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Worksheet Grade 6 English Language Arts

Coldwater Point's Home Filter: A Grade 6 Vocabulary Worksheet

A grade 6 ELA worksheet on a short passage about a home reverse osmosis filter, focused on figuring out key words from context and citing details.

Objectives

  1. Students will use context to determine the meaning of membrane and reverse osmosis.
  2. Students will cite passage details to explain how a home filter cleans water.

Vocabulary

Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis cleans water by pushing it through a membrane with holes so tiny that salt and most other dissolved things cannot fit through. It can even turn seawater into fresh water.

Also: membrane, filter, context, tank

Teacher overview

This worksheet builds vocabulary through context. Students read a short, plain passage about a fictional family's home reverse osmosis filter and use the surrounding sentences to figure out what "membrane" and "reverse osmosis" mean. The questions mix straight recall with items that ask students to cite the exact detail that gives a word its meaning, plus one item that asks them to use "membrane" in a sentence of their own.

Coldwater Point's Home Filter: A Grade 6 Vocabulary Worksheet — Grade 6 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the passage. Then answer the questions in complete sentences.

The Reyes family lives near Coldwater Point. Their tap water is safe to drink, but it tastes salty. They bought a reverse osmosis filter for the kitchen sink. Reverse osmosis is a way to clean water. It pushes water through a thin sheet called a membrane.

The membrane has tiny holes. Water molecules are small, so they fit through the holes. Salt and other bits are too big. They cannot fit, so they stay behind. Clean water collects on the other side of the membrane. The salty leftover water goes down the drain.

The filter works slowly. More than one glass of water goes down the drain for each glass it cleans. To make up for the slow speed, the filter fills a small tank. That way, clean water is ready when the family turns on the tap. After a week, the Reyes family noticed the salty taste was gone.

  1. Why did the Reyes family buy a reverse osmosis filter?
  2. Using the passage, what is a membrane?
  3. How does the membrane clean the water? Use details from the passage.
  4. Why does salt stay behind while water passes through? Use the passage.
  5. What happens to the salty leftover water?
  6. Why does the filter fill a small tank?
  7. The passage says the filter "works slowly." Quote or paraphrase the detail that supports this.
  8. Use the word "membrane" in a new sentence of your own.
  9. In your own words, what does reverse osmosis do to water?
  10. Would a reverse osmosis filter help a family whose water tastes fine but who only wish it were colder? Use the passage to explain 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: Because their tap water tasted salty, and they wanted to remove the salty taste, as the passage states.
  2. Answer: A membrane is a thin sheet with tiny holes that water is pushed through, based on how the passage describes it.
  3. Answer: The membrane's tiny holes let small water molecules through while blocking larger salt and bits, so clean water collects on the other side.
  4. Answer: Because salt and other bits are too big to fit through the membrane's tiny holes, so they stay behind while water passes.
  5. Answer: It goes down the drain, according to the passage.
  6. Answer: Because the filter works slowly, so the tank stores clean water to have it ready when the family turns on the tap.
  7. Answer: Answers will vary. Acceptable evidence is that the filter has to fill a small tank ahead of time "to make up for the slow speed," so clean water is ready when the family turns on the tap. (The detail about water going down the drain shows the filter uses extra water, not that it is slow.)
  8. Answer: Answers will vary. A correct sentence uses "membrane" to mean a thin sheet that lets some things through and blocks others.
  9. Answer: Answers will vary but should say that reverse osmosis pushes water through a membrane to remove salt and other bits, leaving cleaner water.
  10. Answer: Answers will vary but should say no, because the passage shows the filter removes salt and bits, not heat, so it would not make water colder.

Differentiation

Support

Provide the two vocabulary words with the exact passage sentence that defines each already located, so students confirm the meaning before answering items 2 and 3.

Extension

Ask students to draw a simple labeled diagram of the membrane with water passing through and salt staying behind, then write one caption sentence using both vocabulary words correctly.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "membrane," "molecule," and "tank" with a quick demonstration, such as a strainer holding back large pieces while water passes, and allow students to answer items 1 through 5 with short phrases.