Reading a Poem Aloud is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on reading poetry well enough to record it, aligned to Common Core standard SL.5.5. 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.
Stanza one:
We kept the table, which was too big,
and the clock, which had never gone,
and a tin of buttons nobody wanted,
and the habit of turning lights off.
Stanza two:
We gave away the good chairs.
We gave away the china, all of it.
We gave away the piano to a school
because none of us could play.
Stanza three:
Ten years on, I would not know the chairs
if I saw them in a window on a street.
But I turn the hall light off behind me
every single time, and think of her.
1. How does the repetition in the second stanza work?
2. Quote the line that shows the given-away things are forgotten.
3. Why does the first stanza list a habit alongside objects?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Bell
Stanza one:
The church has gone. They took the stone
for walls and gateposts, load by load.
Where the aisle was there is a field.
Where the door was there is a road.
Stanza two:
The bell they could not sell or break.
It hung in a barn for eighty years,
green with the damp, out of the way,
mute as a stone among the gears.
Stanza three:
Last spring they hung it in the school.
It rings at nine and rings at three.
The children do not know its age
and ring it anyway, and it is free.
Stanza four:
So the building went, and the faith went,
and the road runs where the door was cut,
and still the sound the masons heard
goes out at nine, and comes back, and stops.
1. Quote the words that connect the present sound to the past.
2. Why does the poem give the bell its own stanza?
3. How does the last stanza differ in what it does from the first three?
LessonPrint · SL.5.5 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Reading a Poem Aloud
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. "We gave away" three times makes the disposal sound brisk and impersonal. 2. "I would not know the chairs if I saw them in a window on a street". 3. So the last stanza can reveal that the habit was the real inheritance.
2.1. "still the sound the masons heard goes out at nine". 2. Because the bell is the one thing that continues, so it is separated from what was lost. 3. The first three narrate; the last draws the conclusion and names what survived.
Questions about Reading a Poem Aloud
What does the Reading a Poem Aloud worksheet cover?
It practises reading poetry well enough to record it — 2 questions for Grade 5, all on Common Core SL.5.5: Use graphics and sound in a presentation where they strengthen the idea. 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 Reading a Poem Aloud practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.5 — SL.5.5, in the Speaking & Listening domain for Grade 5. The published standard reads: “Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Reading a Poem Aloud is written for Grade 5, typically ages 10-11. It is one of the sheets on SL.5.5, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Reading a Poem Aloud 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 Reading a Poem Aloud 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 Reading a Poem Aloud free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Reading a Poem Aloud, 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.
More practice for SL.5.5
Use graphics and sound in a presentation where they strengthen the idea.