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Classroom activity Grade 6 English Language Arts

Dovecote's Low Reservoir: A Grade 6 Research Question Carousel

Groups rotate through four posted source cards about a fictional town's low reservoir, narrowing a broad research question at each stop before choosing two sources.

Objectives

  1. Students will narrow a broad research question so that four provided sources can answer it.
  2. Students will record one detail from each source and name the source beside it.
  3. Students will choose the two most useful sources for their question and justify the choice.

Vocabulary

Reservoir
A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.

Also: research question, source, refocus, water reuse

Teacher overview

This is a station rotation for groups of four or five, and the rotation itself carries the teaching. Because the research question is rewritten at every stop, the change in the question follows directly from the evidence a group has just read rather than from an instruction to revise. Groups begin with the deliberately broad question "Why is Dovecote's reservoir low?" and visit four posted source cards about the fictional town of Dovecote. The misconception the rotation corrects is that changing a research question means the researcher made a mistake at the start, when in practice narrowing the question to fit available sources is the normal work of a short research project.

Activity Directions

  1. Set up before class (5 minutes of prep). Print the four source cards from the Student Handout at full page size and tape one to each of four walls. Label them Card A, Card B, Card C, and Card D. Print one handout per student.
  2. Frame the task (5 min). Write "Why is Dovecote's reservoir low?" on the board. Tell students that four sources are posted around the room and that no single card answers this question. Explain that each group will rewrite the question after every stop. Form groups of four or five and send each group to a different starting card.
  3. Run the rotations (24 min total, 6 minutes per stop). At each card, the group reads the card aloud once, then each student records one detail and names the card on the handout. With one minute left, call "Rewrite," and the group agrees on a revised question before moving. Ring the timer and rotate groups clockwise. Every group visits all four cards.
  4. Write the final question (10 min). Groups return to their seats and complete handout items 6 and 7. Each group writes one final question on a sentence strip and posts it on the board.
  5. Debrief (6 min). Read three posted questions aloud and ask the class two questions: which of the four cards would you open first for this question, and what did this group stop asking about between the first version and the last? End by naming the pattern out loud, which is that a question narrows as sources arrive.

The activity ends when every group has posted a final question and answered both debrief questions.

Dovecote's Low Reservoir: A Grade 6 Research Question Carousel — Grade 6 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Card A (fictional utility notice). The Dovecote Water District reports that Wexley Reservoir is lower than usual for the third summer in a row. The district has asked residents to water lawns on alternate days until the fall rains arrive.

Card B (fictional weather record). Rainfall records kept at the Dovecote Airfield show that three of the last four springs were drier than the airfield's ten-year average. The airfield has kept daily records since it opened.

Card C (published source). The United States Geological Survey reports that per-person water use at home in the United States is commonly cited at 80 to 100 gallons per day.

Card D (fictional interview). The Dovecote Water District's operations manager says the town could water the golf course and the ball fields with treated wastewater instead of reservoir water. Building the separate pipes to carry it would take about two years.

  1. Write the question your group starts with. Then write one thing you would need to know in order to answer it.
  2. At your first stop, copy one detail from the card and write the card letter beside it.
  3. At your second stop, copy one detail from the card and write the card letter beside it.
  4. At your third stop, copy one detail from the card and write the card letter beside it.
  5. At your fourth stop, copy one detail from the card and write the card letter beside it.
  6. Rewrite the question so that the four cards can answer it. Your new question should name Dovecote, a cause, or a choice the town could make.
  7. Name the two cards you would use first to answer your new question. Give one reason for each choice.

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: Accept the starting question "Why is Dovecote's reservoir low?" along with any reasonable information need, such as how much rain fell, how much water the town uses, or how much the reservoir holds.
  2. Answer: Accept any accurate detail copied from the card the group visited first, with the correct card letter beside it.
  3. Answer: Accept any accurate detail copied from the second card, with the correct card letter beside it.
  4. Answer: Accept any accurate detail copied from the third card, with the correct card letter beside it.
  5. Answer: Accept any accurate detail copied from the fourth card, with the correct card letter beside it.
  6. Answer: Accept any narrowed question the four cards can answer, such as "How have three dry springs changed water use rules in Dovecote?" or "Should Dovecote build pipes to water its fields with treated wastewater?"
    Reject questions the cards cannot reach, such as questions about fish in the reservoir or about other towns.
  7. Answer: Accept any two cards paired with reasons that match the group's final question.
    A question about dry weather points to Cards A and B. A question about what the town should do next points to Cards A and D. Card C is the only published source and fits a question about how much water people use at home.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a handout with the starting question and the first detail already filled in, and assign each student in the group a single job at every stop, either reader, recorder, or timekeeper, so the reading load is shared.

Extension

Ask a group to write the fifth card they wish were posted, naming the kind of organization that would publish it and the one question it would settle, then explain why that card would be more useful than a second weather record.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "reservoir," "rainfall," "average," and "treated wastewater" with a picture for each, and post the four cards with a one-sentence summary at the top of each in larger type. Allow students to record details as phrases and to say their revised question aloud to the group before writing it.

Extensions

Have each group trade final questions with another group and mark which of the four cards the other group's question actually needs, then return the marked sheet with one suggested revision.