What the Narrator Cannot See is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on working out the limits of a narrator's knowledge, aligned to Common Core standard RL.4.6. It prints 2 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 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
I was the one who said it was nothing.
The river had been over the path before. Twice that winter. Both times it went down by morning, so when Dad started moving the boxes upstairs I told him he was making a fuss.
I went to bed. At two o'clock I woke because my slippers were floating.
Everything after that is in pieces. Dad on the stairs with the cat. Water the colour of tea. The sound the fridge made when it went over.
We sat on the landing until it got light. Nobody said anything about the boxes. That was worse than if they had.
1. What woke Nell at two o'clock?
2.Now read Text 2 and answer these questions about BOTH texts.
Text 2: Mill Lane, February
The houses on Mill Lane were built in 1840, close to the water because the mill was the work.
On the night of the flood, eleven of the fourteen households had moved possessions upstairs by midnight. Three had not.
The water rose fastest between one and three in the morning. It reached a metre in the lowest houses.
By dawn the fire service had brought everyone out. Nobody was hurt. Four families were out of their homes until August.
At the meeting afterwards, the argument was not about the river. It was about why the warning, which had been issued at six that evening, had reached some doors and not others.
1. How is Nell like Icarus?
2. What does Nell's account give that this one cannot?
3. How does this account differ in focus from Nell's?
LessonPrint · RL.4.6 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — What the Narrator Cannot See
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. Her slippers were floating.
2.1. Both ignore a caution from somebody older who turns out to have been right. 2. What the night felt like — the floating slippers, the fridge going over, the silence about the boxes. 3. This gives times, totals and the warning system; Nell gives one night as she experienced it.
Questions about What the Narrator Cannot See
What does the What the Narrator Cannot See worksheet cover?
It practises working out the limits of a narrator's knowledge — 2 questions for Grade 4, all on Common Core RL.4.6: Compare first-person and third-person narration. The instruction to pupils is “Read Text 1 and answer the question under it”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does What the Narrator Cannot See practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6 — RL.4.6, in the Reading: Literature domain for Grade 4. The published standard reads: “Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
What the Narrator Cannot See is written for Grade 4, typically ages 9-10. It is one of the sheets on RL.4.6, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does What the Narrator Cannot See come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of What the Narrator Cannot See can I print?
25 — one per pupil, and all 25 ask different questions. Set 1 downloads the whole class as a single PDF. Every version is fixed to its own address, so a sheet printed today holds the same problems when you reopen it next week.
Is What the Narrator Cannot See free to print and photocopy?
Yes. What the Narrator Cannot See, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.