Worksheet Grade 7 English Language Arts

Ashlock Farm's Irrigation Log: Evidence and Inference

A grade 7 ELA worksheet where students read a fictional farm irrigation log and a manager note, then separate what the log states from what it only suggests.

Grade: Grade 7
Subject: English Language Arts
Material: Worksheet
Time: 35 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

RI.7.1 Common Core ELA

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

How this material aligns: Items 5 through 9 require students to draw inferences from the log and support each one by citing a specific row or a sentence in the manager note.

All materials for RI.7.1 →

RST.6-8.7 Common Core ELA

Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).

How this material aligns: Items 5 through 9 require students to read the manager's written note together with the rows of the July log table, and the extension has them redraw the same figures as a bar chart.

All materials for RST.6-8.7 →

Download Word file

This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will locate stated facts in a table and a short note.
Students will draw an inference from a data row and cite the detail that supports it.
Students will explain why a single log does not prove a general claim.

Vocabulary

Key words: inference, evidence, drip line, furrow, runoff

Teacher overview

Ashlock Farm is a fictional vegetable and grain farm outside Tarrow Green, and its manager kept a July watering log while testing drip lines on two fields. The log is a good text for grade 7 because it states some things outright and only hints at others, so students have to sort what the rows say from what the rows suggest. The last three items push students past the data into what a single month of records can and cannot prove.

Ashlock Farm's Irrigation Log: Evidence and Inference — Grade 7 English Language Arts

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the manager's note and the July log from a farm near the town of Tarrow Green. Then answer the items in order.

Note from the farm manager, Ashlock Farm. Water is our largest summer cost, so this year we tried drip lines on two fields to see how they compare with the sprinklers and furrows we have always used. Drip lines run along the soil and release water slowly near the roots. Installing them on the two test fields cost about $11,600, which we will pay back only if the savings hold up over several seasons. Sprinklers throw water into the air, so wind and heat can carry some of it away before it lands. Farming uses a large share of the fresh water people withdraw worldwide, roughly 70% by common estimates from the United Nations, so small changes on a farm add up. One month of records is only a start.

Field	Crop	Watering method	Water per acre in July	Notes from the log
North Ridge	sweet corn	overhead sprinkler	27,000 gallons	strong wind blew spray sideways on two days
Quill Bottom	tomatoes	drip line	11,000 gallons	straw mulch kept the soil damp
Ashlock East	soybeans	overhead sprinkler	24,000 gallons	watered at midday
Ashlock West	soybeans	drip line	13,000 gallons	watered before sunrise
Home Plot	pumpkins	flood furrow	34,000 gallons	water ran off the low end of the field

According to the note, why did the farm try drip lines this year?
Which field used the least water per acre in July?
Which field used the most water per acre in July?
Two fields grew soybeans. Which of the two used less water per acre?
Use the log to explain why the Home Plot used the most water per acre. Cite the note in its row.
The manager writes that wind can carry water away. Which row of the log supports that statement?
Ashlock East was watered at midday and Ashlock West before sunrise. What inference can you draw about watering time? Give one detail that supports it.
A neighbor reads the log and says it proves drip lines always use less water. Explain why this log alone does not prove "always."
The manager is thinking about drip lines on the Home Plot next year. Use two details from the log to explain what she should expect.
Write a two-sentence summary of what the July log shows. Use at least two pieces of evidence from the table.

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: To see how drip lines compare with the sprinklers and furrows the farm already uses.
The note gives the reason in its first sentence, tied to water being the largest summer cost.
Answer: Quill Bottom.
The table shows 11,000 gallons per acre, the lowest figure in the column.
Answer: The Home Plot.
The table shows 34,000 gallons per acre, the highest figure in the column.
Answer: Ashlock West.
Ashlock West used 13,000 gallons per acre and Ashlock East used 24,000, and both fields grew soybeans.
Answer: Water ran off the low end of the field, so some of it never soaked in.
Accept any answer that cites the runoff note in the Home Plot row. Students who answer only "pumpkins need more water" have used a guess rather than the log.
Answer: The North Ridge row.
That row records strong wind blowing spray sideways on two days, and North Ridge used more water per acre than either drip field.
Answer: Accept any inference that watering before sunrise loses less water than watering at midday.
Supporting details include the lower figure for Ashlock West, or the manager's statement that heat can carry water away before it lands. Remind students the log does not prove the time of day caused the difference by itself, since the two fields also used different methods.
Answer: One month on one farm cannot support a claim about every farm and every season.
Strong answers also point out that the fields differ in crop, soil, mulch, and watering time, so the log cannot separate the effect of the drip lines from those differences.
Answer: Accept any prediction supported by two details from the log.
A proficient answer expects lower water use per acre, citing Quill Bottom and Ashlock West, and expects less runoff, citing the note in the Home Plot row. The installation cost in the note is a reasonable third detail.
Answer: Accept any two-sentence summary using two pieces of table evidence.
A proficient summary reports that the two drip fields used less water per acre than the sprinkler and furrow fields, names at least two figures or fields, and does not overstate the finding as proof.

Differentiation

Support

Give students the table with the two drip rows already shaded and reduce the set to items 1 through 6 plus item 10. Provide the frame "The log shows ___, because the row for ___ says ___," so each answer begins with a citation rather than an opinion.

Extension

Ask students to write the two additional log columns they would need in order to answer the neighbor's claim in item 8 fairly, and to explain in a sentence what each new column would rule out.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "drip line," "furrow," and "runoff" with a simple side-view sketch of water reaching roots three different ways. Allow answers to items 2 through 4 to be given by pointing to or circling the row. Provide the sentence frame "I think ___ because the log says ___" for the inference items.

Extensions

Students turn the log into a bar chart of water per acre by field, then write one sentence naming a pattern the chart shows more quickly than the table and one sentence naming a detail the chart leaves out.