Graphic organizer Grade 5 English Language Arts
Two Reports on the Hollowbeck Reservoir Drawdown
A grade 5 source-comparison organizer that sets a water district notice beside a newspaper story on the same reservoir drawdown, with a completed exemplar.
Objectives
- Students will record what each of two sources says about the same event.
- Students will identify one agreement, one difference, and one gap between two sources.
- Students will copy one exact sentence from each source to support a statement about it.
Vocabulary
- Drawdown
- Drawdown is how far the water level in a well drops when a pump pulls water out. The harder and longer you pump, the bigger the drawdown gets.
- Reservoir
- A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.
Also: source, notice, quotation
Teacher overview
This is a two-column comparison frame followed by a short synthesis frame. Students read two accounts of the same event, a planned lowering of a fictional reservoir, and fill one column per source before answering five questions about how the two accounts line up. The structure matches the concept: the columns hold what each source says on its own, and the second frame is where agreement, difference, and gaps become visible.
Teaching note: fifth graders frequently assume that two texts about one event should match word for word, so a difference reads to them as proof that one writer is wrong or dishonest. In these two sources the leak is described as lasting "since last spring" and "for more than a year," which may be a real disagreement or may depend on which spring the notice means. Plan to spend most of the discussion on that row, because students who can name the difference without accusing anyone are ready for source work in middle school.
Organizer
Read both sources. Then fill in the two frames below them.
Source 1: Notice posted at the Hollowbeck boat ramp, September 8.
Notice to lake users. The district will lower Hollowbeck Reservoir by twelve feet this fall. Crews need the water level down so they can repair the outlet gate. The gate has leaked since last spring. The lowering begins September 20. The work will take about three weeks. The boat ramp will be closed during the work. The district plans to let winter rain refill the lake. Send questions to the district office.
Source 2: Story in the Hollowbeck Weekly, September 12.
Lake to drop this fall. Hollowbeck Reservoir will fall about twelve feet starting September 20, the water district says. District manager Rosa Iversen said the outlet gate has leaked for more than a year. Anglers at the ramp were unhappy about the closing. "We lose the last good month of fishing," said Dell Marchetti, who has fished the lake for thirty years. Iversen said the district hopes winter rain will refill the lake by April. The paper asked whether the repair could wait until spring. Iversen said waiting would cost more.
Frame 1: What each source says.
| Question | Source 1: the district notice | Source 2: the newspaper story |
|---|---|---|
| Who wrote it, and for whom? | ||
| When was it written? | ||
| Why is the reservoir being lowered? | ||
| How far will the water drop? | ||
| When does the work start? | ||
| One sentence I would quote | ||
| One thing this source does not tell me |
Frame 2: Putting the two together.
| Question | My answer |
|---|---|
| Something both sources say | |
| Something only the newspaper tells me | |
| A place where the two sources do not match | |
| A question neither source answers | |
| Which source I would hand to a friend who wants the repair explained, and why |
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Completed Exemplar
Frame 1: What each source says.
| Question | Source 1: the district notice | Source 2: the newspaper story |
|---|---|---|
| Who wrote it, and for whom? | The water district wrote it for people who use the lake. | A reporter for the Hollowbeck Weekly wrote it for readers of the paper. |
| When was it written? | September 8. | September 12. |
| Why is the reservoir being lowered? | So crews can repair the leaking outlet gate. | Same reason, and the manager adds that waiting until spring would cost more. |
| How far will the water drop? | Twelve feet. | About twelve feet. |
| When does the work start? | September 20. | September 20. |
| One sentence I would quote | "Crews need the water level down so they can repair the outlet gate." | "Iversen said waiting would cost more." |
| One thing this source does not tell me | It does not say what the repair will cost or who the district manager is. | It does not say how long the work will take or where lake users can send their questions. |
Frame 2: Putting the two together.
| Question | My answer |
|---|---|
| Something both sources say | Both say the lake will drop about twelve feet starting September 20 to fix the outlet gate. |
| Something only the newspaper tells me | Only the newspaper names the district manager, quotes an angler, and gives April as the hoped-for refill month. |
| A place where the two sources do not match | The notice says the gate has leaked since last spring, while the newspaper says it has leaked for more than a year. |
| A question neither source answers | Neither one says where the released water goes or what the repair will cost. |
| Which source I would hand to a friend who wants the repair explained, and why | The newspaper story, because it gives the reason for the timing as well as the plan, and it names the person who said it. |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students Frame 1 with the "When was it written?" and "How far will the water drop?" rows already filled in as models, and highlight the two sources in different colors so the column they are copying from is obvious. Reduce Frame 2 to its first three rows.
Extension
Ask these students to write the two sentences the district notice would need to add so that a reader would learn everything the newspaper story carries, then to explain why a posted notice might leave those sentences out on purpose. Have them mark which of their added sentences a reader could check.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "notice," "drawdown," "outlet gate," "angler," and "refill" with a simple side-view sketch of a reservoir, a gate near the bottom, and a lowered water line. Allow the quotation row to be completed with the first four words of the sentence plus a page mark, and allow phrases rather than sentences throughout Frame 2.
Extensions
Have students draft a third source on the same event, a short letter from Dell Marchetti to the district, and add a fourth column to Frame 1 for it. Filling the new column shows students that a source written by a person affected by a decision answers some questions well and leaves others out entirely, which is the reason researchers gather more than one account.