Worksheet Grade 6 English Language Arts
Corbin Heights' Pipe Bond: A Grade 6 Claim and Evidence Worksheet
A grade 6 worksheet in which students sort statements about a fictional town's pipe-replacement bond into claims, reasons, and evidence, then draft an argument paragraph.
Objectives
- Students will distinguish claims, reasons, and evidence within an argument about funding pipe replacement.
- Students will construct a short argument paragraph using a claim, a reason, and supporting evidence.
Vocabulary
Key words: claim, reason, evidence, infrastructure, bond
Teacher overview
The fictional town of Corbin Heights is considering a bond to replace its oldest water pipes. This worksheet gives students a set of mixed statements from a town meeting (some claims, some reasons, and some evidence) and asks them to sort each one correctly before building an original argument of their own. A common misconception at this grade is confusing a reason, which is a general justification, with evidence, which is a specific and checkable fact; the sorting task is built to make that distinction concrete.
Student Worksheet
Corbin Heights is a fictional town whose pipes were installed decades ago and now break several times a year. The town council is debating a bond that would raise water bills to pay for replacing the oldest pipes first. Below are eight statements people made at a town meeting.
A. "The town should approve the pipe bond."
B. "Corbin Heights' water main broke three times last winter, flooding two streets each time."
C. "Older pipes break more often because metal weakens and corrodes over many years underground."
D. "A national report gives U.S. drinking water infrastructure a grade of C-, showing many towns face the same aging-pipe problem."
E. "Residents shouldn't have to pay more for water bills."
F. "Fixing pipes before they break costs less than repairing flood damage afterward."
G. "The town engineer's report recorded 80-year-old pipe segments still in use beneath Main Street."
H. "This bond is a bad idea."
- Sort each statement (A through H) into one of three categories: Claim, Reason, or Evidence. List the letters under each heading.
- Statement A and statement H are both claims, but only one is well-supported elsewhere in this list. Which one, and why?
- Explain the difference between a reason and evidence, using statement C as your reason example and statement B as your evidence example.
- Which statement is the strongest piece of evidence for replacing the pipes? Explain your choice.
- Statement E expresses an opinion without a reason attached. Rewrite it as a claim with at least one reason.
- Choose one claim from the list above, either A or a claim you write yourself. Write one reason and one piece of evidence, drawn from statements B through G, that would support it.
- Using your work from item 6, write a complete argument paragraph of three to five sentences: state your claim, give your reason, and cite your evidence.
- A classmate argues, "The town should not approve the bond because water bills are already too high." Is this statement a reason or evidence? 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
- Answer: Claims: A, E, H. Reasons: C, F. Evidence: B, D, G. Claims state an opinion or position, reasons explain why in general terms, and evidence provides a specific, checkable fact or event.
- Answer: Statement A. Statements elsewhere in the list, such as B and C, give reasons and evidence that support statement A, while statement H has no reason or evidence anywhere in the set supporting it.
- Answer: Statement C is a reason because it explains why old pipes fail in general, without citing a specific, checkable fact. Statement B is evidence because it names a specific, verifiable event: three breaks last winter that flooded two streets.
- Answer: Answers will vary; accept B, D, or G with a reason. B and G are specific, checkable facts about Corbin Heights itself, while D comes from an outside national report and shows that many towns share the problem.
- Answer: Answers will vary. Example: "Residents shouldn't have to pay more for water bills, because the town could apply for state infrastructure grants before raising local rates."
- Answer: Answers will vary depending on the claim chosen. Example: Claim A, reason C, evidence B.
- Answer: Answers will vary; the paragraph must contain a clear claim, a stated reason, and cited evidence in three to five sentences. A strong example: "Corbin Heights should approve the pipe bond. Pipes break more often as they age and corrode underground. In fact, the town's water main broke three times last winter, flooding two streets each time, showing the problem is already costing the town money and disruption."
- Answer: It is a reason, not evidence, because it makes a general claim about cost without citing a specific number, source, or checkable fact about how high bills actually are.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide the claim, reason, and evidence definitions on a reference card with one worked example from the list already sorted, such as statement C labeled "Reason," and allow students to work in pairs on item 1 before completing items 2 through 8 independently.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to identify the statement with the least support in the list, statement E, and write two additional pieces of evidence that would need to exist to make that opinion more convincing, strengthening their understanding of what evidence-based argument requires.
ELL supports
Color-code the claim, reason, and evidence definitions, such as claim in red, reason in yellow, and evidence in green, and allow students to sort statements by writing each letter on a matching colored sticky note instead of a written list. Provide a sentence frame for item 7: "___ should ___ because ___. For example, ___."