Lesson plan Grade 6 English Language Arts
Pemberton's Wells: A Grade 6 Explanatory Writing Lesson
A grade 6 ELA lesson in which students organize source facts and draft an explanatory paragraph on how a town's aquifer and wells supply its water.
Objectives
- Students will write an explanatory paragraph that explains how groundwater reaches a town's wells.
- Students will organize facts from a source box into a clear order before drafting.
Vocabulary
- Aquifer
- An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, or gravel that holds water in the tiny spaces between its grains. Wells reach down into aquifers to bring water up to the surface.
- 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.
- Recharge
- Recharge is water soaking down through the ground to refill an aquifer, the way rain refills an underground sponge. Aquifers stay healthy only if recharge keeps up with pumping.
- Water table
- The water table is the underground level below which the ground is completely soaked with water. Dig a hole deeper than the water table and it will start filling with water.
Also: well
Teacher overview
Students learn how a town draws its water from underground and then explain it in writing. The fictional town of Pemberton pumps its water from an aquifer, and a short source box gives students the facts they need. The lesson keeps the focus on explanatory writing skills: naming a topic, grouping facts in order, using transitions, and ending with a conclusion. A common student misstep is to slip in opinions ("wells are cool"), so the model keeps every sentence informative.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Ask students where water hides underground and how a town might reach it. Take a few ideas, then explain that Pemberton has no reservoir and instead pumps water up from an aquifer, which students will explain in a paragraph by the end of class.
Build background and model (12 min): Read the source box aloud with students. Model a topic sentence on the board ("Pemberton gets its drinking water from an aquifer deep under the town") and one explaining sentence that uses a transition ("First, rain and snow soak into the ground, which slowly recharges the aquifer"). Point out that each sentence gives a fact, not a feeling.
Guided organizing (10 min): As a class, number the source-box facts into a sensible order and pick two transition words to connect them. Students record the order on the planning handout. Answer the three prep questions together.
Independent drafting (18 min): Students draft a four- to six-sentence explanatory paragraph using their ordered facts, at least two transitions, and a concluding sentence. Remind them to use the precise words aquifer, recharge, water table, and well.
Share and formative check (5 min): Two volunteers read their topic sentences. Do a thumbs check: a topic sentence earns a thumbs up if it names the topic (Pemberton's water and the aquifer). If more than a few thumbs are down, model one more topic sentence before students revise.
Student Handout
Source box (facts about Pemberton's water). Pemberton is a fictional town used for this lesson.
- An aquifer is a layer of sand, gravel, or rock underground that holds water in its open spaces.
- Rain and melting snow soak down through the soil and refill, or recharge, the aquifer.
- The top of the water stored underground is called the water table.
- A well is a deep hole drilled down past the water table so a pump can pull the water up.
- Pemberton has three wells that send water to the treatment plant, then on to homes.
- Only a small share of Earth's water, less than 1 percent, is fresh water people can reach and use, which is why protecting an aquifer matters.
Planning organizer.
| Part of my paragraph | My notes |
|---|---|
| Topic sentence (what the paragraph explains) | |
| Fact 1 and a transition | |
| Fact 2 and a transition | |
| Fact 3 | |
| Concluding sentence |
- Define "aquifer" in one sentence a younger student could understand.
- Put these steps in order by numbering them 1 to 3: a pump pulls water up a well; rain soaks down and recharges the aquifer; water fills the aquifer up to the water table.
- Choose the better transition to join two steps and explain why: "Rain soaks into the ground. ___ it recharges the aquifer below." (Options: "As a result," or "On the other hand,")
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any clear definition, such as "An aquifer is a layer of sand, gravel, or rock underground that holds water in its open spaces," matching the source box.
- Answer: 1 rain soaks down and recharges the aquifer; 2 water fills the aquifer up to the water table; 3 a pump pulls water up a well. This order follows water from the surface down and back up through a well.
- Answer: "As a result." It shows that recharging the aquifer is the outcome of rain soaking in, while "On the other hand" signals a contrast that does not fit these two connected steps.
Differentiation
Support
Provide the source-box facts on cut-apart strips so students can physically order them before filling in the planning organizer, and give a topic-sentence frame: "Pemberton gets its water from ___, which ___."
Extension
Ask students to add a second paragraph explaining what could happen to Pemberton's wells if a dry year reduced recharge, using the source-box vocabulary and keeping the writing explanatory rather than opinion-based.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "aquifer," "groundwater," "recharge," "water table," and "well" with a labeled cross-section sketch. Allow students to draft with the sentence frames from Support and to label the diagram instead of writing full sentences for prep question 1.