Writing prompt Grade 6 English Language Arts
Should Ashmoor Give Treated Biosolids to Local Farms?
A grade 6 argument prompt on whether a fictional town should send treated biosolids to nearby farms, with background, a planning organizer, exemplar, and rubric.
Objectives
- Students will state a clear claim about a local decision and hold to it across an essay.
- Students will support each reason with a specific piece of evidence from the background material.
- Students will organize an argument into an opening, two supported reasons, and a closing.
Vocabulary
- Biosolids
- Biosolids are the nutrient-rich solid material left over after sewage sludge has been treated and made safe. Many farms use treated biosolids as fertilizer for their fields.
Also: claim, reason, evidence, nutrient
Teacher overview
What a wastewater plant does with the solids it removes is a real municipal decision, and it is one where thoughtful people disagree for reasons a sixth grader can weigh. This prompt gives students a background list about the fictional town of Ashmoor, whose plant currently trucks its treated biosolids to a landfill while three nearby farms have asked to take them for free. Students write an argument essay to the council. The teaching note worth stating in advance is that many students at this grade repeat the background facts in order rather than selecting the two or three that support a claim, so the organizer forces a choice before drafting begins.
Prompt
Background. Read the facts below before you write. Every fact describes the fictional town of Ashmoor.
- The Ashmoor Water Reclamation Plant cleans the town's used water. Solids settle out during that work. The plant treats those solids again, then dries them into a dark, crumbly material called biosolids.
- Right now the plant pays trucks to haul the biosolids to a landfill 40 miles away. In our scenario that hauling costs the town about 90,000 dollars each year.
- Three farms near Ashmoor have asked for the biosolids. They would take the material for free and spread it on their fields.
- Biosolids hold nitrogen and phosphorus. Those are two of the main nutrients that farmers buy in bagged fertilizer.
- Under the rules in this scenario, the plant must test every batch of biosolids and keep a record of which field each load goes to.
- Families on Selby Road live beside two of those farms. They say the fields smell for about three days after biosolids are spread.
- A fictional residents' group, the Ashmoor Clean Fields Committee, wants the town to wait. The group says the plant should first test for a longer list of chemicals.
- The plant manager says a delay of one year would cost the town another year of hauling fees.
Your task. Write an argument essay to the Ashmoor town council. State whether the town should give its treated biosolids to the three local farms. Support your claim with at least two reasons. Give evidence from the background list for each reason. End by telling the council what you want it to do. Your essay should be four to six paragraphs long.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every row before you draft. Each row matches one part of the rubric.
| Part of my argument | What I will write |
|---|---|
| My claim (one sentence) | |
| Reason 1 | |
| Evidence for reason 1 (name the background fact) | |
| Reason 2 | |
| Evidence for reason 2 (name the background fact) | |
| One fact I chose not to use, and why | |
| My closing request to the council |
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. This response gives three supported reasons, one more than the prompt requires. To reach the Advanced column, a writer must also explain why the chosen facts matter more than the others.
Ashmoor should give its treated biosolids to the three farms that asked for them. The town is already paying to bury a material that farmers want, and the plant is already set up to test and track every load. Sending biosolids to fields is the better choice for Ashmoor.
My first reason is that the current plan wastes money for no gain. The background says hauling the biosolids to a landfill 40 miles away costs the town about 90,000 dollars each year. The three farms would take the same material for free. Every year the town waits, it pays that hauling bill again, and the plant manager says a one-year delay would cost the town another full year of fees. Money spent burying biosolids cannot be spent on anything else the town needs.
My second reason is that biosolids do useful work on a field. The background says biosolids hold nitrogen and phosphorus, which are two of the main nutrients farmers buy in bagged fertilizer. A farm that gets those nutrients from Ashmoor buys less fertilizer, and the material stays out of the landfill. The town turns a cost into something a neighbor can use.
My third reason is that Ashmoor would keep close track of the material. The background says the plant must test every batch of biosolids and record which field each load goes to. The council could then answer any resident who asks what was spread and where it went. A program with test results and records behind it is much easier to check than one without them.
The council should approve the farm program this year. It should also require the plant to tell Selby Road families before any spreading day, since the background says those fields smell for about three days afterward.
Rubric.
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | No clear position, or the position changes partway through | States a position but leaves it vague or restates the question | States one clear position in the opening and holds it throughout | States a clear position and sharpens it in the closing with a specific request |
| Evidence and reasoning | Gives opinions with no facts from the background | Names one background fact without explaining what it proves | Gives two reasons, each supported by a named background fact, and explains the link | Gives two or more supported reasons and explains why the chosen facts matter more than others |
| Organization | Ideas appear in no clear order | Has paragraphs but the reasons run together | Opens with the claim, gives one reason per paragraph, and closes with a request | Uses transitions between paragraphs so each reason builds toward the closing request |
| Conventions | Errors make sentences hard to read | Frequent errors, though the meaning is clear | Few errors, with complete sentences and correct end punctuation | Clean writing with varied sentence lengths and precise word choice |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a completed first row of the organizer with a claim already written, and limit the background list to the four facts most directly tied to that claim so the selection task becomes a choice among four facts rather than eight.
Extension
Ask students to write a second closing paragraph addressed to the Selby Road families rather than to the council, keeping the same claim while changing which evidence they lead with, then explain in two sentences why the order changed.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "biosolids," "haul," "nutrient," and "spread" with a labeled picture of the plant, the truck, and the field. Provide the sentence frames "Ashmoor should ___ because ___." and "The background says ___, which shows ___." and allow the organizer to be filled in with phrases.
Extensions
Hold a four-minute council hearing in which three students read their closing paragraphs aloud, then ask the rest of the class to write down the single piece of evidence they found most convincing and why.