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Worksheet Grade 3 English Language Arts

Two Jobs at the Penhurst Water Plant: A Grade 3 Worksheet

Students read two short texts about a plant operator and a lab worker at the same water plant, then answer questions and compare what the two jobs take.

Objectives

  1. Students will answer questions about two short texts using details stated in each one.
  2. Students will name one likeness and one difference between two jobs at the same workplace.
  3. Students will explain, using both texts, that water plant jobs are reached by more than one path.

Vocabulary

Key words: operator, license, lab, sample, shift

Teacher overview

The fictional Penhurst water plant is the setting for two short job texts, one about an operator who runs the plant on the early shift and one about a lab worker who tests the samples. Reading them side by side gives students a manageable version of comparing two texts on the same topic while the details stay concrete. Two ideas commonly need correcting at this grade, which are that a water plant needs only one kind of worker, and that every job at a plant is reached by the same schooling. The texts show a licensed operator who trained on the job after high school and a lab worker who completed a two-year college program, and the last items ask students to use both.

Two Jobs at the Penhurst Water Plant: A Grade 3 Worksheet — Grade 3 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Ms. Cole, Plant Operator

Ms. Cole runs the Penhurst water plant on the early shift. She gets to work before the sun is up. First she reads the gauges that show how fast water is moving through the plant. Then she checks how much cleaner is going into the water. If the amount is off, she turns a dial to fix it. She walks the whole plant twice a shift and listens to the pumps. At the end of the shift, she writes what she did in a log book for the next operator.

Ms. Cole finished high school. Then she trained at the plant with an operator who had worked there for years. She also studied for a state test. A worker must pass that test and hold a license before running a plant alone. Ms. Cole says the hard part of her job is deciding fast when something changes.

Mr. Ives, Lab Worker

Mr. Ives works in the lab at the same plant. Bottles of water come to him from the pond, from the middle of the plant, and from taps around town. He tests each one. A machine tells him how cloudy the water is. Another test shows him whether tiny living things are in the sample. He writes every result in a chart.

Mr. Ives went to a two-year college and studied lab science. He learned to use the machines there. Then he learned the plant's own rules on the job. When a result changes from the day before, he calls the control room right away, so Ms. Cole can change what the plant is doing. Mr. Ives says the best part of his job is knowing the answer before anyone else does.

Answer each question. Use the texts.

  1. What is Ms. Cole's job at the Penhurst plant?
  2. What is Mr. Ives's job at the plant?
  3. How did Ms. Cole learn to do her job?
  4. What must a worker have before running the plant alone?
  5. How did Mr. Ives learn to do his job?
  6. Name one thing both workers do every day.
  7. Name one way the two jobs are different.
  8. Why does Mr. Ives call the control room when a result changes?
  9. A friend says you must go to a four-year college to work at a water plant. Use both texts to explain why that is not right.
  10. Write two sentences about the two jobs. In the first, tell one way they are the same. In the second, tell one way they are different.

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: She is the plant operator on the early shift. The first text says she runs the plant and names her shift.
  2. Answer: He is the lab worker who tests the water samples. The second text says bottles come to him and he tests each one.
  3. Answer: She finished high school, trained at the plant with an experienced operator, and studied for a state test.
  4. Answer: A license, earned by passing a state test. The first text states this rule directly.
  5. Answer: He went to a two-year college for lab science and then learned the plant's rules on the job.
  6. Answer: Both write down results. Accept any likeness supported by the texts, such as both check the water and both keep records.
  7. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any difference stated in the texts, such as Ms. Cole works out in the plant while Mr. Ives works in the lab, or she turns dials while he runs tests.
  8. Answer: So Ms. Cole can change what the plant is doing. The second text gives this reason in the same sentence.
  9. Answer: Because the texts show two different paths. Ms. Cole trained at the plant after high school and passed a state test, while Mr. Ives went to a two-year college, so neither one needed a four-year degree.
  10. Answer: Answers will vary. A proficient response gives one true likeness and one true difference, each supported somewhere in the texts, in two complete sentences.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a two-column chart with the headings "Ms. Cole" and "Mr. Ives" and the row labels Job, Training, and Daily work, and have them fill the chart from the texts before answering. Items 6 and 7 then become a matter of reading across a row.

Extension

Ask students to write a third short text in the same style for a job the plant would also need, such as the person who repairs the pipes, and to include one sentence about how that worker learned the job. They should mark which details they invented and which came from the two texts.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "operator," "license," "lab," and "sample" with a picture card for each, and read both texts aloud before students work. Provide frames for items 6 and 7: "Both workers ___," and "One job is different because ___."

Extensions

Students can write two interview questions for each worker and trade papers to answer them as that worker, using only what the texts say. Questions the texts cannot answer make a good list to bring to a visiting speaker from a local utility.