara. These cells do not give an ISBN, publisher, or edition.
- A22 · Title
- Water for Elephants
- B22 · Author
- Gruen, Sara
- Edition or ISBN in this row
- Not supplied
Keep that gap in your note. An edition named in a separate book-rating report would identify that report’s reference copy; it would not fill in the edition missing from this state entry.
Write the title and author. Add “edition not supplied in these cells” rather than choosing an edition yourself.
03 · Read the dates
May 5 is the threshold date.
Cell F22 contains May 5, 2025. Its heading in F4 is Date threshold met. The workbook’s introduction says the list records titles that met its statewide threshold.
The date the state says its threshold was met.
The original capture date of the workbook used here.
Neither is automatically the date an individual district made its decision. Read the workbook’s own scope note beside the column heading.
Put both dates in your note, with a few words explaining what each date means.
04 · Check the scope
Read the districts and grades under their own headings.
Cell C22 names Cache, Davis, Tooele under “Removed in the following Districts.” Cell D22, the charter-school column, is blank.
Cell E22 says 7–12. The heading in E4 is “Title was located in the following grade levels.” That describes where the title was located. It does not establish the final scope of access or present availability for those grades.
Read all six cells as text
- A22 · Title
- Water for Elephants
- B22 · Author
- Gruen, Sara
- C22 · Removed in the following Districts
- Cache, Davis, Tooele
- D22 · Removed in the following Charters
- Blank in the source
- E22 · Title was located in the following grade levels
- 7-12
- F22 · Date threshold met
- May 5, 2025
Write down the district names. Keep the grade-level entry separate, using the meaning given by its heading.
05 · Name the gaps
Ask what the next record needs to answer.
This row does not give each district’s decision date, identify an edition, or tell you whether the book is available now. For a question about one district, you need its decision and any later appeal or update.
Additional district records have been obtained in the research archive. They are outside this exercise. A gap in this particular spreadsheet is not a claim that no other record exists.
Compare a different kind of record: the video description
The description preserved on August 12, 2026 asks parents to challenge the book. The saved metadata records a March 1, 2025 upload for “Time to Speak Up.” The saved description’s wording at upload has not been established.
An appeal to act is a different kind of record from a district decision. These two sources do not establish that the video caused a removal. The worked finding below relies on the state-list entry.
Open the publisher’s video pageChoose one unanswered question. Name the document that could answer it, such as a district’s written decision, an appeal outcome, or a dated update.
06 · Keep a source note
Leave a trail you can follow again.
Keep your question, the file, its source address, the exact cells, the dates, and your finding together. Put unanswered questions beside the finding.
The state list saved on August 21, 2026 records May 5, 2025 as the date Water for Elephants met the statewide threshold. It names Cache, Davis, and Tooele in its district-removal column.
Check Titles!A22:F22Use a blank source-note template
The PDF has editable fields and also works on paper. The text version can be pasted into your own notes. Nothing you write is sent to this page.
Preview the blank PDFDownload the completed example note to compare with your own.
Close the source tab. Use only your note to reopen the file and find row 22. Add any missing detail.
Check your reading
What can you say from this source?
See the answers and source pointers
1: The statewide threshold date. Read F4 and F22. 2: Where the title was located. Read E4 and E22. 3: No edition is supplied in A22:F22.
Sources for this example
Keep the originals within reach.
- Utah State Board of Education, saved statewide removal workbook. Captured August 21, 2026, 20:26 UTC. Worksheet Titles: A2, A4:F4, A22:F22. Preserved original · Reading view and verification details.
- “Time to Speak Up,” Brooke Stephens’s YouTube channel. Metadata records a March 1, 2025 upload; description and metadata saved August 12, 2026. Used only to illustrate the distinction between an appeal and a decision. Saved description · Metadata facts.
Preserved bytes were compared with the canonical files on October 25, 2026. Live retrieval of the publisher links was unavailable during the source check. This tutorial makes no claim about current availability of the book or those links.
About the screenshots
The screenshots show the reading view created for this tutorial from the preserved workbook. They are not screenshots of Excel or the publisher’s live site. Source values and cell locators are retained; the view omits intervening rows, labels empty cells, and displays Excel dates as calendar dates. The original downloadable XLSX has not been edited.