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Two Texts in One Genre is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on comparing how two texts of a kind treat a theme, aligned to Common Core standard RL.5.9. 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 8 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 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.

Two Texts in One Genre

RL.5.9

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What We Kept

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. 1. How is this poem like "The Bell"?
  2. 2. How is its ending different from "The Bell"?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Mill: Mr Whately's Account

I did not close the mill. The mill closed. For eleven years I put my own money in. In 1979 I sold my house and moved into the office above the weaving floor, and nobody knew that but my accountant. People say I should have told them earlier. I have thought about that more than they have. If I had said in January that we might not last the year, half the workforce would have left by February, and then we certainly would not have. I held on until the day I could not pay them. Then I told them. I have been told this was cowardice. I would call it arithmetic.

  1. 1. How does this account differ from Ivy Sallow's?
  2. 2. What do both accounts agree on?

LessonPrint · RL.5.9 · Set 8 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Two Texts in One Genre

Set 8. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Both are about something small — a hall light habit, a bell — that outlasts the household or church it belonged to. 2. "What We Kept" ends with one person turning a hall light off; "The Bell" ends with a school ringing for a whole village.
  2. 2.1. Whately explains why silence was necessary; Ivy describes what the silence cost her, including the work in Derby. 2. That nobody was told until the day the wages could not be paid.

More practice for RL.5.9

Compare two stories in one genre on how they treat a theme.

Teaching this next? Comparing Stories in the Same Genre is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.5.9 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.