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4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 13 of 13

Firsthand or Secondhand?

Compare accounts by people who were there with accounts written later.

What your child practices

Children practice telling firsthand accounts (diaries, letters, interviews) from secondhand ones (textbooks, reports, biographies) and what each kind shows best.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: Reading 9 · comparing firsthand and secondhand accounts of the same event

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A firsthand account is by someone who was there: a diary, letter or interview.
  2. A secondhand account is written later by someone who wasn’t there: a textbook or report.
  3. Firsthand shows feelings up close. Secondhand often gathers facts from many sources.

Example: Which is most likely a firsthand account of a volcano erupting: a letter from a family nearby, or an encyclopedia page? Firsthand means the writer saw it. The family lived nearby and saw it. Answer: a letter from a family who lived nearby

Firsthand or Secondhand? in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 13 of 13 in 4th grade English Language Arts, after Spelling Rules.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Maine Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    “The earthquake shook homes across the region, according to reports.” What is this?

    • an autobiography
    • a diary entry
    • a firsthand account
    • a secondhand account

  2. Question 2

    “I felt the ground shake, and my cup fell off the table.” What kind of account is this?

    • a table of contents
    • a glossary
    • a secondhand account
    • a firsthand account

  3. Question 3

    What can a firsthand account show best?

    • what many experts say
    • facts from many sources
    • how it felt to be there
    • what happened years later

  4. Question 4

    Why might two accounts of the same event be different?

    • one must be a fairy tale
    • events never really happen
    • each writer saw or learned different things
    • they were printed in different fonts

  5. Question 5

    Which words often show a firsthand account?

    • I, we and my
    • they, them and their
    • once upon a time
    • the end

  6. Question 6

    Two accounts of a storm give different times it started. What is a good next step?

    • check a third source
    • pick the one you like
    • make up a time
    • ignore both

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