Writing prompt Grade 2 English Language Arts
Should Fern Hollow Turn Off the Courtyard Fountain? A Grade 2 Prompt
A grade 2 opinion writing prompt about shutting off a school splash fountain during dry weeks, with two-sided background, an organizer, an exemplar, and a rubric.
Objectives
- Students will state one clear opinion about the courtyard fountain.
- Students will give two reasons drawn from the background facts.
- Students will join each reason to their opinion with the word because.
Vocabulary
- Pump
- A pump is a machine that adds energy to water to move it or push it uphill, doing the job gravity cannot do on its own. Water systems use many different kinds of pumps to move water from wells, through treatment, and out to customers.
Also: fountain, dry, opinion, reason
Teacher overview
The prompt asks second graders to take a side on a small, real kind of decision: whether a school should shut off a decorative splash fountain during a dry stretch. The background gives reasons on both sides, so students must choose rather than guess which answer the teacher wants. A teaching note worth planning for is that many second graders believe water that falls back into a fountain basin is never lost, so the sentence about spray blowing over the edge is worth reading twice. The setting, Fern Hollow School in the town of Cattail Ridge, is fictional, and every fact in the background is part of that scenario.
Prompt
Background
Fern Hollow School has a small splash fountain in the courtyard. A pump pushes water up, and the water falls back into a stone basin. The pump runs from the morning bell to the last bell. On windy days, some of the spray blows over the edge and dries on the bricks. That water does not come back to the basin, so a hose has to top the fountain up.
This fall has been dry in the town of Cattail Ridge. The town asked everyone to use less water until the rain comes back. The principal wants to know what second graders think.
Here is what students say. Many like to eat lunch by the fountain because the sound is calm. The garden club fills watering cans from the fountain, though the cans could be filled at the outside tap instead. Two classes have asked the principal to leave the fountain on for the school picture in October.
Writing task
Should Fern Hollow School turn off the courtyard fountain until the rain comes back? Write your opinion. Give two reasons. Use the word because for each reason. End with a closing sentence.
Planning Organizer
Fill in each box before you write.
| Part | My notes |
|---|---|
| My opinion (should the fountain go off?) | |
| Reason 1 (because ...) | |
| Reason 2 (because ...) | |
| My closing sentence |
Check your work. Did you use the word because two times? Did you use a fact from the background?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Exemplar & Rubric
Exemplar response
I think Fern Hollow School should turn off the courtyard fountain until the rain comes back. My first reason is that the fountain loses water, because the spray blows over the edge on windy days and dries on the bricks. My second reason is that our town asked everyone to use less water, because this fall has been dry. The garden club can still fill the watering cans at the outside tap. We can turn the fountain back on for the school picture and after the rain returns. That is why I think the fountain should be off for now.
Rubric
| Criterion | Beginning | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | No opinion about the fountain is stated | An opinion is present but the reader must guess it | States one clear opinion about the fountain in a full sentence | States a clear opinion and names the fountain question in the first sentence |
| Reasons | No reason is given | One reason, or a reason with no because | Two reasons, each joined to the opinion with because | Two reasons from the background, each joined with because and explained in the writer's own words |
| Use of background | No fact from the background appears | A fact appears but does not match the background | At least one background fact supports a reason | Two background facts support the reasons, and one is used to answer the other side |
| Closing and conventions | Ends mid-thought and is hard to read | Ends suddenly, with errors that slow the reader | Has a closing sentence, with mostly correct capitals and end marks | Closing restates the opinion in fresh words, with neat, mostly error-free writing |
Differentiation
Support
Read the background aloud twice and have these students mark the two sentences that could become reasons before they open the organizer. Let them say the opinion aloud and record it on a sticky note first. Provide the frame: "I think the fountain should ___ because ___ and because ___."
Extension
Ask students to write one sentence answering a classmate who wants the fountain left on for the school picture, and to name one thing the school could do instead of running the pump all day.
ELL supports
Pre-teach fountain, pump, spray, and dry with a quick sketch of a basin with water rising and falling. Let students sort six sentence strips from the background into an on pile and an off pile before writing, and accept the organizer filled with phrases or drawings while their English sentences develop.
Extensions
Send the finished opinions to a class panel of three students who read them and tally the two sides, then write one shared sentence reporting what the class decided and the top reason on each side.