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Lesson plan Grade 2 English Language Arts

The Broken Pipe on Marlowe Street: A Grade 2 Narrative Writing Lesson

A 50-minute grade 2 ELA lesson where students hear a repair-crew story, order the events with temporal words, and write a narrative about a water main break.

Objectives

  1. Students will retell a five-step repair story in the correct order.
  2. Students will use the words first, next, then, and last in their writing.
  3. Students will write a narrative that names a feeling and ends with a closing sentence.

Vocabulary

Valve
A valve is a device in a pipe that operators can open or close to control where water flows. Valves let crews shut off one street for repairs without turning off the whole town.

Also: pipe, crew, repair, first, next, last

Teacher overview

This lesson uses a buried water pipe as the setting for a narrative writing task, so the sequence students must order is a real sequence of work rather than an invented one. The story is set on Marlowe Street in the fictional town of Ellery Falls, where a pipe under the street splits on a cold night and a repair crew works until morning. A misconception this lesson addresses directly is the common belief among younger students that tap water is stored inside the faucet or the wall of the room; the story shows the water traveling through a pipe under the street before it reaches Sam's kitchen sink, and the sequencing chart shows the repair steps in order before students write.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Ask students what they would do if they turned on the sink at home and nothing came out. Take four or five answers. Tell them the story they are about to hear explains one reason that happens.

Read-aloud (10 min): Read the following story aloud twice.

It was cold on Marlowe Street. Late at night, a pipe under the street split open. Water pushed up through a crack in the road. Mrs. Delgado saw the water from her window and called the town. First, a crew from the water department drove out with a truck and lights. Next, they turned a valve to stop the water. Then they dug a hole in the street. After that, they cut out the broken piece and put in a new one. Last, they opened the valve again and washed the mud off the road. In the morning, Sam turned on the sink in his kitchen. Water came out. He was glad, and he waved at the crew as he walked to the bus.

Sequencing chart (10 min): Put five sentence strips in a pocket chart in mixed order: the pipe split, the crew turned the valve, the crew dug the hole, the crew put in a new piece, the crew turned the water back on. Call students up to move one strip at a time until the order is right. Label the strips out loud with first, next, then, after that, and last.

Model the narrative (8 min): On chart paper, write the opening of a narrative told by a child on Marlowe Street. Show one sentence with a feeling word and one sentence with a temporal word. Stop after three sentences and think aloud about what detail should come next.

Independent writing (12 min): Students complete the handout. Circulate and check that every student has used at least two of the four temporal words before they reach the closing sentence.

Share and exit check (5 min): Three volunteers read their closing sentence only. Ask the class to give a thumbs up if the closing tells how the story ended. Collect the handouts and sort them into two piles, one with a clear closing sentence and one without, to plan tomorrow's small group.

The Broken Pipe on Marlowe Street: A Grade 2 Narrative Writing Lesson — Grade 2 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Use the story about Marlowe Street to answer these questions and to write your own narrative.

  1. What broke under Marlowe Street?
  2. What did the crew do first when they got to the street?
  3. What did the crew do last?
  4. Write one word or phrase from the story that tells the order of the crew's steps.
  5. Write a narrative about the night the pipe broke. Tell it as if you live on Marlowe Street. Use at least two of these words: first, next, then, last. Name one feeling you had. End with a closing sentence.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: A water pipe. The story says a pipe under the street split open late at night.
  2. Answer: They turned a valve. The crew drove out with the truck, and turning the valve to stop the water was their first repair step.
  3. Answer: They turned the water back on and washed the mud off the road. The story marks this step with the word last.
  4. Answer: Any one of first, next, then, after that, or last. All five appear in the story and signal the order of the crew's steps.
  5. Answer: Answers will vary. A full-credit narrative retells the repair in order, uses at least two temporal words correctly, names one feeling such as worried or glad, and ends with a sentence that closes the story rather than stopping in the middle of the action.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the five sentence strips as a copied strip page they can cut apart, order, and glue before writing. Let them dictate item 5 to an adult and then copy two sentences of it. Provide the frame: "First, ___. Next, ___. Last, ___."

Extension

Ask students to add a short paragraph from the point of view of a member of the crew, including one thought the worker had while digging in the cold, and to use a fifth temporal word such as finally.

ELL supports

Post the four temporal words with a simple arrow picture showing order, and practice them orally with a familiar routine such as getting ready for school. Accept a drawing sequence with labels for item 5 while the English sentences are still developing, and allow students to retell the story to a partner in their first language before writing.