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Worksheet Grade 7 English Language Arts

Calloway's Closed Well: A Grade 7 Cite-the-Evidence Worksheet

A grade 7 ELA worksheet where students read a short passage about a town's PFAS discovery and cite several pieces of textual evidence to answer questions.

Objectives

  1. Students will cite several pieces of textual evidence to support answers about the passage.
  2. Students will distinguish a stated fact in the text from an inference they draw from it.

Vocabulary

Contaminant
A contaminant is anything in water that should not be there, whether it is a germ, a chemical, or too much of a natural mineral, that could make the water unsafe or unpleasant to use. Treatment plants are built specifically to find and remove contaminants before water reaches the tap.
PFAS
A large family of human-made chemicals used in things like nonstick pans, waterproof fabric, and firefighting foam. They are called forever chemicals because they take a very long time to break down.

Also: evidence, inference, regulation

Teacher overview

This worksheet pairs a short original passage about the fictional town of Calloway with questions that ask students to cite several pieces of evidence, the exact reading move grade 7 expects. The passage describes a real kind of decision many towns now face when tests find PFAS, a group of long-lasting chemicals, in a drinking-water well. Students practice separating what the text states directly from what they can reasonably infer.

Calloway's Closed Well: A Grade 7 Cite-the-Evidence Worksheet — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the passage, then answer the questions. When a question asks for evidence, copy the exact words from the passage that support your answer.

Passage: Calloway Closes a Well

Last spring, the water department in the town of Calloway ran a routine test on Well 3, one of four wells the town uses. The test looked for PFAS, a group of human-made chemicals that break down very slowly and can build up in the body over time. The results came back above the federal limit, which is set at 4 parts per trillion for the two most-studied PFAS chemicals.

Calloway's water manager, Dana Ruiz, shut down Well 3 the same week. The town kept its taps running by drawing more water from its three other wells while it studied its options. Ruiz told residents that the town would either build a special filter for Well 3 or leave it closed for good.

The chemicals likely came from an old factory site upstream, where PFAS had once been used to make waterproof coatings. Because PFAS moves easily through soil and groundwater, a source far from the well can still reach it. Federal rules on PFAS are still changing. The limit became official in 2024, and towns must meet it by 2029. In 2026, regulators proposed letting some towns apply for two more years, until 2031. The limit itself would not change, and the proposal was not yet final. Ruiz said two more years would help Calloway pay for a filter if the town qualified, but she did not want to wait that long to protect the town's water.

Questions

  1. According to the passage, what did the routine test on Well 3 look for?
  2. What did Dana Ruiz do the same week the test results came back?
  3. How did the town keep its taps running after Well 3 was closed?
  4. Cite two details from the passage that explain why PFAS is a hard problem to clean up.
  5. The passage says the chemicals "likely came from an old factory site upstream." Cite the sentence that explains how a source far from the well could still reach it.
  6. Is the sentence "Calloway made the right choice" a fact stated in the passage or an inference? Explain, using evidence from the text.
  7. Cite two pieces of evidence that show the rules on PFAS are still changing.
  8. Based on the passage, what can you infer about why Ruiz did not want to wait until 2031? Support your inference with evidence from the text.

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: It looked for PFAS. The passage states the test "looked for PFAS, a group of human-made chemicals."
  2. Answer: She shut down Well 3. The text says Ruiz "shut down Well 3 the same week."
  3. Answer: By drawing more water from the other three wells. The passage says the town "kept its taps running by drawing more water from its three other wells."
  4. Answer: Any two of: PFAS chemicals "break down very slowly," they "can build up in the body over time," and PFAS "moves easily through soil and groundwater" so a distant source can still reach a well. Each is copied directly from the passage.
  5. Answer: "Because PFAS moves easily through soil and groundwater, a source far from the well can still reach it." This is the sentence that explains the connection.
  6. Answer: It is an inference. The passage never says the choice was right; it reports what Ruiz did and why. A student may infer it, but must support the inference with details such as closing the well quickly to protect residents.
  7. Answer: Any two of: "Federal rules on PFAS are still changing," "The limit became official in 2024," regulators "proposed letting some towns apply for two more years, until 2031," and "the proposal was not yet final." Each shows the rules are in motion.
  8. Answer: Answers will vary but should infer that Ruiz cared more about protecting residents quickly than about using all the allowed time. Supporting evidence includes that she shut the well the same week and said she "did not want to wait that long to protect the town's water."

Differentiation

Support

Highlight the three sentences that answer questions 4, 5, and 7 in a scaffolded copy of the passage, and let these students answer questions 1 through 3 by pointing to the sentence before writing. Provide a sentence frame for citing: "The passage says, '___,' which shows ___."

Extension

Ask students to write one new question that could be answered only by citing two separate paragraphs of the passage, then trade questions with a partner and answer each other's using direct evidence.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "contaminant," "PFAS," "inference," and "regulation" with short definitions and an example sentence for each. Allow students to answer the literal questions (1 through 3) with short phrases and to underline evidence in the passage instead of recopying it where the standard allows.