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Lesson plan Grade 6 English Language Arts

Why Ordway's Top Floor Loses Water Pressure: A Grade 6 Lesson

Grade 6 students cite evidence from a short text about a fictional six-story building, then write a cause-and-effect paragraph explaining weak top-floor pressure.

Objectives

  1. Students will quote details from a short informational text to support an explanation of low water pressure.
  2. Students will write an explanatory paragraph that links a cause to its effect using transition words.
  3. Students will define pressure in their own words using the text.

Vocabulary

Key words: pressure, head, booster pump, elevation, demand

Teacher overview

Water pressure in a building comes mostly from how far the water surface in the tank or tower sits above the tap, which is why the same building can have strong pressure downstairs and weak pressure at the top. This lesson uses the fictional Ordway Arms, a six-story apartment building in the town of Ordway, and asks students to explain in writing why the sixth floor runs weak on summer evenings. The misconception the lesson targets is the belief that a pump pushes water evenly to every floor at once, so that a weak shower must mean a broken pump rather than a shortage of height above the tap.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Ask students to imagine turning on a shower that produces only a thin stream. Have them write one sentence naming what they think went wrong. Post three responses on the board and tell students they will check their guesses against the passage.

Reading and annotation (12 min): Distribute the Student Handout. Students read the passage once for gist, then read it a second time with a highlighter, marking every sentence that gives a reason the sixth floor loses pressure. Tell them to mark reasons only, not descriptions.

Modeling cause and effect (8 min): On the board, write one cause from the passage and one effect, then join them with a transition such as "because," "as a result," or "which means." Model the difference between a sentence that only restates the passage and a sentence that explains it. Leave the transition words posted for students to use while drafting.

Drafting (15 min): Students complete handout items 1 through 7. Circulate and check that quoted evidence is copied accurately and that each cause is paired with the effect it produces, not simply listed.

Formative check and closure (5 min): Ask each student to hand you the handout open to item 5 and read that one sentence as they leave. Any student whose sentence names a cause without naming its effect gets a sticky note asking for one revision before the next class. If more than a third of the class needs that note, reteach the transition modeling before collecting item 7.

Why Ordway's Top Floor Loses Water Pressure: A Grade 6 Lesson — Grade 6 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

The Ordway Arms is a fictional apartment building with six floors. It stands on a hill in the town of Ordway. Its water comes from a tank on a nearby tower.

Water pressure is the push that moves water out of a tap. Most of that push comes from height. The higher the water surface sits above a tap, the harder the water presses. Each foot of height adds about 0.433 psi of pressure. Operators call that height of water above a tap the head. A tap on the first floor sits far below the tank, so it gets a strong push. A tap on the sixth floor sits much closer to the level of the water in the tank, so it gets a weaker push.

Time of day matters too. On summer evenings, many families in Ordway water gardens, run showers, and start laundry at once. When many taps open, water moves faster through the pipes, and some of the push is used up along the way. Most homes in a water system get water somewhere between 40 and 80 psi, and states set a floor of about 20 psi so that dirty water cannot be drawn back into a pipe.

Last year the town added a booster pump at the base of Ordway Hill. A booster pump adds push to water that has already left the tower. Since the pump was installed, sixth-floor residents report better evening pressure, though it is still lower than what the first floor gets.

  1. Copy one sentence from the passage that explains why a sixth-floor tap gets less push than a first-floor tap.
  2. According to the passage, what does a booster pump do?
  3. The passage names a second reason for weak evening pressure besides height. What is it? Quote the sentence that states it.
  4. What is the lowest pressure states allow, according to the passage, and why is there a minimum at all?
  5. Write one sentence that names a cause from the passage and the effect it produces. Use one of these transitions: because, as a result, which means.
  6. In your own words, define "pressure" as the passage uses it. Do not use the word "push."
  7. Write a paragraph of five to seven sentences for the Ordway Arms building newsletter. Explain to residents why the sixth floor runs weak on summer evenings and what the booster pump changed. Use at least two transitions and one quoted detail from the passage.

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: Any sentence stating that a sixth-floor tap sits closer to the water level in the tank and therefore gets a weaker push, or that height supplies most of the pressure.
  2. Answer: A booster pump adds push to water that has already left the tower.
  3. Answer: Heavy evening demand. Accept the sentence stating that when many taps open, water moves faster through the pipes and some of the push is used up along the way.
  4. Answer: About 20 psi. The minimum exists so that dirty water cannot be drawn back into a pipe.
  5. Answer: Accept any sentence that pairs a stated cause with its effect and uses one of the three transitions, such as "The sixth floor sits close to the tank's water level, which means its taps get a weaker push."
  6. Answer: Accept any definition naming pressure as the force that moves water out of a tap, or the strength with which water presses against the inside of a pipe.
  7. Answer: Accept any paragraph of five to seven sentences that names height as the main cause, names evening demand as a second cause, states that the booster pump adds push after the water leaves the tower, uses two transitions, and includes one accurate quotation.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a two-column organizer labeled Cause and Effect with the first row already filled in from the passage, and give these students a highlighted copy in which the four reason sentences are already marked so they can concentrate on items 5 and 7.

Extension

Ask students to write a second short paragraph advising the building manager on what to tell a resident who insists the pump is broken, using evidence from the passage to explain why weak sixth-floor pressure is expected rather than a sign of failure.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "pressure," "tower," "demand," and "booster pump" with a simple side-view drawing of the tower, the hill, and the six floors. Provide sentence frames for items 5 and 6: "Because ___, the sixth floor ___." and "Pressure is ___."

Extensions

Have students survey their own homes or school for places where water seems weaker, list two possible causes for each, and mark which of their causes the passage would support and which it would not.