Writing prompt Grade 4 English Language Arts

Should Merribold Adopt Crayle Creek? A Grade 4 Opinion Prompt

A grade 4 opinion prompt on whether a class should adopt a fictional creek, with a background page, a planning organizer, an exemplar, and a four-level rubric.

Grade: Grade 4
Subject: English Language Arts
Material: Writing prompt
Time: 2 sessions, ~90 min total
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

W.4.1 Common Core ELA

Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

How this material aligns: Students state an opinion about adopting the creek and support it with at least two reasons and facts drawn from the background page, which is this standard's task.

All materials for W.4.1 →

RI.4.1 Common Core ELA

Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

How this material aligns: The planning organizer and the rubric both require each reason to name the stated fact from the background page that supports it, and the exemplar models this with the posted-notes fact and the Havenhurst drain pipe fact.

All materials for RI.4.1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will state an opinion about a class decision and support it with reasons.
Students will tie each reason to a specific fact from a background page.
Students will use linking words to connect an opinion to its reasons.

Vocabulary

Key words: opinion, reason, adopt, clarity, record

Teacher overview

Merribold Elementary is a fictional school beside a fictional creek, and the town runs a volunteer program that asks a class to visit the same stretch of bank four times a year, pick up what it finds, and record what it sees. The decision is a real one for a fourth-grade class, because each visit costs an afternoon of lessons and needs two parent volunteers, while the notes the class records are posted where neighbors and town crews will read them. The prompt is written so a student can argue either side honestly from the background page. Students who have written opinion pieces about favorite foods often assume a strong feeling is a reason, so the rubric scores whether each reason is tied to a stated fact.

Should Merribold Adopt Crayle Creek? A Grade 4 Opinion Prompt — Grade 4 English Language Arts

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Prompt

Background page: Adopt a Creek in the town of Merribold

Crayle Creek runs behind Merribold Elementary, between the bus lot and the woods. The town of Merribold runs a program called Adopt a Creek. Your principal has asked the fourth grade to decide whether to join it this year.

Here is what a class promises when it adopts a creek.

The class walks the same stretch of bank, about 300 yards long, four times in the school year.
The class picks up the trash it finds and writes down what was there.
The class records three things at each visit: how clear the water looks in a clear plastic tube, how fast the water moves when a stick floats past a marked spot, and which animals or tracks the class sees.
The class writes its notes in a notebook the town lends out.

Here is what the town gives and what the class gives up.

The town lends each class a kit with gloves, bags, a clear tube, a stopwatch, and a notebook.
The town posts each class's notes on the town website, where neighbors and the creek crew can read them.
Each visit takes one afternoon, so the class misses that afternoon's regular lessons.
Two parents must come along on every visit, or the visit is called off.
In March the bank is muddy and the water is cold.
Last year a class at Havenhurst Elementary found a broken drain pipe during a visit, and the town repaired it.

Your writing task

Write an opinion piece for your principal. Tell her whether the fourth grade should adopt Crayle Creek this year. Give at least two reasons for your opinion. Support each reason with a fact from the background page. Use linking words such as because, also, and for example. End with a sentence that says your opinion again.

Planning Organizer

Fill in every box before you draft. Each box matches a line on the rubric.

Part of my piece	What I will write
My opinion
Reason 1
Fact from the page that supports reason 1
Reason 2
Fact from the page that supports reason 2
Linking words I plan to use
My ending sentence

Two checks before you draft. Read reason 1 and its fact out loud, and ask whether the fact really shows the reason. Then read your ending sentence and ask whether it says the same opinion you wrote in the first box.

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 the fourth grade should adopt Crayle Creek this year.

My first reason is that our notes would be useful to other people. The background page says the town posts every class's notes on the town website, where neighbors and the creek crew can read them. That means our work would not sit in a desk. It would go somewhere people look.

My second reason is that a class walking the bank can spot problems that nobody else sees. For example, the page says a class at Havenhurst Elementary found a broken drain pipe last year, and the town repaired it. If we walk the same 300 yards four times, we would start to notice when something looks different.

I know we would miss four afternoons of lessons, and I know March would be muddy and cold. Those are real costs. Still, we would only be gone for four afternoons in a whole year, and the town lends us gloves and bags so we would be ready for the mud.

For those reasons, I think our class should adopt Crayle Creek.

Rubric

Criterion	Beginning	Developing	Proficient	Advanced
Opinion	No clear opinion, or the opinion changes partway through.	An opinion appears somewhere, but not near the start.	The opinion is stated in the first sentences and stated again at the end.	The opinion is clear at both ends and worded to fit the principal as the reader.
Reasons	Gives one reason or repeats the same idea twice.	Gives two reasons, but one is a feeling rather than a reason.	Gives at least two clear, different reasons for the opinion.	Gives at least two reasons and puts the stronger one where it does the most work.
Facts from the background page	Uses no fact from the page.	Uses one fact, or names a fact that does not match the reason it follows.	Ties a specific fact from the page to each reason.	Ties a fact to each reason and also names a cost from the page and answers it.
Organization and linking words	Sentences are not grouped, and no linking words appear.	Some grouping, with one linking word used repeatedly.	Ideas are grouped by reason, with linking words such as because, also, and for example.	Grouping and linking words guide the reader from one reason to the next without repeating.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the background page with the facts sorted into two lists, one headed "reasons to say yes" and one headed "reasons to say no," so choosing a side comes before hunting for evidence. Fill in the opinion box of the organizer with a sentence frame: "I think the fourth grade should ___ Crayle Creek this year." Accept a three-paragraph piece with one reason developed fully and a second named.

Extension

Ask students to write a short second piece taking the opposite side, using facts from the same page, and then to write three sentences naming which of the two pieces they found easier to support and why. Have them mark the one fact on the page that both pieces had to account for.

ELL supports

Pre-teach adopt, record, clarity, and volunteer with the actual objects named in the kit: gloves, a bag, a clear tube, and a stopwatch. Provide a bank of linking words on a card, each in a short model sentence. Allow students to speak each organizer box to a partner before writing it, and accept the ending sentence as a copy of the opening sentence.