Writing prompt Grade 5 English Language Arts
Repairing or Removing the Elmsford Mill Dam: An Opinion Prompt
A grade 5 opinion prompt on whether a fictional town should repair or remove an old mill dam, with background facts, a planner, an exemplar, and a rubric.
Objectives
- Students will state a clear opinion about an old dam and hold it through the piece.
- Students will support each of three reasons with a fact from the background material.
- Students will order their reasons and connect them with linking words.
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.
Also: opinion, reason, oxygen, linking word
Teacher overview
A town has to decide what to do with a small, old dam that no longer runs anything, and students write an opinion piece to the town council saying whether to repair it or take it out. The background gives facts on both sides, so the writing work is choosing reasons and ordering them rather than hunting for information.
Teaching note: many fifth graders assume that more water always means better conditions for fish, so they treat the pond behind the dam as the healthier place without checking the background. Warm, shallow water holds less oxygen than cool, shaded water, which is the fact that most often turns a student's first draft around. Ask students who choose the pond to point to the sentence about oxygen and explain how they read it, rather than telling them they picked the wrong side.
Prompt
Background. Elmsford is a fictional town on Havenshead Creek. The Elmsford Mill Dam was built long ago to run a grain mill. The mill burned down and was never rebuilt. The dam is still there. Behind it sits Mill Pond. Families fish from the dock in summer and skate on the pond in winter.
The dam is old and cracked. The town must now choose one of two plans.
Plan A is to repair the dam and keep Mill Pond. Plan B is to remove the dam and let the creek run free.
Here are the facts the town collected.
- The town engineer says repairing the dam would cost $180,000.
- Taking the dam out would cost about $95,000.
- The town has one park fund. Money spent on the dam cannot be spent on the ball field.
- Trout swim up Havenshead Creek in the fall. They lay their eggs in clean gravel. The dam blocks them from reaching the gravel above it.
- Mill Pond is warm and shallow by August. Warm water holds less oxygen than cold water. Most fish need more than 5 mg/L of oxygen in the water.
- A free-flowing creek would be shaded by trees along the bank. Shaded water stays cooler.
- Mill Pond is the only place in Elmsford where children can skate in winter.
- The dock and the pond are used most in July and August.
Your task. Write an opinion piece for the Elmsford town council. Tell the council whether it should repair the dam or remove it. Give three reasons for your opinion. Support each reason with a fact from the list above. Put your reasons in an order that makes sense, connect them with linking words, and end with a concluding sentence.
Planning Organizer
| Part of my piece | My notes |
|---|---|
| My opinion, in one sentence | |
| Reason 1 | |
| The fact from the list that supports Reason 1 | |
| Reason 2 | |
| The fact from the list that supports Reason 2 | |
| Reason 3 | |
| The fact from the list that supports Reason 3 | |
| The order I will use, and why | |
| Linking words I will use, such as "first," "another reason," "because," and "for these reasons" | |
| My concluding sentence |
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.
I think Elmsford should remove the Mill Dam. A free creek would be better for the fish, the plan costs less, and the town would have money left for the ball field.
My first reason is that the dam blocks the trout. Trout swim up Havenshead Creek in the fall to lay their eggs in clean gravel. The town's facts say the dam keeps them from reaching the gravel above it. If the dam came out, the fish could use the whole creek again.
Another reason is that Mill Pond is a hard place for fish to live in late summer. The pond is warm and shallow by August. Warm water holds less oxygen than cold water, and most fish need more than 5 mg/L of oxygen. A creek shaded by trees along the bank would stay cooler, so it would hold more oxygen than the pond does in August.
My last reason is about money. Repairing the dam would cost $180,000, and taking it out would cost about $95,000. That is a large difference for one small town. The town has only one park fund, so money the town does not spend on the dam could go to the ball field instead.
For these reasons, I think the town council should remove the Elmsford Mill Dam. The creek would be a better place for the trout, and the town would still have money left for the ball field.
Rubric.
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | No opinion is stated, or the opinion changes partway through | An opinion is stated but it is vague, such as "the dam is a problem" | One clear opinion is stated at the start and held to the end | One clear opinion is stated at the start, and the opening sentence also previews the reasons |
| Reasons and support | Fewer than two reasons, or reasons with no facts attached | Three reasons appear, but one or more has no fact from the list attached | Three reasons each carry a fact from the background list | Three reasons each carry a fact, and the writer explains how the fact leads to the reason |
| Order and linking words | Reasons run together with no order and no linking words | Some order is visible; linking words appear once or twice | Reasons are in a sensible order and joined with linking words such as "another reason" and "because" | Order is deliberate, linking words guide the reader, and the strongest reason is placed where it lands best |
| Conclusion | No concluding sentence | The piece stops without restating the opinion | A concluding sentence restates the opinion clearly | The conclusion restates the opinion and ties back to the reader, in this case the town council |
| Conventions | Errors make sentences hard to follow | Errors are noticeable but meaning is clear | Few errors; paragraphs are separated | Virtually error free, with paragraph breaks that match the three reasons |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the organizer with the opinion row offering two checkboxes, repair or remove, and with the fact list already sorted into a repair column and a remove column. Provide sentence starters for each reason row, and allow the draft to be three paragraphs rather than five.
Extension
Ask these students to write a second, shorter version of their piece as a two-minute speech for the council meeting, keeping the same opinion and reasons but cutting it to under 150 words. Then have them mark which fact they kept in both versions and write one sentence explaining why that fact did the most work.
ELL supports
Read the background aloud once while students follow along, and pre-teach "dam," "pond," "mill," "gravel," and "oxygen" with a labeled side-view sketch of a creek, a dam, and a pond. Allow the organizer to be filled with phrases, and provide a linking-word card taped to the desk with "first," "another reason," "because," and "for these reasons."
Extensions
Have students trade finished pieces with a partner who chose the other plan and write a short note naming the one reason in their partner's piece that they found hardest to answer. Reading for the strongest reason on the other side prepares students for the argument writing they will meet in middle school without asking them to write a counterclaim yet.