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Worksheet Grade 7 English Language Arts

Bramblewick's Constructed Wetland: A Citing-Evidence Worksheet

A grade 7 worksheet in which students read about a fictional dairy plant's constructed wetland and cite textual evidence to explain how it treats wastewater.

Objectives

  1. Students will cite specific textual evidence to explain how a constructed wetland removes nutrients from wastewater.
  2. Students will determine the meaning of domain-specific vocabulary, such as biofilter and effluent, from context.
  3. Students will apply evidence from an informational text to a new, related scenario.

Vocabulary

Effluent
Effluent is the cleaned water that leaves a treatment plant at the end of the process. It is tested carefully before being released to a river, lake, or the ocean.

Also: constructed wetland, biofilter, nutrients

Teacher overview

Bramblewick is a fictional town whose small dairy processing plant once sent nutrient-heavy wastewater straight into Cedar Hollow Creek. This worksheet gives students a short informational passage about the constructed wetland the plant built to treat that water, then asks them to cite specific textual evidence to answer questions about how the system works. A common misconception worth naming before students begin: a wetland does not simply filter water the way a coffee filter does. It treats water through living processes, and the questions push students to find the exact sentences that prove that.

Bramblewick's Constructed Wetland: A Citing-Evidence Worksheet — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the passage, then answer the questions that follow.

Bramblewick sits beside Cedar Hollow Creek, next to a small dairy processing plant. For years, the plant's wastewater carried high levels of nutrients into the creek. That fed algae growth, and when the algae died, their decay used up oxygen fish need to survive. The plant eventually worked with state regulators to build a constructed wetland. A constructed wetland is a shallow, engineered channel planted with cattails, bulrush, and other water-loving plants.

Water from the plant now flows slowly through the wetland before it reaches the creek. As the water moves, plant roots and nearby microbes act as a natural biofilter. A biofilter is a living system that removes nutrients and other pollutants from water as it passes through. The plants take up nitrogen and phosphorus through their roots. Microbes break down other compounds in the wastewater. By the time the water leaves the wetland, it is called effluent: treated water discharged from a facility. That effluent carries far fewer nutrients than the water that entered.

Workers at Bramblewick check the wetland twice a week. They pull invasive weeds and test water samples where the effluent meets Cedar Hollow Creek. A water quality lab analyst reviews their results and reports back to the plant's managers.

  1. Using the text, define "constructed wetland" in your own words.
  2. Cite two specific details from the passage that explain how a biofilter removes nutrients from water.
  3. Find the sentence that defines "effluent." What does the word mean, based on that sentence?
  4. Why did nutrients from the wastewater cause a problem in Cedar Hollow Creek before the wetland was built? Use evidence from the text.
  5. According to the passage, what two jobs do the wetland's plants do to help clean the water?
  6. A new worker at the plant says the wetland cleans water "like magic." Using two pieces of evidence from the text, explain why that description is misleading.
  7. Apply it: a nearby town wants a cheap way to treat wastewater from a small food business. Would a constructed wetland be a reasonable option? Cite one detail from the text.
  8. Make an inference: what might happen to Cedar Hollow Creek if the wetland stopped working? Use evidence from the text.
  9. In two to three sentences, summarize how Bramblewick's wetland cleans wastewater. Cite at least two pieces of evidence.

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: A constructed wetland is a shallow, engineered channel planted with water-loving plants that is built to treat wastewater, as described in the passage's first paragraph.
  2. Answer: Any two of the following: plant roots take up nitrogen and phosphorus; microbes living around the roots break down other compounds; the water moves slowly through the wetland, which gives the plants and microbes time to work on it.
  3. Answer: Effluent means "treated water discharged from a facility." That definition appears directly in the sentence describing the water as it leaves the wetland.
  4. Answer: The wastewater carried high levels of nutrients, which fed algae growth in the creek; when the algae died, their decay used up oxygen that fish need to survive, based on the passage's first paragraph.
  5. Answer: The plants take up nitrogen and phosphorus through their roots, and their roots work with nearby microbes as a natural biofilter.
  6. Answer: The passage names specific, physical processes: roots absorbing nutrients and microbes breaking down compounds. Neither process is magic; both are natural biological actions the text describes step by step.
  7. Answer: Accept a reasoned yes or a cautious answer. A yes cites that the passage describes a wetland treating wastewater from a similar small business (the dairy plant) with plants and microbes. A strong answer also notes that the passage gives no cost figures and that workers check the wetland twice a week, so the text cannot confirm it is cheap.
  8. Answer: Nutrients from the wastewater would likely flow directly into Cedar Hollow Creek again, based on the passage's description of the problem before the wetland was built, which could bring back the algae growth and lower the creek's oxygen level.
  9. Answer: Bramblewick's wetland cleans wastewater by slowing it down so plant roots can absorb nitrogen and phosphorus while microbes break down other pollutants, producing effluent with far fewer nutrients than the water that entered.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide a copy of the passage with the four vocabulary words (constructed wetland, biofilter, nutrients, effluent) already highlighted, and let students underline the sentence that answers each question before they write a response.

Extension (above grade level)

Have students write a paragraph from the point of view of a water quality lab analyst explaining to a new employee, using at least three pieces of textual evidence from the passage, why the wetland is checked twice a week.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "constructed," "wetland," "nutrient," and "effluent" with a labeled diagram showing water flowing from the plant, through the wetland, and into the creek. Allow items 1, 3, and 5 to be answered with short phrases instead of full sentences.