5th grade author's claim worksheets

Tap to see another sample sheet.

Fifth grade arguments get fuller: an objection appears, and the author answers it. Questions trace that move, ask which evidence supports which point, and check whether the reader can separate the argument's facts from its feelings.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core RI.5.8.

Each click picks one of the 26 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of passages you'll get

Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.

Shop Class Built More Than Birdhouses

Somewhere in a storage room, most towns keep the ghost of a shop class: bolted-down workbenches, a wall silhouette where the hand tools hung. Schools should bring the class back, updated and open to everyone, because the hole it left is exactly the shape of…

  1. What is the author's claim? schools should bring back an updated shop class for everyone · schools should close their storage rooms and sell the old tools · trades pay too little to be worth teaching in schools anymore · desks in every classroom should be replaced by workbenches and saws

    Answer: schools should bring back an updated shop class for everyone

  2. Which evidence supports the shortage argument? tradespeople are retiring faster than they are replaced, and waits show it · furnaces break most in January, when it is too cold to wait for help · storage rooms hold old tools · screens are inexpensive

Each print picks one of the 26 passages written for this grade, and its questions come with it. With 26 to pick from, a second print can land on one you've used, so check the title before you hand it out.

What's on a 5th grade sheet

5th grade sheets draw from 26 passages, 266 to 329 words long. All 13 of 4th grade's passages are here too, plus 13 more.

Some of the titles: Let Kids Run the Stove, Plant Something in Every Classroom, One Instrument, Every Kid, Feed the Ground, Not the Truck, Give Back the Night Sky, The Walking School Bus.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Hunt the objection together. Good argument pieces raise the other side's best point and answer it; weak ones pretend it does not exist. Ask what the author admits, and what they say back, and your child starts reading arguments the way editors do.

Watch for: The claim is not always the first sentence, but it is always the sentence the whole piece works for. The test: which statement would the author defend if you argued back? Kids treat every sentence in a persuasive piece as fact. Argument writing mixes facts with opinions on purpose, and telling them apart inside the SAME piece is the skill.

Common questions about 5th grade author's claim

What does it mean that the author 'answers an objection'?
Strong arguments bring up the other side's best point and respond to it. Questions ask your child to find both halves of that move, which is where arguments are won.
How is this different from the persuasive pieces in genre practice?
Genre practice asks what kind of text it is. This skill goes inside: what exactly is claimed, what supports it, and how well. Same texts, much closer reading.

Related worksheets

Ready to print one?

Want a different passage? Print again. Each print picks one of the 26.

Aligned to Common Core RI.5.8. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

Spot a mistake on this sheet? Tell us. · About these worksheets