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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 6 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.

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.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why the Rails Are That Far Apart

Standard gauge is 4 feet 8½ inches. It is a strange number, and the reason is historical rather than engineering. Early railways were built by people who had built tramways for collieries, and those had used the wheel spacing of the carts already in use. Nobody chose it; it was inherited. Isambard Kingdom Brunel did choose. He built the Great Western at 7 feet ¼ inch, and by most measures it was better: faster, steadier, and able to carry more. He lost anyway. By the 1840s, more of the network was already standard gauge, and a train cannot run on a track it does not fit. Parliament settled it in 1846. Between 1846 and 1892 the Great Western converted its entire route. The final conversion took a single weekend and about four thousand men. The best design does not always win. The one that connects to everything else does.

  1. 1. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  2. 2. The text makes two claims. Identify which evidence supports which.
  3. 3. Quote accurately the sentence that states why Brunel lost.

LessonPrint · SL.5.3 · Set 6 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — A Speaker's Claims and Support

Set 6. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. 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".
  2. 2.1. To explain why a worse standard won — the final two lines state the general point. 2. That the gauge was inherited — the colliery carts. That compatibility wins — the 1846 Act and the conversion of the whole Great Western. 3. "By the 1840s, more of the network was already standard gauge, and a train cannot run on a track it does not fit."

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.