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A Speaker's Claims and Support is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on summarising claims and explaining what supports each, aligned to Common Core standard SL.5.3. 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 17 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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

A Speaker's Claims and Support

SL.5.3

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Canals and Railways

Between 1760 and 1830 Britain built about four thousand miles of canal. Within forty years of that, most of it was losing money. A canal boat carried thirty tons behind one horse, where a cart carried two. That was transformative for coal and stone, which are heavy, cheap and not in a hurry. But a canal cannot climb without locks, cannot be built where there is no water, and freezes. A boat averaged three miles an hour. The railways did not beat canals on cost per ton at first. They beat them on speed, on reliability, and on where they could go — a railway can cross a watershed a canal cannot. Many canal companies were bought by railway companies, sometimes specifically in order to close them. By 1900 most of the network carried nothing. Some of it is now used more than it ever was, by people on holiday.

  1. 1. Quote accurately the sentence that states what railways actually beat canals on.
  2. 2. The text claims railways did not win on cost. What evidence is given for what they did win on?
  3. 3. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What Sleep Is For

Sleep is not switching off. Parts of the brain are busier asleep than awake. Two claims are well supported. The first is that sleep consolidates memory: during deep sleep, the day's experiences are replayed and moved from short-term storage into long-term. Interrupt deep sleep and recall of the previous day drops measurably. The second is that sleep clears waste. The spaces between brain cells widen during sleep, and fluid washes through, removing proteins that build up while awake. A third claim — that a particular number of hours suits everybody — is not supported. Need varies with age and between individuals, and self-reported sleep is unreliable. Teenagers are a special case. Their body clocks genuinely shift later at puberty, which is a biological fact rather than a preference, and school start times mostly ignore it.

  1. 1. Three claims are made. Identify which evidence supports which, and which has none.
  2. 2. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  3. 3. Quote accurately the words the author uses to reject the third claim.

LessonPrint · SL.5.3 · Set 17 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — A Speaker's Claims and Support

Set 17. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. "They beat them on speed, on reliability, and on where they could go." 2. Speed, reliability, and reach — specifically that a railway can cross a watershed a canal cannot. 3. To explain why a successful technology was displaced — the text names the advantage and then the limits.
  2. 2.1. Memory: the replay and the recall drop. Waste: the widening spaces and fluid. The fixed number of hours has no support and is rejected. 2. To separate what is well supported from what is not — each claim is labelled before its evidence. 3. "is not supported".

More practice for SL.5.3

Summarise a speaker's claims and say what supports each one.

Teaching this next? Summarising a Speaker's Argument is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.5.3 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.