Skip to content
LessonPrint

Firsthand and Secondhand is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on telling the two kinds of account apart, aligned to Common Core standard RI.4.6. It prints 8 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 16 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next setLesson plan

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Firsthand and Secondhand

RI.4.6

NameDate

Tick the right answer.

1.What can a secondhand account give that a firsthand one usually cannot?
  • A.Personal feelings
  • B.Direct speech
  • C.The whole picture, including what one person could not see
2.Which account would you use to know what the night was like?
  • A.The firsthand diary
  • B.The secondhand report
  • C.Neither
3.What makes an account firsthand?
  • A.It is longer
  • B.It is written first
  • C.It is written by somebody who was there
4.What can a firsthand account give that a secondhand one usually cannot?
  • A.A balanced overview
  • B.Accurate totals
  • C.What it felt like to be there
5.A firsthand account says "I was the one who said it was nothing." What does the "I" tell you?
  • A.The account is fiction
  • B.The writer was involved in the events
  • C.The writer is guessing
6.Why might two accounts of one event disagree?
  • A.Each saw a different part and thought different things mattered
  • B.One of them must be lying
  • C.Accounts are always identical
7.Which account would you use to find out how many houses flooded?
  • A.The secondhand report, which gives totals
  • B.Neither
  • C.The diary, which gives one house
8.Should a historian use only one kind of account?
  • A.No — each supplies what the other cannot
  • B.Yes, firsthand only
  • C.Yes, secondhand only

LessonPrint · RI.4.6 · Set 16 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Firsthand and Secondhand

Set 16. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.The whole picture, including what one person could not see
  2. 2.The firsthand diary
  3. 3.It is written by somebody who was there
  4. 4.What it felt like to be there
  5. 5.The writer was involved in the events
  6. 6.Each saw a different part and thought different things mattered
  7. 7.The secondhand report, which gives totals
  8. 8.No — each supplies what the other cannot

More practice for RI.4.6

Compare an eyewitness account with a second-hand one.

Teaching this next? Firsthand and Secondhand Accounts is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.4.6 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.