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What Each Account Represents is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on identifying the point of view each account carries, aligned to Common Core standard RI.5.6. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 23 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 11 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 23 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.

What Each Account Represents

RI.5.6

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.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. What do the personal accounts give that this cannot?
  2. 2. What does this report give that the two personal accounts cannot?
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. What do both accounts agree on?
  2. 2. Describe how this narrator's point of view shapes what is included.
  3. 3. How does this account differ from Ivy Sallow's?

LessonPrint · RI.5.6 · Set 11 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What Each Account Represents

Set 11. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Whately's reasoning behind the silence, and what it cost Ivy, who turned down work in Derby. 2. Totals, dates and the regional pattern — 214 jobs, 1868, four other mills.
  2. 2.1. That nobody was told until the day the wages could not be paid. 2. Written from inside the decision, so it gives his reasoning and his sacrifice, and the workers appear only as a risk of leaving. 3. Whately explains why silence was necessary; Ivy describes what the silence cost her, including the work in Derby.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.5.6 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.