Skip to content
LessonPrint

Compare Two Characters is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on comparing characters using specific details, aligned to Common Core standard RL.5.3. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 22 of them with 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.

Next setLesson plan

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

22 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

Compare Two Characters

RL.5.3

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Orpheus Looks Back

Orpheus played so well that rivers changed course to listen. When his wife Eurydice died, he went down to argue with the dead. He played to the ferryman, who took him free. He played to the three-headed dog, which lay down. He played to the king of the underworld, who wept, and who had never wept. The king gave one condition. Eurydice would follow him up, and he must not look back until both of them stood in the light. He climbed for a day. He could not hear her footsteps — the dead make none — and he had only the king's word. Ten paces from the daylight, he turned round. She was there. That was the last he saw of her.

  1. 1. Compare Orpheus's gift with what it fails to do for him.
  2. 2. What does the king's weeping tell you about the music, and about the king?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Mill: Ivy Sallow's Account

We knew by the thread. You cannot work a loom for twenty-two years and not notice when the good cotton stops coming. From about the March, it was the cheap stuff, and it broke. So we knew something. What we did not know was how long we had, and that is the part I mind. I could have been looking. My sister found work in Derby that spring and asked me twice. I said the mill would see me out. He stood on a crate on the Friday and told us. Somebody asked how long he had known. He said he would rather not say. That was the answer, really.

  1. 1. Compare Ivy's view of her own choices with her view of Whately's.
  2. 2. What does turning down her sister twice tell you about Ivy?

LessonPrint · RL.5.3 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Compare Two Characters

Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. His music moves rivers, a ferryman, a monster and a god who had never wept — and none of it lets him trust a silence. 2. That the music reached somebody it had no business reaching — "who had never wept".
  2. 2.1. She admits she could have been looking and turned down Derby; her complaint is not that he failed, but that he withheld the timing. 2. That her loyalty to the mill cost her a real alternative.

Questions about Compare Two Characters

What does the Compare Two Characters worksheet cover?

It practises comparing characters using specific details — 2 questions for Grade 5, all on Common Core RL.5.3: Compare two characters or settings using specific details. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.

Which Common Core standard does Compare Two Characters practise?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3 — RL.5.3, in the Reading: Literature domain for Grade 5. The published standard reads: “Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.

What age or grade is this worksheet for?

Compare Two Characters is written for Grade 5, typically ages 10-11. It is one of the sheets on RL.5.3, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.

Does Compare Two Characters 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 Compare Two Characters can I print?

25 versions, of which 22 ask genuinely different questions — this skill does not have 25 distinct questions to give, so the rest reorder them and no two pupils still share a paper. Set 1 downloads all 25 as one PDF.

Is Compare Two Characters free to print and photocopy?

Yes. Compare Two Characters, 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.

Is there a lesson plan to teach RL.5.3?

Yes — “Comparing Characters and Settings” is a 40-minute Grade 5 plan for RL.5.3, timed section by section, with the misconceptions to expect and an exit ticket. Compare Two Characters is the practice that follows it.

More practice for RL.5.3

Compare two characters or settings using specific details.

Teaching this next? Comparing Characters and Settings is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

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