Writing prompt Grade 5 English Language Arts
Field Day Water at Barkley Elementary School
A grade 5 opinion writing prompt: should a fictional school buy cases of bottled water for Field Day or set up a refill station? Includes exemplar and rubric.
Objectives
- Students will state a clear opinion about a school decision.
- Students will support each reason with a fact from the background material.
- Students will order reasons on purpose and end with a concluding statement.
Vocabulary
Key words: opinion, reason, refill station, concluding statement
Teacher overview
Schools make small water decisions every year, and the reasoning behind them is usually within a fifth grader's reach: what students will actually drink on a hot day, who carries the supplies, and what is left in the trash afterward. This prompt sets that decision at a fictional school planning its Field Day and gives students a short background page with the facts both sides would use. The task asks for an opinion with two ordered reasons, each supported by a fact from the page, so that students practice choosing which reason to save for last rather than listing everything they can think of.
Prompt
Background: the Field Day water plan at Barkley Elementary
Barkley Elementary is a school in this story. Every June the school holds Field Day on the back field. Students are outside for three hours. The weather is usually hot.
For the last two years, the parent group bought cases of bottled water. Volunteers carried the cases out to the field in wagons and handed out bottles. This year the principal has asked the fifth grade for a written opinion before she decides again.
Here is what the planning committee reported.
- The town tests the school's tap water every year, and the water meets every drinking water rule.
- The school has three drinking fountains with bottle fillers inside the building. The back field is a four-minute walk from the nearest one.
- Last June the custodian collected fourteen bags of empty plastic bottles after Field Day.
- Some students left half-full bottles on the grass and took a new one instead.
- A refill station would need one folding table, two coolers of ice water, and one adult to keep the coolers full.
- Each student would need to bring a refillable bottle from home, and some students would forget.
- Bottled water needs no adult at the table, but the cases must be carried out and the trash carried back.
Your task
Write an opinion piece for the principal. Tell her whether Barkley Elementary should buy cases of bottled water for Field Day or set up a refill station with coolers on the field. Give two reasons for your opinion. Support each reason with a fact from the background. Put your strongest reason last, and end with a concluding statement that tells the principal what you want her to do.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every box before you begin drafting. The boxes match the way your writing will be scored.
| Part of my writing | What I will write |
|---|---|
| My opinion (one sentence) | |
| Reason 1 | |
| Fact from the background that supports reason 1 | |
| Reason 2, my stronger reason | |
| Fact from the background that supports reason 2 | |
| Why I put reason 2 last | |
| My concluding statement |
Before you draft, read your two reasons aloud to a partner. Ask your partner which one sounds stronger. If your partner picks reason 1, switch the order in your organizer.
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
Barkley Elementary should set up a refill station on the back field instead of buying cases of bottled water.
One reason is that a refill station means less to carry. The background says bottled water means carrying the cases out to the field and carrying the trash back. A refill station needs only one folding table and two coolers of ice water, with one adult to keep the coolers full, so the volunteers would not have to haul wagons of cases across the field.
My stronger reason is that the refill station wastes much less. The custodian collected fourteen bags of empty bottles after last year's Field Day, and some of those bottles were still half full when students set them down and took new ones. A cooler of ice water does not leave fourteen bags of trash behind. It leaves two empty coolers to carry back inside.
I know some students will forget a bottle at home. The school could keep a box of cups by the cooler for those students, which is a small problem to solve.
Barkley Elementary should put the coolers on the field this June and ask each class to bring refillable bottles. It would mean less to carry, and it would leave the back field cleaner than it was last year.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | The opinion is missing or the reader must guess which plan the writer wants. | An opinion appears somewhere in the piece but is not stated in the opening. | The opening states one clear opinion naming the plan the writer supports. | The opening states the opinion clearly and names what the principal should do about it. |
| Reasons and facts | Gives one reason with no fact from the background. | Gives two reasons, but only one is supported by a fact from the background. | Gives two reasons, each supported by a fact from the background. | Gives two reasons, each supported by a fact, and explains why the fact matters to the decision. |
| Organization | Sentences are listed with no order the reader can follow. | Reasons appear in an order, but the stronger reason comes first or the ending simply stops. | Reasons are ordered with the stronger reason last, and a concluding statement closes the piece. | Order and transitions guide the reader deliberately, and the concluding statement returns to the opinion with a specific request. |
| Conventions | Frequent errors make sentences hard to read. | Errors in spelling or punctuation appear often but the meaning is clear. | Sentences are complete and correctly punctuated, with a few minor errors. | Sentences vary in length and structure, and errors are rare. |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a shortened background page with the four bulleted facts most relevant to the decision, and a paragraph frame: "Barkley Elementary should ___. One reason is ___. The background says ___. My stronger reason is ___." Let them dictate the concluding statement before writing it.
Extension
Ask students to write a second short paragraph proposing a plan that uses both options, then explain in two sentences which fact from the background made a combined plan worth considering.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "refill," "cooler," "case," and "custodian" with objects or pictures. Provide the background facts as short strips students can sort into two piles labeled "helps bottled water" and "helps the refill station" before they choose an opinion. Allow the first draft to be spoken into a recording and then transcribed.