Worksheet Grade 4 English Language Arts
Asking the Sutterly Plant Operator Better Questions
Students read a fictional interview with an evening-shift water plant operator, answer detail and inference items, then write two questions the interview never asked.
Objectives
- Students will answer questions using stated lines from an interview transcript.
- Students will explain what a speaker means by a word used in an unusual way.
- Students will write interview questions that target information a source has not yet given.
Vocabulary
- Jar test
- A jar test is a small-scale experiment operators run in the lab before treating a whole tank of water, testing different amounts of chemical in separate jars to see which dose clears the water best. It helps operators avoid wasting chemicals or under-treating the water.
Also: interview, shift, filter, license
Teacher overview
The Sutterly Water Plant and Mr. Vessey are fictional, and the interview below was written for this worksheet. An interview transcript reads differently from a report, because the information arrives only where a question happened to point, which leaves a gap wherever the reporter did not ask. Fourth graders often assume a treatment plant holds one fixed setting the way a dishwasher does, so the operator here describes changing the chemical amount four times in a single night as the river changed. The last two items ask students to write the questions the reporter did not think to ask.
Student Worksheet
Read the interview. Then answer items 1 through 11.
A class reporter from Sutterly Elementary interviewed Mr. Vessey, who runs the evening shift at the Sutterly Water Plant.
Reporter: What is your job here?
Mr. Vessey: I run the evening shift. I watch the whole plant from one room, and I walk the plant twice a night.
Reporter: Why walk it if you can watch it on a screen?
Mr. Vessey: The screen shows numbers. My ears catch a pump that has begun to whine. My nose catches a chemical leak long before any number moves.
Reporter: What was your hardest night?
Mr. Vessey: A night in March when the river rose. The water coming in changed faster than I had ever seen. I changed the chemical amount four times before midnight.
Reporter: How did you know what to change it to?
Mr. Vessey: We ran a jar test. We fill six jars with river water and add a different amount to each one. Then we watch to see which jar clears first. The plant copies the jar that won.
Reporter: What happens if the amount is wrong?
Mr. Vessey: The filters clog early, and we have to wash them sooner. No one drinks bad water, though. Water does not leave this plant until it passes its test.
Reporter: What training did you need?
Mr. Vessey: I finished high school and worked here two years while I studied. The state gives an exam for a license, and licenses come in classes. I am studying for my next one now. Some people on our staff started with a college degree in science, and some started the way I did.
Reporter: What do visitors get wrong about the plant?
Mr. Vessey: Visitors expect one fixed setting, like a dishwasher. Our settings change through the night, because the river changes.
- What is Mr. Vessey's job at the plant?
- How many times does he walk the plant during his shift?
- Mr. Vessey says his ears and nose catch things the screen does not. Name one example he gives.
- Why was the March night hard for him?
- What is a jar test?
- Mr. Vessey says the plant copies the jar that won. What does won mean here?
- What happens to the filters when the chemical amount is wrong?
- Mr. Vessey says no one drinks bad water. Which detail in that same answer explains why?
- According to Mr. Vessey, what are two different ways a person can come to work at this plant?
- The reporter never asked about the day shift. Write one question that would find out how the day shift differs.
- Write one more question about a part of the plant's work that this interview never covers.
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: He runs the evening shift at the Sutterly Water Plant. He states this in his first answer.
- Answer: Twice a night. His first answer says he walks the plant twice during his shift.
- Answer: Accept either example: his ears catch a pump that has begun to whine, or his nose catches a chemical leak.
- Answer: The river rose, and the water coming in changed faster than he had ever seen. Accept any answer that names the rising river or the fast change.
- Answer: A test in which six jars of river water each get a different amount of the chemical, and the crew watches which jar clears first.
- Answer: The jar that cleared first, so it showed the best amount to use. Accept any answer showing that won means came out clearest rather than beat someone in a game.
- Answer: They clog early, so the crew has to wash them sooner. He states this directly.
- Answer: Water does not leave the plant until it passes its test. That line explains why a wrong amount does not reach anyone's tap.
- Answer: A person can finish high school and study for a state license while working, or come in with a college degree in science. Both paths appear in his answer.
- Answer: Accept any question that would produce information about the day shift, such as "What does the day shift do that your shift does not?" or "Who runs the plant when you go home?"
- Answer: Accept any question aimed at something the transcript never covers, such as where the water goes after it leaves the plant, how many people work at the plant, or what happens during a power failure.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a copy with the seven exchanges numbered in the margin, and tell them that items 1 through 9 follow the order of the interview. Provide two question starters for items 10 and 11, such as "What happens when" and "Who decides."
Extension
Ask these students to write the operator's likely answers to their own two new questions, keeping every answer consistent with what Mr. Vessey already said. Then have them mark which of their answers a real interview would need to check with a second source.
ELL supports
Pre-teach shift, filter, clog, and license with a short demonstration of pouring water through a coffee filter until it slows. Let students underline the reporter's questions in one color and the operator's answers in another before writing anything, and accept phrase answers for items 1 through 5.
Extensions
Have the class interview an adult who works a shift at any job, using three questions of their own and one borrowed from this transcript. Ask students to mark afterward which of their questions produced a full answer and which produced only a short one.