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Lesson plan Grade 3 English Language Arts

What the Testers Check at Mosswick Pond: A Grade 3 Research Lesson

A grade 3 short research lesson in which students read three fact cards about testing at Mosswick Pond and write findings in their own words.

Objectives

  1. Students will gather facts about water testing from three short provided texts.
  2. Students will answer questions about the fact cards by pointing to the sentence that gives the answer.
  3. Students will write four research findings in their own words.

Vocabulary

Key words: sample, lab, cloudy, research, finding

Teacher overview

This lesson gives third graders a structured research task using three short fact cards about a fictional testing crew at Mosswick Pond, the pond that supplies drinking water to the town of Mosswick. Students read the cards, answer questions by pointing to the sentence that holds the answer, and then write four findings in their own words rather than copying. The misconception this lesson addresses directly is the common belief that water which looks clear must be clean and safe to drink, which is why the third card states plainly that the town keeps testing even when the pond looks fine.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Hold up two clear cups of water and ask students to imagine that one was filled from a pond and one from the classroom sink. Ask how they could tell which is which by looking. Collect two or three answers, then tell them that looking is not enough, which is the reason towns pay crews to test water.

Setting the research question (8 min): Write the research question on chart paper: "How does a town find out whether its water is safe?" Explain that researchers answer a question by reading sources and writing down what they find. Distribute the handout and point out that the three fact cards are the sources for today.

Reading the sources (12 min): Read Card 1 aloud while students follow along, then have partners take turns reading Cards 2 and 3 to each other. After each card, ask one recall question and have students put a finger on the sentence that answers it before anyone speaks. This is the formative check: circulate and confirm that at least four out of five students are pointing at the correct sentence before moving on.

Guided note-taking (10 min): Model writing one finding on chart paper, thinking aloud as you change the card's words into your own: "Card 1 says the crew fills clean bottles with pond water, so my note is that workers collect pond water in bottles." Students then answer handout questions 1 through 5 with a partner.

Independent writing (10 min): Each student writes four findings on the handout, one per line, in their own words. Remind them that a finding answers part of the research question and that copying a whole sentence from a card does not count.

Share and exit ticket (5 min): Three volunteers read one finding aloud. Every student then writes one new question they still have about testing water and hands it in on the way out.

What the Testers Check at Mosswick Pond: A Grade 3 Research Lesson — Grade 3 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Card 1: Who tests the water

Every Tuesday, a crew from the town of Mosswick drives to Mosswick Pond. The pond is where the town gets its drinking water. The crew fills clean bottles with pond water. They write the date and the spot on each bottle so the lab knows where each sample came from. Then they drive the bottles to the town lab.

Card 2: What the tests check

At the lab, workers check the water in three ways. First they check how cloudy the water is, because cloudy water can hide germs. Next they check for tiny living things that can make people sick. Last they check how much air is in the water, because fish in the pond need air in the water to live.

Card 3: What happens next

The lab writes down every result. If a test looks wrong, the crew drives back to the pond the same day. They take new samples from more spots around the pond. The town also asks the water plant to add more cleaning steps that week. Clear water is not always clean water, so the town tests the pond even when it looks fine.

Questions. Answer each question. Point to the sentence on the card that gave you the answer.

  1. On what day does the crew drive to Mosswick Pond?
  2. Why does the crew write the date and the spot on each bottle?
  3. What are the three things the lab checks in the water?
  4. What does the crew do if a test looks wrong?
  5. Card 3 says clear water is not always clean water. Use the cards to explain why the town tests the pond even when the water looks fine.
  6. Write four findings in your own words, one per line. Each finding should help answer this question: How does a town find out whether its water is safe?

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: Tuesday. Card 1 says the crew drives to the pond every Tuesday.
  2. Answer: So the lab knows where each sample came from. Card 1 states this reason in the same sentence that describes labeling the bottles.
  3. Answer: How cloudy the water is, tiny living things that can make people sick, and how much air is in the water. All three are listed in order on Card 2.
  4. Answer: The crew drives back the same day and takes new samples from more spots. Card 3 also says the town asks the water plant to add more cleaning steps that week.
  5. Answer: Because germs and tiny living things are too small to see. Accept any answer that uses Card 2 or Card 3 to explain that a problem can be in water that still looks clear.
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any four findings that are drawn from the cards and written in the student's own words, such as a crew collects pond water in bottles, a lab checks the water three ways, and the town tests again when a result looks wrong.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a copy of the cards with the answer sentences for questions 1 through 4 already highlighted, so their work is finding the answer inside the sentence rather than searching the whole card. Reduce the findings requirement from four to two, and allow the findings to be dictated to a partner who writes them down.

Extension

Ask students to write a fourth fact card that the town of Mosswick would need in order to answer a related question, such as who decides that the water is safe to drink. They should write three or four sentences in the same style as the other cards and explain which parts they could fill in from the sources they have and which parts they would need to ask someone about.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "sample," "lab," and "cloudy" with objects: a bottle of tap water labeled with a date, a photograph of a counter with test bottles, and a jar of water stirred with a spoonful of soil. Provide a sentence frame for the findings: "One thing I learned is that the crew ___." Allow questions 1 through 4 to be answered with short phrases instead of full sentences.

Extensions

Invite the class to send their leftover questions to the local water utility as a short group letter, then read any reply aloud and compare the answers to the findings students wrote. If a reply is not possible, the same questions can be sorted into ones the cards could answer and ones that would need a new source, which is useful preparation for the next research lesson.