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Reading passage Grade 6 English Language Arts

Halstead Valley's Farm Water: A Grade 6 Reading Passage

A grade 6 informational passage on how a valley's farms use water, comparing drip and flood irrigation and the water it takes to grow food.

Objectives

  1. Students will explain how the choice of irrigation method changes how much water a farm uses.
  2. Students will cite text evidence about the amount of water it takes to grow common foods.

Vocabulary

Drip irrigation
Watering plants through tubes that release water slowly, drop by drop, right at the roots. Very little water is wasted along the way.
Flood irrigation
Watering crops by letting water flow across the field or down furrows between the rows. It is one of the oldest irrigation methods, and it can lose a lot of water.
Water footprint
All the water it takes to make the things we use and eat, counting water used far away. A hamburger's water footprint includes the water that grew the cattle's feed.

Also: irrigation

Teacher overview

This passage introduces students to farm water use through a fictional grower in Halstead Valley who is switching how she waters her fields. It presents two widely cited figures about water and food so students can reason about tradeoffs. Several questions ask students to point to the exact figure or sentence that supports an answer, which builds the habit of citing evidence.

Halstead Valley's Farm Water: A Grade 6 Reading Passage — Grade 6 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Ms. Delgado has farmed in Halstead Valley for twenty years. She grows wheat in her big fields and keeps a small herd of cattle near the barn. This spring she made a change to how she waters the wheat, and she was happy to explain why.

Farms need a lot of water. Around the world, agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of the fresh water that people take from rivers, lakes, and wells. That is far more than homes and factories use. When a valley runs short of water, farms feel it first, because their fields are so thirsty.

For years, Ms. Delgado used flood irrigation. She let water run across the whole field in shallow sheets. It was simple, but a lot of the water soaked into bare dirt between the plants or dried up in the sun before the wheat could use it.

Now she uses drip irrigation. Thin tubes run along each row, and small holes let water drip out slowly right at the base of each plant. Almost none of it is wasted on bare ground. Drip lines cost money to buy and set up, but they let her grow the same wheat with less water. In a dry year, that can be the difference between a full harvest and a failed one.

Ms. Delgado also thinks about what she grows. Different foods take very different amounts of water to produce. Growing one pound of wheat takes roughly 220 gallons of water. Producing one pound of beef takes far more, roughly 1,800 gallons, because the cattle drink water and also eat grain and grass that need water to grow. Most of that water is rain that falls on pastures and feed crops, not water from a tap or an irrigation ditch. She keeps her herd small on purpose.

This does not mean that beef is bad or that farmers are careless, only that every choice on a farm has a water cost. A grower who understands that cost can plan for dry years, protect the valley's supply, and still put food on the table. Ms. Delgado says the numbers do not worry her, because they help her plan how she farms the land.

Questions

  1. What are the two ways of watering the fields that the passage describes?
  2. Why did Ms. Delgado switch from flood irrigation to drip irrigation?
  3. According to the passage, about what share of the world's fresh water does agriculture use? Cite the sentence that gives the figure.
  4. The passage says drip lines "cost money to buy and set up." Why might a farmer still decide they are worth it?
  5. Use the two figures in the passage to explain why producing a pound of beef takes more water than growing a pound of wheat.
  6. What does the passage mean when it says every choice on a farm "has a water cost"? Support your answer with one detail from the text.

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: Flood irrigation and drip irrigation. The passage explains that flood irrigation runs water across the whole field, while drip irrigation drips water slowly at the base of each plant.
  2. Answer: Because drip irrigation wastes far less water, letting her grow the same wheat with less water. The passage says flood irrigation lost water to bare dirt and the sun, while drip lines put water right at each plant.
  3. Answer: Roughly 70 percent. The passage states that "agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of the fresh water that people take from rivers, lakes, and wells."
  4. Answer: Answers will vary but should note that in a dry year drip irrigation can mean a full harvest instead of a failed one, so the savings can be worth more than the setup cost, as the passage explains.
  5. Answer: Growing a pound of wheat takes about 220 gallons, while producing a pound of beef takes about 1,800 gallons. The passage says beef takes more because the cattle drink water and eat grain and grass that need water to grow.
  6. Answer: It means each thing a farmer grows or raises uses a certain amount of water, so every decision affects the water supply. Students may cite the beef and wheat figures or the choice to keep the herd small as support.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a two-column chart (flood irrigation / drip irrigation) and a simple bar showing 220 gallons next to 1,800 gallons so students can see the difference before writing. Allow questions 1 and 3 to be answered with a short phrase.

Extension

Ask students to choose one meal they ate this week and list which parts came from plants and which came from animals, then write a short paragraph predicting which part likely had the larger water footprint and why, using the passage's reasoning.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "irrigation," "drip irrigation," "flood irrigation," and "water footprint" with a quick sketch of tubes dripping at a plant's base versus water spread across a field. Provide a sentence frame for question 5: "Beef takes more water because ___."