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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 5 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.

The Mill: The Local Paper, June 1980

Whately's Mill closed on Friday with the loss of 214 jobs, the largest single closure in the town since the war. The mill had run since 1868. At its height it employed more than 600. Mr Whately declined to say when he had known the closure was certain. The Chamber of Commerce has called for a public inquiry; the union has called the closure "predictable for two years". The council says a retraining fund will open in September. Four other textile mills within twenty miles have closed since 1975. Nobody the paper spoke to expected the site to be used for textiles again.

  1. 1. What is this report's purpose, and how does it differ from the accounts?
  2. 2. Two organisations react. Identify which reason belongs to which.
  3. 3. Quote accurately the union's description of the closure.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Two Plants, Two Histories

Tea and coffee are both leaves or seeds steeped in hot water, and both became national habits. How they got there could hardly be more different. Tea came to Britain through a monopoly. The East India Company controlled the trade for nearly two centuries, and the government taxed it so heavily that by the 1770s most tea drunk in Britain had been smuggled. When the tax was cut in 1784, smuggling collapsed almost overnight. Coffee spread through places rather than trade. The coffee house arrived in Britain in the 1650s and became somewhere to read newspapers and argue. Lloyd's of London and the London Stock Exchange both began in one. Tea won the home; coffee won the meeting. Neither plant grows in Britain. Both habits are entirely imported, and both are now so ordinary that they are thought of as native.

  1. 1. The text makes two claims about how each drink spread. Identify the evidence for each.
  2. 2. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  3. 3. Quote accurately the sentence that sums up the contrast.

LessonPrint · SL.5.3 · Set 5 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — A Speaker's Claims and Support

Set 5. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. To record what happened and who said what — it reports the dispute rather than taking a side. 2. The Chamber of Commerce wants an inquiry; the union claims the closure was predictable for two years. 3. "predictable for two years".
  2. 2.1. Tea: the East India Company monopoly, the tax and the smuggling. Coffee: the coffee house, and the institutions founded in them. 2. To compare two histories rather than tell one — the structure alternates and the fourth paragraph draws the contrast. 3. "Tea won the home; coffee won the meeting."

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.

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