Reading Past the Words is a free printable Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies worksheet on inferring audience and purpose from a source, aligned to C3 Framework indicator D2.His.11.3-5. 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 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 25 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.
Reading Past the Words
D2.His.11.3-5
NameDate
Look at the source, then answer the questions.
1.Look at the source, then answer the questions.
County Trade Directory
A page from a printed trade directory of the county, 1850.
TRADES OF THE VALLEY, 1850
Boat builders ................ 2
Blacksmiths .................. 7
Railway porters .............. 11
Wharf laborers .............. 4
Milliners .................... 3
Schoolmasters ................ 2
1. What does the directory not tell you?
2. What had happened to canal work by 1850?
2.Look at the source, then answer the questions.
Petition Against the Railway
A petition sent to Parliament in 1844 by canal workers and boat owners.
To the honorable members,
We are boatmen and wharf workers of this valley.
The proposed railway will take the coal and corn we carry.
Two hundred families live by the canal.
We ask that the line be refused, or that work be found for us.
Signed by 84 hands.
1. What does the petition not tell you?
2. Did the petition succeed?
LessonPrint · D2.His.11.3-5 · Set 25 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Reading Past the Words
Set 25. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. It does not tell you what any of these workers were paid. 2. It had shrunk: only 4 wharf laborers remain against 11 railway porters.
2.1. It does not tell you what Parliament replied. 2. No. The railway opened in 1846, two years later.
More practice for D2.His.11.3-5
Work out who a source was made for and why, from the source itself.
Teaching this next? Who Was This Made For? is the 45-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.