Writing prompt Grade 5 English Language Arts
Fix the Leak or Build the Fountain? A Grade 5 Opinion Prompt
A grade 5 opinion prompt in which students decide whether a fictional town should spend its one grant on repairing a long leak or on a park drinking fountain.
Objectives
- Students will state a clear opinion about which project the town should fund.
- Students will support that opinion with at least two reasons taken from the background material.
- Students will write a closing statement that restates the opinion in new words.
Vocabulary
Key words: opinion, reason, grant, leak, closing statement
Teacher overview
Fairlane is a fictional town that has received one state grant large enough for exactly one water project this year, and two reasonable projects are waiting. Repairing the garage leak would save water every day, although no resident would see any difference, while a drinking fountain at the soccer park would be used and appreciated without saving any water. Small utilities weigh choices of this kind regularly, and this one gives fifth graders a reason to rank their reasons rather than simply list them. A misconception worth addressing is the idea that a leak matters only if the lost water would otherwise have been drunk; the background notes that the town treated and pumped every gallon that ran down the garage drain.
Prompt
Background:
The town of Fairlane has received one grant from the state. The grant is enough to pay for one water project this year, not two. The town council has to choose between two projects.
Project A: Fix the leak. A pipe under the Fairlane town garage has been dripping for two years. Everyone at the garage knows about it. The repair has been put off because the concrete floor has to be broken open to reach the pipe. The United States Environmental Protection Agency says a faucet that drips once every second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water in a year. The garage pipe drips faster than that. All of that water runs down a floor drain, and nobody drinks it or uses it for anything. The town still treats and pumps every gallon of it before it is lost.
Project B: Build the fountain. Fairlane's soccer park has no drinking water at all. Players bring bottles from home or buy them at the snack stand. Coaches carry a cooler to every game. Families have asked the council for a fountain for three years. The new fountain would have a bottle filler, and it would run from April through October.
Both projects are worth doing. Only one can be paid for this year. The council has asked students at Fairlane Elementary to write in with an opinion before it votes.
Writing task: Write an opinion essay for the Fairlane town council. State clearly which project the town should pay for this year. Give at least two reasons for your opinion. Use facts from the background to support each reason. End with a closing statement that restates your opinion in new words.
Planning Organizer
| Category | Your notes |
|---|---|
| My opinion (Project A or Project B) | |
| Reason 1, plus a fact from the background | |
| Reason 2, plus a fact from the background | |
| Something a person who disagrees would say | |
| My closing statement, in new words |
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:
Fairlane should spend this year's grant on fixing the leak under the town garage. A fountain would be nice to have, but the leak is costing the town water every single day, and it has been doing that for two years already.
My first reason is the amount of water going down that drain. The background says that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, a faucet that drips once a second can waste more than 3,000 gallons in a year, and the garage pipe drips faster than that. Nobody is drinking any of it. My second reason is that the town already paid to clean and pump that water before it leaked away. All of that work is wasted too, not just the water.
Some families would say the fountain matters more because players get thirsty at the soccer park, and they have been asking for three years. That is a fair point. But coaches can still bring a cooler for one more season, and the fountain can be first in line for next year's money. The leak cannot fix itself while everyone waits.
Fairlane should repair the pipe under the garage this year and build the fountain next year. Stopping a two-year leak protects water the town has already treated, and the soccer park will still get its fountain, only one season later.
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | Names the projects but never states which one to choose | States a choice, but it shifts or is hard to find | States one clear choice near the beginning and holds it throughout | States one clear choice and previews the reasons the essay will give |
| Reasons and information | Gives an opinion with no reason attached to it | Gives one reason, or repeats a background fact without explaining what it proves | Gives at least two reasons, each tied to a specific fact from the background | Gives at least two reasons tied to background facts, answers what someone who disagrees would say, and ranks which reason matters most |
| Organization and conventions | Sentences are out of order, and errors make the meaning hard to follow | Some order is visible; errors are noticeable but the meaning still comes through | Opinion, reasons, and closing statement appear in a clear order with few errors | Paragraphs are ordered on purpose, transitions link the reasons, and the closing statement restates the opinion in new words with almost no errors |
Differentiation
Support
Provide the Planning Organizer with the first row already completed for each choice, so a student can pick a starting position and build outward. Offer sentence starters for each remaining row, such as "One reason Fairlane should ___ is that ___." Allow the closing statement to be two sentences long instead of a full paragraph.
Extension
Ask students to write a short second version of their closing statement aimed at a different audience, a page of the town newsletter read by families rather than a letter to the council, and then explain in two sentences what they changed and why the audience made the difference.
ELL supports
Preteach "grant," "leak," and "opinion" with a picture of a dripping pipe, a picture of a park fountain, and a single envelope labeled with the word grant to show that one payment must cover one project. Allow the Planning Organizer to be filled in with phrases, and provide a printed list of opinion words such as should, better, and first.
Extensions
Have students poll ten people at home or in another class on the same two projects, tally the results, and write one paragraph explaining whether the poll changed their own opinion and which background fact they would put in front of someone who disagreed with them.