Firsthand Burden

This powerful reading and social studies worksheet helps students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 strengthen point-of-view analysis, historical empathy, and evidence-based interpretation through a diary-style passage set during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Students analyze the nurse’s firsthand account to determine point of view and examine how perspective shapes emotion, meaning, and understanding of historical events.

Learning Goals

• Point of View Analysis (Grades 4-6): Identify first-person narration and explain its impact on the reader.
• Interpreting Historical Narratives: Understand how personal accounts convey emotion, urgency, and lived experience.
• Using Textual Evidence: Support explanations with specific words and details from the passage.
• Perspective Comparison: Reflect on how the story’s meaning might change if told from a different point of view (e.g., third-person).

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource: Designed by educators to align with upper elementary ELA and social studies standards.
• Builds Historical Empathy: Helps students connect emotionally to people living through past crises.
• Reinforces Primary Source Value: Highlights the importance of diaries and firsthand accounts in historical research.
• Flexible Classroom Use: Ideal for history units, close reading lessons, writing responses, or assessment.

This printable worksheet helps students understand how perspective influences both emotion and interpretation in historical texts. By analyzing a firsthand diary entry and considering alternate viewpoints, learners strengthen critical reading skills, historical reasoning, and appreciation for primary sources. Whether used in a classroom or homeschool setting, this resource provides meaningful practice with point of view, evidence-based analysis, and human experiences in history.

This worksheet is part of our historical text worksheets collection.