Homestead Act Reading

This worksheet supports students in Grades 5 and 6 as they build reading comprehension, analytical thinking, historical understanding, and evidence-based reasoning through an informational text about the Homestead Act of 1862. Students read a clear, grade-appropriate passage explaining the law’s purpose and effects, then answer comprehension and inference questions that explore benefits, challenges, and consequences of westward migration.

Learning Goals

• Homestead Act & Westward Migration (Grades 5-6) – Students explain why the law was created and how it encouraged settlement.
• Reading Informational Text – Learners identify main ideas, supporting details, and key facts from nonfiction text.
• Native American Perspectives – The activity highlights how westward expansion affected Indigenous communities.
• Inferencing & Evidence Use – Students draw conclusions and support answers with details from the passage.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource – Designed by educators to align with upper-elementary social studies and ELA standards.
• Multiple Perspectives – Encourages students to consider both opportunities for settlers and consequences for Native Americans.
• Builds Analytical Reasoning – Questions prompt evaluation of fairness, impact, and long-term effects.
• Flexible Classroom Use – Suitable for independent reading, guided instruction, assessments, or homework.
• Low-Prep Printable – Ready for classroom or homeschool use with minimal preparation.

This Homestead Act reading worksheet helps students understand a key law that shaped westward expansion while encouraging thoughtful analysis of its impact. By using text evidence and considering multiple perspectives, learners strengthen comprehension, historical reasoning, and critical thinking skills essential for understanding U.S. history.

This worksheet is part of our American Frontier and Wild West Worksheets collection.