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Lesson plan Grade 5 English Language Arts

Three Sources on the Birchmill Pump House: A Grade 5 Research Lesson

Students take notes from three short sources about a fictional town's pump house, then write a brief report on how water is lifted from the wells to the tank.

Objectives

  1. Students will record notes from three different sources on a chart labeled by source.
  2. Students will write a short report that draws information from at least two of the three sources.
  3. Students will explain why a pump is needed where gravity cannot move water.

Vocabulary

Pump
A pump is a machine that adds energy to water to move it or push it uphill, doing the job gravity cannot do on its own. Water systems use many different kinds of pumps to move water from wells, through treatment, and out to customers.
Impeller
An impeller is the spinning, blade-covered wheel inside a pump that pushes water outward and gives it energy to move through the pipes. It is the main working part of a centrifugal pump.

Also: source, notes, report

Teacher overview

Birchmill is a fictional town whose wells sit in a low meadow while its storage tank sits on a ridge above the school. A brick pump house between them does the lifting. This lesson gives students three short sources about that pump house: a utility newsletter item, an interview with a pump mechanic, and a labeled parts list. Students gather notes from all three before writing a brief report. A misconception worth naming out loud is that water always travels downhill on its own; students who have studied water towers often assume gravity does every job, when in fact a pump has to raise the water to the high tank first.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Fill a cup at the sink and set it on a stack of books, then ask students how the water got up there. Push for the answer that something had to lift it, and write the word "pump" on the board with a question mark beside it.

Reading the three sources (12 min): Distribute the Student Handout. Read Source A aloud together. Have students read Sources B and C on their own, marking one fact in each that Source A did not mention.

Model note-taking by source (8 min): Draw a three-column chart on chart paper headed Source A, Source B, and Source C. Model recording two notes in the Source A column in your own words rather than copying full sentences, and say aloud why you are shortening. Add one note to the Source B column and ask the class to name which source it came from before you write it.

Independent note-taking (15 min): Students complete their own three-column chart and then answer handout questions 1 through 6. Require that each note sit in the column of the source it came from.

Drafting the report (10 min): Students write the short report described on the handout, using at least two of the three sources and naming each source they use.

Formative check and closure (5 min): Ask each student to read one sentence of their report aloud and name the source behind it. Track how many students can name a source without looking back at the chart. If fewer than half can, plan a second modeling round before the next research task.

Three Sources on the Birchmill Pump House: A Grade 5 Research Lesson — Grade 5 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Source A. From the Birchmill Water Department newsletter

The Birchmill wells sit in the low meadow near the river. The town's storage tank sits on the ridge behind the school, about ninety feet higher than the wells. Water will not climb that hill by itself. The pump house between the meadow and the ridge does that work. Its pumps push well water up the hill and into the tank. Once the tank is full, gravity carries the water back down through the pipes to homes. The pumps usually run at night, when fewer people are using water and electricity costs less.

Source B. Interview with Dana Petrosian, pump mechanic

"People picture a pump as one big machine, but I take care of four of them. Every morning I walk the row and listen. A healthy pump makes a steady hum. A bad bearing makes a rough sound you can hear before any gauge shows a problem. I check for drips at the seals, and I read the panel to see how long each pump ran overnight. If one pump ran far longer than the others, something is wrong with it or with the pipe it feeds. My favorite part of the job is that the town never notices us when we do it right."

Source C. Parts of a pump, from a training poster in the pump house

  • Motor: the electric part that spins.
  • Impeller: the spinning wheel with curved blades that throws water outward and pushes it into the pipe.
  • Seal: the ring that keeps water from leaking out where the spinning shaft enters the pump.
  • Check valve: a one-way door in the pipe that stops water from sliding back down the hill when the pump shuts off.
  • Control panel: the box that starts the pump, stops it, and records how long it ran.

Questions

  1. According to Source A, why can gravity not move Birchmill's well water to the storage tank?
  2. According to Source A, when do the pumps usually run, and why?
  3. According to Source B, how many pumps does Dana Petrosian take care of?
  4. According to Source B, what does she notice before a gauge shows a problem?
  5. According to Source C, which part keeps water from sliding back down the hill after a pump shuts off?
  6. Source A and Source C both help explain how water reaches the ridge tank. Name one thing Source C tells you that Source A does not.

Writing task: Write a report of five to seven sentences explaining how water gets from the Birchmill wells to the ridge tank and then to homes. Use information from at least two of the three sources. Name each source you use, for example, "Source B says that."

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: the tank sits about ninety feet higher than the wells.
    Source A states that water will not climb the hill by itself, so the pumps must lift it.
  2. Answer: at night, when fewer people use water and electricity costs less.
    Source A gives both reasons in the same sentence.
  3. Answer: four pumps.
    Source B opens with her correcting the idea that a pump house holds only one machine.
  4. Answer: a rough sound from a bad bearing.
    Source B says a healthy pump hums steadily and that she can hear a rough bearing before any gauge shows a problem.
  5. Answer: the check valve.
    Source C describes it as a one-way door in the pipe that stops backward flow when the pump shuts off.
  6. Answer: answers will vary.
    Accept any part named only in Source C, such as the impeller, the seal, the check valve, the motor, or the control panel, along with a short statement of what that part does.

Differentiation

Support

Provide the three-column chart already labeled, with one note filled in under each source, so students are extending a model rather than starting blank. Read Source B aloud with the class instead of assigning it silently, and allow answers to questions 1 through 5 to be single phrases.

Extension

Ask students to write one question that none of the three sources answers, explain what kind of source would answer it, such as an interview, a map, or a repair record, and state which of the three current sources they would trust least on that question and why.

ELL supports

Preteach "pump," "impeller," and "source" with a labeled sketch of a pump and a photograph of a hillside tank. Provide sentence frames for the report: "Source ___ says that ___." and "According to Source ___, the pumps ___." Allow the note chart to be completed with drawings and short phrases.

Extensions

Have students draw a side-view map of Birchmill showing the meadow wells, the pump house, and the ridge tank, then label the drawing with one detail from each of the three sources and mark with arrows which stretch of the trip depends on the pumps and which depends on gravity.