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Worksheet Grade 5 English Language Arts

Reading the Vandenbrook Water Lab Log

A grade 5 worksheet in which students read a fictional water plant's morning lab log, a table plus technician notes, and answer literal and inference questions.

Objectives

  1. Students will locate stated information in a table and in short written notes.
  2. Students will quote a technician's note accurately when explaining what happened.
  3. Students will draw an inference about a water test result and support it with two pieces of evidence.

Vocabulary

Finished water
Finished water is water that has been through every treatment step and is ready to be sent to homes and schools. It has to meet strict safety rules before it leaves the plant.

Also: sample, cloudiness, chlorine, log

Teacher overview

A water plant's lab log is a real workplace text: a table of numbers with short handwritten notes beside it, written by one worker for the next shift to read. This worksheet gives students the morning log from the plant in the fictional town of Vandenbrook and asks them to read across the table, quote the technician's notes exactly, and infer why she went back to one tap a second time. Students who are used to reading only paragraphs often stop at the table and guess at the rest, so several items deliberately require the notes column and the paragraph beneath it to be read together.

Reading the Vandenbrook Water Lab Log — Grade 5 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Vandenbrook Water Plant, lab log for Tuesday morning

Vandenbrook is a fictional town. Its water plant takes water from Peppertree Creek, filters it, and sends it out to the town's taps. Water that has finished going through the plant is called finished water. The plant follows two rules. The cloudiness of finished water must stay at or below 0.3 NTU. The chlorine in the pipes should stay between 0.2 and 2.0 mg/L, which keeps the water safe all the way to the last house.

Sample Where it was taken Time Cloudiness (NTU) Chlorine (mg/L) Technician note
A Peppertree Creek intake 6:10 a.m. 4.2 none "Creek still brown from Sunday's rain."
B After the filters 6:30 a.m. 0.12 1.1 "Filters running clean."
C Mill Street tap 7:15 a.m. 0.20 0.1 "Below the range we want. Mill Street is the far end of town."
D Mill Street tap, second try 10:40 a.m. 0.18 0.9 "Better after we flushed the hydrant. Called the supervisor before flushing."
E School Road tap 11:05 a.m. 0.15 1.0 "Normal."

Ms. Kimball, the technician, wrote this at the bottom of the page. "Water sits a long time in the last pipe on Mill Street, and chlorine fades as it sits. Flushing the hydrant pulls fresh water down that pipe. I will check Mill Street again on Thursday."

Answer each question in a complete sentence.

  1. Which sample had the highest cloudiness reading?
  2. At what time did Ms. Kimball take the sample after the filters?
  3. Copy the exact note Ms. Kimball wrote for sample A.
  4. Which samples of finished water met the plant's cloudiness rule?
  5. Which sample had a chlorine reading below the range the plant wants in its pipes?
  6. Why did Ms. Kimball go back to the Mill Street tap a second time?
  7. In this log, what does "finished water" mean?
  8. Copy the exact sentence at the bottom of the page that explains why chlorine fades on Mill Street.
  9. What did Ms. Kimball do before the crew flushed the hydrant?
  10. Would you say the plant had a serious problem on Tuesday morning? Give two pieces of evidence from the log to support your answer.

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: Sample A, the creek intake, at 4.2 NTU. It is the only sample taken before the water went through the filters.
  2. Answer: 6:30 a.m. The table lists that time in the row for the sample taken after the filters.
  3. Answer: "Creek still brown from Sunday's rain." Accept the note only if it is copied exactly.
  4. Answer: Samples B, C, D, and E all met the rule, because each reading is at or below 0.3 NTU.
    Sample A is creek water that has not been filtered yet, so the finished-water rule does not apply to it.
  5. Answer: Sample C, the first Mill Street sample. Its chlorine reading of 0.1 mg/L sits below the 0.2 to 2.0 range the log says the plant wants in its pipes. Sample A is creek water at the intake rather than water in the pipes, so the range does not apply to it.
  6. Answer: The first Mill Street sample had low chlorine, so after the crew flushed the hydrant she took a second sample to see whether the fresh water had raised the reading.
  7. Answer: Water that has already gone through the whole plant. The log says water that has finished going through the plant is called finished water.
  8. Answer: "Water sits a long time in the last pipe on Mill Street, and chlorine fades as it sits." Accept the sentence only if it is copied exactly.
  9. Answer: She called the supervisor. Her note for sample D says she called the supervisor before flushing.
  10. Answer: No, the log does not show a serious problem. Accept any answer supported by two pieces of evidence, such as the finished water staying at or below the cloudiness rule all morning, the second Mill Street reading rising after the flush, and the School Road sample being normal. A student who answers yes may earn credit only by citing two readings and explaining why they are cause for concern, though the low chlorine at Mill Street is the only reading in the log that would carry such an argument.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students items 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9 only, with the table row for each answer marked with a light box. Provide a sentence frame for item 6: "She went back because ___."

Extension

Ask students to write the note Ms. Kimball should leave for the Thursday shift, using at least two details from the log and one instruction about what to check first.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "sample," "flush," "tap," and "fade" with gestures and a simple drawing of a hydrant on a dead-end street. Walk through one table row aloud with the class, naming each column heading, before students work alone. Allow one-word answers for items 1 and 2.