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Quiz & test questions Grade 6 English Language Arts

The Dartmore Landfill and Vasterly's Wells: A Grade 6 Assessment

A 30-point grade 6 reading assessment on an article about a chemical from a fictional town's closed landfill reaching a monitoring well, with a written explanation.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify the central idea of an informational article about groundwater.
  2. Students will cite sentences that support claims about how contamination reached a well.
  3. Students will write an explanatory paragraph tracing a cause and the responses to it.

Vocabulary

Groundwater
Groundwater is water that has soaked into the ground and fills the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rock underground. It is a large underground source of fresh water that wells and springs draw from.
Monitoring well
A monitoring well is a well drilled specifically to check on groundwater, not to supply drinking water. Scientists use monitoring wells to measure how high the water table is and to test for pollution before it can spread.

Also: upslope, blend, cap, reporting limit

Teacher overview

This assessment is worth 30 points and runs about 45 minutes. Students read one original article about a fictional town whose closed landfill leaked a chemical that turned up years later in a monitoring well, then answer four multiple-choice items worth 2 points each, five short-answer items worth 3 points each, and one explanatory paragraph worth 7 points. The article was built around a misconception many students hold, which is that buried waste stays where it is buried. Several items reward students who track the gravel, since the same material that lets rain refill the wells is what carries anything else sideways.

The Dartmore Landfill and Vasterly's Wells: A Grade 6 Assessment — Grade 6 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

Read the article, then answer every item. Vasterly, its landfill, and its wells are fictional, invented for this assessment.

Water Under the Old Landfill

Vasterly is a town of about six thousand people at the bottom of a valley. Until 1978 the town buried its trash in a pit off Dartmore Road. The pit was dug before rules required a plastic liner underneath. When the pit was full, the town covered it with soil and planted grass over the top. Most people forgot it was there.

Vasterly's drinking water comes from three wells drilled into the gravel beneath the valley floor. Rain and melting snow soak down through that gravel and refill the wells. The gravel that lets water in also lets water move sideways. The old pit sits upslope of Well 2.

In 2011 the state asked towns to put monitoring wells around closed landfills. A monitoring well is not for drinking. It is a narrow hole drilled so that someone can measure what is in the groundwater. Vasterly drilled four of them around the Dartmore site. Three came back clean. The fourth, on the downhill side of the pit, showed a chemical once used in paint thinner at 9 ppb.

The town did not shut Well 2 off that week. The town engineer explained why. Water that reaches a monitoring well may take years to reach a drinking well, and it spreads out and thins as it travels. Vasterly began testing Well 2 every month instead of once a year.

Six years of tests came back clean. Then, in 2017, Well 2 showed the same chemical at 2 ppb. That reading was far below the level at which the state requires a town to act. It was still a change from nothing.

Vasterly answered in three steps. It pumped more water from Wells 1 and 3 and less from Well 2, so the water going to homes was blended. It added a carbon filter to Well 2, which the state approved. Then it capped the old pit with a plastic cover and a layer of clay, so rain no longer soaks down through the buried trash. Less rain going in means less water coming out the other side.

Readings at Well 2 have been at or below the reporting limit ever since. The town tests the drinking wells every month anyway, and it checks the monitoring wells twice a year. The town engineer puts it plainly. A pit dug before liners existed will keep sending water somewhere for decades, and the only way to learn where is to drill and measure.

