Writing prompt Grade 5 English Language Arts
Grass or Garden? A Grade 5 Opinion Prompt on Fernhollow Park
A grade 5 opinion prompt where students decide whether a fictional park should replace part of its lawn with a drought-tolerant garden, using background facts as support.
Objectives
- Students will state an opinion on whether Fernhollow Park should replace its grass lawn with drought-tolerant plants.
- Students will support their opinion with at least two reasons drawn from the background material.
- Students will write a closing statement that restates their opinion.
Vocabulary
Key words: drought-tolerant, opinion, reason, irrigation
Teacher overview
Fernhollow Park, a fictional town park used for this prompt, is considering replacing part of its wide grass lawn with drought-tolerant plants that need far less watering. Grass lawns are attractive and useful for games and picnics, but they typically need regular watering to stay green, while drought-tolerant plants can survive on rainfall alone in most seasons. This prompt asks students to take a position on the tradeoff and support it with reasons and information, following the opinion-writing structure of a clear position, supporting reasons, and a closing statement.
Prompt
Background: Less than one percent of all the water on Earth is fresh water that people, plants, and animals can reach and use. Most of Earth's water is salty ocean water. Some of it is ice locked in glaciers and ice caps. Fernhollow Park's grass lawn covers a large open area. Families use it for picnics, games, and running around. Keeping the grass green through a dry summer takes a lot of watering. The park must water the lawn several times a week to keep it green. Drought-tolerant plants are different. This group includes many native flowers, shrubs, and grasses. These plants can survive on rainfall alone once they are established. The park would need to water them far less often after the first year. A drought-tolerant garden looks different from an open lawn. It has plants of different heights and colors instead of one flat green surface. A garden like this is usually not good for running around or playing catch.
Writing task: Fernhollow Park's town council is deciding whether to replace part of the park's grass lawn with a drought-tolerant garden. Write an opinion essay. State a clear position on whether the town should make this change. Give at least two reasons for your position. End with a closing statement.
Planning Organizer
| Category | Your notes |
|---|---|
| Opinion (should Fernhollow Park change part of its lawn?) | |
| Reason 1 + detail from background material | |
| Reason 2 + detail from background material | |
| A fact or detail someone with a different opinion might mention | |
| Closing statement |
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:
Fernhollow Park should replace part of its grass lawn with a drought-tolerant garden, because saving water matters and the change would not remove every place families can play. Less than one percent of all the water on Earth is fresh water that people and plants can actually use, so any way a park can use less water is worth trying. A drought-tolerant garden would need far less watering once it is established, unlike the grass lawn, which the background material says needs watering several times a week to stay green through a dry summer.
Some families might worry that a drought-tolerant garden would take away space for picnics, games, and running around, since the background material notes that gardens are not usually suitable for those activities. This is a fair concern, and the town council should keep part of the lawn open for play instead of replacing all of it. But replacing even part of the lawn would still save a meaningful amount of water while leaving room for families to use the rest.
Fernhollow Park should move forward with a partial drought-tolerant garden. The park would use much less water, help protect a resource that is less than one percent of all the water on Earth, and still leave space for the games and picnics families enjoy.
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | No clear position stated | States a position but it is unclear or changes partway through | States one clear, consistent position | States a clear position and previews the reasons that will follow |
| Reasons & information | No reasons drawn from the background material | Restates one detail from the background material without explaining it | Gives at least two reasons, each supported by a detail from the background material | Gives at least two reasons, each supported by a specific detail, and connects the reasons to each other |
| Organization & conventions | Ideas are disconnected; frequent errors interfere with meaning | Some organization; errors are noticeable but do not block meaning | Clear structure with an opinion, reasons, and a closing statement; few errors | Clear, purposeful structure with a strong closing statement that restates the opinion; virtually error-free |
Differentiation
Support
Provide sentence starters for each Planning Organizer row ("I think Fernhollow Park should/should not change its lawn because ___.") and allow the closing statement to simply restate the opinion sentence in different words.
Extension
Ask students to add a third reason to their essay, drawn from imagining what a drought-tolerant garden might look like across all four seasons, rather than only during a dry summer.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "drought-tolerant," "opinion," and "irrigation" with visuals (a green lawn being watered versus a garden of hardy plants) before the writing task. Allow the Planning Organizer to be completed with phrases rather than full sentences before drafting begins.
Extensions
Have students sketch a simple before-and-after map of Fernhollow Park showing where a drought-tolerant garden could go while still leaving open space for games, then label two plants they would choose and explain why in one sentence each.