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Classroom activity Grade 4 English Language Arts

The Dry Week Meeting at Sedgemont Dam: A Grade 4 Activity

Four teams each hold one request for the same fictional lake and must fill a four-day plan, claiming days only by citing a detail from their own request card.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify the detail on a request card that supports their team's claim.
  2. Students will state one request in a single sentence supported by two details.
  3. Students will explain how two different uses of the same lake pull against each other.

Vocabulary

Dam
A strong wall built across a river to hold back water. Dams store water for people and farms, help prevent floods, and can make electricity.
Reservoir
A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.
Turbine
A machine with blades that spin when water rushes past, like a high-tech waterwheel. Spinning turbines turn generators that make electricity.

Also: release, request

Teacher overview

Sedgemont Dam is a fictional dam on the Quillane River above the town of Pemblewick, and this activity gives four teams four different requests for the same lake during a four-day dry stretch. The scarcity rule does the teaching, because only one request can be followed each day, and a team may claim a day only by reading aloud the sentence on its card that supports the claim. A misconception this activity corrects is that saving water always means holding it back; the fish card shows that keeping the gates shut during a dry week can harm the river below the dam. Four teams of four to six students work well, and the room needs wall space for the chart.

Activity Directions

  1. Setup (5 min). Post chart paper marked with four columns labeled Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4. Divide the class into four teams and give each team one request card and one sentence strip. Give every student a note sheet. Explain the situation: no rain is expected for four days, and the operator can follow only one team's request each day.
  2. Read and mark (7 min). Each team reads its card together and underlines the two sentences that best support its request. The team then writes its request as one sentence on the strip, beginning with the words Our team asks the operator to.
  3. Opening statements (8 min). Each team reads its strip aloud and then reads its two underlined sentences. Allow two minutes per team and hold the timer. Tape each strip beside the chart.
  4. The meeting (12 min). Teams take turns claiming a day. State the two rules before the first turn: a team may claim a day only by reading aloud a detail from its own card, and no team may claim more than one day. Write the team's name and its reason in that day's column. Teams may argue for a different day order, but every argument has to name a card detail.
  5. Written record (8 min). Students answer debrief questions 1 through 4 on the note sheet. The chart stays posted while they write.
  6. Close (5 min). Read the finished chart aloud in day order. Ask which team's reason changed someone's mind and why. The activity ends when all four days are filled and every student has answered all four debrief questions.
The Dry Week Meeting at Sedgemont Dam: A Grade 4 Activity — Grade 4 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Request card 1: Drinking water, from Ms. Kettleman of the Pemblewick Water Department. Pemblewick takes its drinking water from Sedgemont Lake through a pipe near the dam. Every home, school, and clinic in town is on that pipe. If the lake drops below the top of the pipe, our pumps pull in mud, and the plant has to work much harder to clean it. Our team asks the operator to keep the lake high and let out as little as possible.

Request card 2: Electricity, from Ms. Renard, a hydropower technician. Inside the dam, water falls down a tunnel and pushes past a wheel called a turbine. The turbine turns a generator, and the generator makes electricity for Pemblewick. The more water we let fall, the more electricity we make. Hot dry days are also the days the town uses the most electricity. Our team asks the operator to let water fall through the tunnel on the hottest day.

Request card 3: Fish, from Dr. Mireles, a fisheries biologist. Trout live in the Quillane River below the dam, and trout need cold water. The water deep in the lake stays cold even in a heat wave. When the operator opens the deep gate, that cold water flows into the river. Without a release, the river below the dam gets shallow and warm, and the trout crowd into a few pools. Our team asks the operator to send cold water down the river during the dry stretch.

Request card 4: The lake shore, from Mr. Iyer, the reservoir ranger. People swim and launch boats at Sedgemont Lake. The boat ramp is a concrete slab that ends a short way into the water. When the lake drops, the end of the ramp sits above the water, and trailers cannot reach the lake at all. The swim beach turns into mud. Two day camps hold swim lessons here every week in July. Our team asks the operator to hold the lake steady.

Debrief questions

  1. Which team's request was followed on Day 1 in your class's plan, and what detail from that team's card supported the claim?
  2. According to request card 2, what happens inside the dam that makes electricity? Name the parts in order.
  3. According to request card 3, why does the Quillane River need a release of cold water during a dry stretch?
  4. Two of the four teams want the lake kept high, and two want water let out. Name one team from each side and give the detail from its card that explains what it wants.

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: Accept any team named on the class chart along with a detail actually printed on that team's card. A complete answer names the team and quotes or paraphrases one supporting sentence, such as the pipe pulling in mud or the trout crowding into pools.
  2. Answer: Water falls down a tunnel and pushes past a turbine, the turbine turns a generator, and the generator makes electricity. Card 2 gives the parts in that order.
  3. Answer: Because the water deep in the lake stays cold, and without a release the river below the dam gets shallow and warm, which crowds the trout into a few pools.
  4. Answer: Card 1 and card 4 want the lake kept high, and cards 2 and 3 want water let out. Accept any one team from each side with a matching detail, such as the drinking water pipe on card 1 or the cold water for trout on card 3.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a request card with the two supporting sentences already underlined and with the sentence strip started for them. During the meeting, let them read their claim from the card rather than restating it, and provide the debrief note sheet with the four question stems already copied at the top of each box.

Extension

Ask these students to write a fifth request card for a group not yet at the meeting, such as a farmer downstream who irrigates from the Quillane River or a road crew that inspects the dam wall. The new card must follow the same shape and must not contradict the other four.

ELL supports

Pre-teach dam, release, turbine, and ramp with a labeled diagram posted beside the chart. Provide a claim frame the teams can use aloud during the meeting: our team asks for Day blank, because our card says blank. Allow the sentence strip to be drafted as a phrase before it is written as a full sentence.

Extensions

Have each team write a short letter to the operator asking for a second day, using one detail from its own card and one detail from a card belonging to a team that agrees with it. Post the letters beside the chart and let the class decide which pairing of teams made the strongest case.