  1. (2 points) The central idea of this article is that
    A. Vasterly should never have buried trash near its wells.
    B. a landfill closed decades ago can still reach a town's water, which is why the town measures.
    C. carbon filters are the best way to treat a contaminated well.
    D. the state waited too long to require monitoring wells.
  2. (2 points) According to the article, why did Vasterly not shut off Well 2 in 2011?
    A. The town could not afford to lose the well.
    B. The state told the town to leave it running.
    C. Water can take years to travel from a monitoring well to a drinking well, and it thins as it moves.
    D. The chemical found was harmless.
  3. (2 points) In this article, a monitoring well is
    A. a well that supplies drinking water to part of town.
    B. a narrow hole drilled so someone can measure what is in the groundwater.
    C. a backup well used when another well fails.
    D. a covered pit where trash is buried.
  4. (2 points) The article is organized mainly by
    A. comparing Vasterly with other towns in the valley.
    B. listing the dangers of landfills in order of importance.
    C. following one problem from its cause through its discovery to the town's response.
    D. describing a year in the life of the town engineer.
  5. (3 points) Copy the sentence from the article that best supports this claim: the gravel that supplies Vasterly's wells is also what put them at risk.
  6. (3 points) Using the article, explain what capping the old pit was meant to accomplish.
  7. (3 points) The 2017 reading was far below the level at which the state requires action, and the town acted anyway. Using the article, explain why a small change could still matter to the town.
  8. (3 points) Name one thing the monitoring wells can tell Vasterly that the three drinking wells cannot.
  9. (3 points) Using the last paragraph, explain why the town keeps testing Well 2 every month even though the readings have returned to the reporting limit.
  10. (7 points) Write an explanatory paragraph of five to seven sentences answering this question: how did a landfill that closed in 1978 come to affect a drinking water well, and what did Vasterly do about it? Use at least three details from the article.

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: B. The article traces one closed pit from its burial through a monitoring well reading to the town's response, and it ends on the value of measuring. Choice A states an opinion the article never makes, C names one step among three, and D blames the state, which the article does not do.
  2. Answer: C. The fourth paragraph gives the engineer's reason directly, which is that water may take years to travel between wells and spreads out and thins along the way. No sentence supports cost, state orders, or the chemical being harmless.
  3. Answer: B. The third paragraph defines the term in place, saying a monitoring well is not for drinking and is drilled so someone can measure what is in the groundwater.
  4. Answer: C. The paragraphs move in order from the pit and the gravel, to the 2011 reading, to the 2017 reading, to the three steps the town took, which is a cause-and-response structure rather than a comparison or a list.
  5. Answer: "The gravel that lets water in also lets water move sideways." Accept the pair of sentences about rain soaking down through the gravel together with the sentence about water moving sideways, if the student explains the connection.
  6. Answer: Capping was meant to keep rain from soaking down through the buried trash. The article says less rain going in means less water coming out the other side, so the cap reduces the water that can carry anything out of the pit.
  7. Answer: Because the reading changed from nothing to something, which tells the town that material from the pit is now reaching that well. The article stresses that water thins and takes years to travel, so a small reading now can mean more is on its way, and the town would rather act early than wait.
  8. Answer: The monitoring wells show what is in the groundwater around the pit before it reaches a drinking well. Accept any answer meaning that they give early warning, or that they show which direction the water carries material, since three read clean and only the downhill one did not.
  9. Answer: Because the pit is still there and will keep sending water somewhere for decades.
    The engineer says the only way to learn where that water goes is to drill and measure, so monthly testing is how the town keeps knowing rather than assuming.
  10. Answer: Accept any paragraph of five to seven sentences that is accurate and uses at least three details. A full-credit response explains that the pit was dug without a liner and sits upslope of Well 2, that rain soaking through the trash carried a chemical into the gravel, that a monitoring well on the downhill side showed 9 ppb in 2011 and Well 2 itself showed 2 ppb in 2017, and that the town blended water from the other two wells, added a carbon filter, and capped the pit. Deduct for claims the article contradicts, such as the town closing Well 2 or the state ordering the cap.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the article with each paragraph's job noted in the margin, such as "what the pit was" or "what the town did," so the structure item becomes a review rather than a discovery. Read the article aloud once before the timed portion begins. Reduce item 10 to four sentences and supply a paragraph frame with three evidence slots labeled cause, discovery, and response.

Extension

Ask these students to write the short public notice Vasterly would have mailed to residents in 2017, using only what the article supports, and then to write two sentences on which fact they led with and why. A second option is to write the paragraph the article would need if the 2017 reading had come in above the level requiring action.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "pit," "liner," "gravel," "upslope," and "cap" with a simple side-view drawing showing the pit, the soil, the gravel layer, and three wells at different distances. Provide the article with the three response steps numbered in the margin. Allow items 6 and 8 to be answered with a labeled drawing plus one sentence, and offer the frame "The cap keeps ___ out of ___" for item 6.

Extensions

Have students look up whether their own state publishes a map or list of closed landfills with groundwater monitoring, then write one paragraph describing what such a record tells a resident and what it leaves out.