Reading passage Grade 4 English Language Arts
Watering Rows at the Okafor Family Farm: A Grade 4 Passage
A grade 4 informational passage about a fictional farm family choosing between sprinkler and drip irrigation, paired with literal and inferential questions.
Objectives
- Students will identify the stated differences between sprinkler and drip irrigation in the passage.
- Students will make an inference about why a farm family would switch irrigation methods, using evidence from the text.
Vocabulary
- Drip irrigation
- Watering plants through tubes that release water slowly, drop by drop, right at the roots. Very little water is wasted along the way.
Also: irrigation, sprinkler, evaporate, crop
Teacher overview
The Okafor family, invented for this passage, grows rows of tomatoes and peppers on a small farm and has to decide how to water their crops during a dry summer. This passage introduces two real irrigation methods, tall sprinklers that spray water into the air and drip irrigation that releases water slowly at each plant's roots, through the eyes of a farm family weighing which one to use. It also gives students one real fact about how much of the fresh water people take from rivers, lakes, and wells goes toward agriculture, grounding the family's small decision in a much larger picture.
Passage
Every summer, the Okafor family farm needs water. Its rows of tomatoes and peppers must be watered. For years, the family used tall sprinklers. The sprinklers spun in circles. They sprayed a wide arc of water into the air. The water then rained back down onto the plants. Sprinklers were simple to set up. They covered a large area fast. But on hot, breezy afternoons, Mr. Okafor noticed something. Some of the spray drifted away. Some of it evaporated before it ever reached the soil. It turned into water vapor in the air.
Last year, the family tried something new. It was called drip irrigation. Thin hoses ran along each row of plants. The hoses let out water slowly, drop by drop. Each drop landed right at the base of a plant. The water never left the ground. It never had to travel far through the air. Almost none of it evaporated or blew away in the wind. Plant roots could soak it up right away.
The Okafor family noticed something important. Their tomato plants needed much less water with drip irrigation. The plants still grew just as well. Mrs. Okafor said this made sense. Every drop that used to evaporate was now a drop the roots got.
Farms like the Okafor family's matter for a bigger reason too. Agriculture is the growing of crops and the raising of animals. Agriculture uses a lot of the world's fresh water. It uses roughly 70 percent of the fresh water people take from rivers, lakes, and wells. A small change on one farm is a small part of a much bigger effort. Farms everywhere are trying to use water more carefully.
By the end of the season, the Okafor family made a choice. They decided to change their other fields to drip irrigation too. It cost more money to set up the hoses at first. But Mr. Okafor said the saved water was worth it. He said it would pay off within a few years.
Questions
- What two irrigation methods does the passage describe?
- What did Mr. Okafor notice about the sprinklers on hot, breezy afternoons?
- Why did drip irrigation lose less water to evaporation than the sprinklers?
- What percent of the fresh water people take from rivers, lakes, and wells does agriculture use, according to the passage?
- Why do you think the family decided to switch their other fields to drip irrigation too?
- Find the word "evaporate" in the passage. What does this word mean?
- How does one farm's choice connect to the bigger fact about agriculture and fresh water?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Tall sprinklers and drip irrigation. The passage describes both methods in its first two paragraphs.
- Answer: He noticed that some of the spray drifted away or evaporated before it reached the soil, meaning not all of the water sprayed by the sprinklers actually reached the plants.
- Answer: Because drip irrigation released water slowly at the base of each plant instead of spraying it into the air, the water never had to travel far and almost none of it evaporated or drifted away in the wind.
- Answer: Roughly 70 percent. The passage states this directly in its fourth paragraph.
- Answer: Answers will vary but should reference that drip irrigation used noticeably less total water while the plants grew just as well, and that the water saved from evaporation made the higher setup cost worth it within a few years, both details stated in the passage.
- Answer: Evaporate means to turn into water vapor and rise into the air instead of staying in liquid form on the ground, based on how the passage describes spray that "evaporated" before reaching the soil.
- Answer: Answers will vary but should connect that since agriculture uses roughly 70 percent of the world's withdrawn fresh water, a method like drip irrigation that wastes less water on one farm contributes, alongside similar choices on many other farms, to using that large share of water more carefully.
Differentiation
Support
Provide a two-column chart (Sprinklers / Drip Irrigation) with the key details from paragraphs one and two already sorted, so students can reference it while answering questions 2 and 3 instead of rereading the full passage each time.
Extension
Ask students to name one additional crop or plant type that might benefit the most from drip irrigation, and explain their reasoning using the passage's description of how each method delivers water.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "irrigation," "sprinkler," and "crop" with simple sketches before reading, and allow question 6 and question 7 to be answered with shorter phrases or bullet points rather than full sentences.