Gutenberg's Printing Press: Grade 5 Reading Passage

About this worksheet

A fifth grade history passage about books copied by hand, Johannes Gutenberg's movable type, the Gutenberg Bible and how printing changed the world. A free printable 5th grade nonfiction passage (220 words) with multiple-choice who/vocabulary/how questions, events to number in order and a short written answer. Answer key on page 2. Fifth graders can use it to practice main idea, vocabulary in context and answers supported by the text.

On this sheet

A B C Imagine a world where every book had to be copied by hand. Before the 1450s, that is how it was in Europe. Skilled writers called scribes copied books letter by letter with pens and ink. Making a single Bible could take a scribe more than a year, so books were rare and very expensive. Only wealthy families, churches and universities owned many of them. Around 1440, a German goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg began working on a better way.

Tips for using it

• Before reading, look at the picture and the title together and guess what the passage will be about.
• Ask your child to underline the sentence in the passage that proves each answer.
• Talk about the story afterwards: what was the problem, how was it solved, and what would your child have done?

Printing tips

Download the PDF and print at 100% (or “fit to page” on A4). Page 1 is the worksheet and page 2 is the answer key with the answers in red; print just page 1 if you want to keep the answers for checking. Free for personal, family and classroom use.