Lesson plan Grade 12 English Language Arts
Synthesizing Sources on Truitt County's Infrastructure Funding Gap
A grade 12 research lesson where students synthesize three sources on the national infrastructure funding gap into one policy memo paragraph for a fictional county.
Objectives
- Students will synthesize information from three sources on aging water infrastructure into one paragraph.
- Students will narrow a broad research question into a specific, supportable recommendation.
- Students will cite evidence from at least two different sources in their synthesis.
Vocabulary
Key words: synthesis, infrastructure gap, policy memo, citation
Teacher overview
A single fact rarely settles a funding question, which is why a policy memo that recommends how a county should act on aging pipes has to draw on more than one source and show how those sources fit together. This lesson gives students three short source excerpts (a national infrastructure grade, a national investment-needs figure, and a fictional county official's statement) and asks them to synthesize the excerpts into one recommendation paragraph for Truitt County, a fictional county used for this lesson. A common misconception this lesson addresses directly: students often summarize each source in its own sentence and call that synthesis, when true synthesis means using two or more sources together to support a single claim neither source makes on its own.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Ask students to define, in their own words, the difference between "summary" and "synthesis." Collect two or three definitions on the board without correcting them yet.
Direct instruction (10 min): Distribute the source packet (see the three excerpts below). Explain that a synthesis sentence names a claim and then supports it by drawing on more than one source in the same sentence or the sentences that follow, using a citation phrase such as "According to Source A, ... and Source C confirms that ..." Model one synthesis sentence combining Source A's national grade with Source B's investment figure.
Guided practice (15 min): As a class, draft a second synthesis sentence together that adds Source C's local detail (the fictional Truitt County official's statement) to the two national sources already used, narrowing the discussion from a national problem to a county-specific recommendation.
Independent practice (15 min): Students write their own policy-memo paragraph of 120 to 180 words recommending one specific action Truitt County's board should take (for example, a bond measure or a phased pipe-replacement schedule), using evidence from at least two of the three sources and citing each by name.
Closure / exit ticket (5 min): Students underline, in their own paragraph, the exact sentence where they combined two sources into one claim. Collect paragraphs and scan for at least one underlined synthesis sentence per student before dismissal.
Student Handout
Source A (national infrastructure grade): The American Society of Civil Engineers' 2025 Report Card for America's Infrastructure gave the nation's drinking water systems a grade of C-minus and its wastewater systems a grade of D-plus, reflecting the condition of pipes, treatment plants, and pumping stations built decades ago.
Source B (national investment need): EPA's most recent needs assessment estimates that $625 billion in drinking-water infrastructure investment is needed nationwide over the next 20 years, with distribution pipes accounting for about two-thirds of that total, more than any other category of need. A water main breaks somewhere in the country roughly every two minutes.
Source C (fictional Truitt County utility statement): "Truitt County's oldest pipes date to the 1960s," said the county's utility director in a statement prepared for this lesson. "We've had four main breaks on the same street in the last three years, and every repair is more expensive than the last because we're patching pipe that should have been replaced already."
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Differentiation
Support
Provide a fill-in synthesis frame: "According to Source ___, ___. This matters for Truitt County because Source ___ shows that ___." Allow students to complete the frame twice (once in guided practice, once independently) before attempting a full paragraph.
Extension
Ask students to identify one piece of information the three sources do not provide but that a real policy memo would need (for example, how much a bond measure would cost the average household), and write one sentence naming that gap as a limitation of their synthesis.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "synthesis," "infrastructure," and "citation" with simple definitions and one worked example each. Provide the citation phrase ("According to Source ___, ...") as a sentence starter card students can keep on their desk throughout independent practice.