Water for Schools
Menu

Lesson plan Grade 6 English Language Arts

Marchmont Farm's Drip Lines: A Grade 6 Short Research Lesson

Grade 6 students narrow a broad question about a fictional farm's switch to drip irrigation, read three source cards, and draft a short two-paragraph report.

Objectives

  1. Students will narrow a broad research question into one that three provided sources can actually answer.
  2. Students will record evidence from three sources and name the source beside each piece of evidence.
  3. Students will draft a two-paragraph report that answers their narrowed question.

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.

Also: research question, source, evidence, refocus

Teacher overview

Short research at grade 6 fails most often at the question stage, because a question that is too broad sends students hunting for material no source in front of them contains. This lesson gives students a deliberately broad question about the fictional Marchmont Farm, which has replaced its overhead sprinklers with drip lines, and three source cards that answer only part of it. The misconception the lesson corrects is that a good researcher keeps the first question and searches harder, when experienced writers narrow the question to fit the evidence they actually have.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Write the question "Is drip irrigation better?" on chart paper and ask students what a person would need to know before answering it. Record their responses without sorting them. Point out that the question does not say better for whom, better than what, or better in what way.

Framing the inquiry (10 min): Explain that the class will study one fictional farm and three sources. Model narrowing by rewriting the chart-paper question twice in front of students, once too narrowly to matter and once at a workable size. Name aloud the test you are using: a workable question can be answered with the sources on hand and still takes more than one sentence to answer.

Reading the sources (15 min): Students read the three source cards on the Student Handout and complete items 1 through 4, recording one piece of evidence from each card and naming the card beside it. Circulate to check that students are copying evidence accurately rather than summarizing from memory.

Refocusing and drafting (15 min): Students complete items 5 through 7, rewriting their question to match the evidence they collected and then drafting the two-paragraph report. Remind students that changing the question at this stage is the expected move, not a sign of failure.

Formative check and closure (5 min): Collect item 5 on an index card as an exit ticket. Sort the cards into questions the three sources can answer and questions they cannot. If more than a third of the class lands in the second pile, open the next class by rewriting three of those questions together before students continue drafting.

Marchmont Farm's Drip Lines: A Grade 6 Short Research Lesson — Grade 6 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Source Card A (fictional farm newsletter). The Marchmont Farm Notes, spring issue. "For twelve years we watered our tomato rows with overhead sprinklers. Much of that water landed on bare soil between the rows, and on windy afternoons some of it blew off the field before it reached anything. Last season we replaced the sprinklers on forty acres with drip lines that carry water along the ground to the base of each plant. Our field crew now spends more time checking for clogged emitters, but we refill the pond less often."

Source Card B (fictional interview). An interview with Delia Ruiz, irrigation manager at the fictional Marchmont Farm. "Drip lines cost real money to install, and the tubing does not last forever. A farm that cannot pay for the tubing up front will keep the sprinklers, and I would not blame it. What convinced our owners was the pond. In a dry August we were pumping it down faster than the creek could refill it."

Source Card C (published source). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of the fresh water that people withdraw worldwide.

  1. Read Source Card A. Write one piece of evidence from it about how the farm watered its tomatoes before the change. Name the card beside your evidence.
  2. Read Source Card B. Write one reason a farm might keep its sprinklers instead of switching. Name the card beside your evidence.
  3. Read Source Card C. Write what the card says about how much fresh water agriculture uses. Name the card beside your evidence.
  4. Which of the three cards is a published source rather than a fictional one? Explain how you can tell.
  5. The class began with the question "Is drip irrigation better?" Rewrite that question so the three source cards can answer it. Your new question should name the farm, the comparison, or the reason you care about.
  6. Which one piece of evidence from items 1 through 3 does not fit your new question? Explain why you would leave it out.
  7. Write two paragraphs answering your narrowed question. In the first paragraph, state your answer and give evidence from at least two cards. In the second paragraph, name one thing the three cards do not tell you, and say what source you would look for next.

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 any accurate detail from Card A, such as the statement that overhead sprinklers watered the tomato rows for twelve years and that much of the water landed on bare soil between rows.
  2. Answer: Accept either reason given in Card B: the tubing costs money to install up front, or the tubing does not last forever.
  3. Answer: Agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of the fresh water people withdraw worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
  4. Answer: Card C. It names a real organization as its source, while Cards A and B are labeled as a fictional newsletter and a fictional interview.
  5. Answer: Accept any question the three cards can answer, such as "Why did Marchmont Farm replace its sprinklers with drip lines?" or "What did Marchmont Farm gain and give up by switching to drip lines?"
  6. Answer: Accept any reasonable choice with a matching explanation. Most students will set aside the worldwide figure in Card C, because a question about one farm does not need a global total.
  7. Answer: Accept any two-paragraph draft in which the first paragraph states an answer supported by evidence from at least two cards, and the second names a gap, such as the cost of the tubing or the size of the pond, along with a source that could fill it.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the narrowed question already written at the top of the handout, so their work begins at item 1 and their refocusing task in item 5 becomes explaining why the given question fits the cards better than the original.

Extension

Ask students to write one paragraph comparing what Cards A and B each emphasize about the switch. They should name one cost of drip lines that Card B raises and Card A leaves out, then say which of the two cards a farmer deciding whether to install drip lines would find more useful, and why.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "irrigation," "sprinkler," "drip line," and "emitter" with a simple drawing of a row of plants under each watering method. Provide a two-column evidence chart labeled "What the card says" and "Which card" so students can record items 1 through 3 in phrases rather than sentences.

Extensions

Have pairs trade narrowed questions and rate each other's on two points: whether the three cards can answer it, and whether answering it takes more than one sentence. Ask each pair to revise one question based on the feedback.