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Summarize What You Heard is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on summarizing a text or presentation accurately, aligned to Common Core standard SL.5.2. 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 students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 12 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.

Summarize What You Heard

SL.5.2

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. Summarize this text.
  2. 2. Determine two main ideas of this text and explain how details support each.
  3. 3. What happens to recall when deep sleep is interrupted?
2.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. How many jobs were lost?
  2. 2. When had the mill been running since?
  3. 3. Determine two main ideas of this report and explain how details support each.

LessonPrint · SL.5.2 · Set 12 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Summarize What You Heard

Set 12. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Sleep consolidates memory and clears waste from the brain, no single number of hours suits everybody, and teenagers' body clocks genuinely shift later. 2. First, sleep consolidates memory — supported by the replay and the drop in recall. Second, sleep clears waste — supported by the widening spaces and the fluid. 3. It drops measurably.
  2. 2.1. 214. 2. 1868. 3. First, this was the town's largest closure since the war — supported by the 214 jobs. Second, it was part of a regional decline — supported by the four other mills since 1975.

More practice for SL.5.2

Summarize a text or presentation you heard or watched.

Teaching this next? Summarizing a Text Read Aloud is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.5.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.