The Chalkmoor Irrigation Ordinance: A Grade 7 Position Paper

Chalkmoor, its district, its farms, and all six evidence cards below are fictional and were written for this project.

The situation. The Chalkmoor Irrigation District delivers river water to farms in the Chalkmoor Valley. Each farm has an allotment, which is the amount it may take in a year. Four dry years in a row have left the district cutting allotments in late summer. Proposed Ordinance 12 would require every farm irrigating more than 40 acres to switch from furrow irrigation to drip or micro-sprinkler within four years. The district would pay half the cost, up to a cap of $600 per acre. A farm that does not switch would lose one fifth of its allotment.

Your role. Your teacher assigns you one of these. Every role must be argued by someone.

• A fourth-generation grower of row crops on 300 acres, still using furrows.
• An orchard grower who installed drip six years ago on 90 acres.
• The district water manager, who has to make the allotments last.
• The owner of a farm supply store in Chalkmoor town.
• A member of a group that works to keep water in the river for fish.
• A crew leader who hires and supervises seasonal field workers.

What you turn in.

• A position paper of 700 to 900 words addressed to the Chalkmoor Irrigation District Board.
• A three-minute spoken statement delivered at the mock hearing.
• A note of one page titled "What would change my mind."

Your constraints.

• Your paper states one clear claim about Ordinance 12 in its first paragraph.
• You cite at least four of the six evidence cards, by card number, inside your sentences.
• You answer at least two counterclaims. For each one you write the words "I concede," "I qualify," or "I refute," and then do what you said.
• You invent no evidence. Anything not on a card cannot appear as a fact.
• You write to a board, not to a friend, so no slang and no second person.
• Your closing note names the specific evidence that would move you.

Evidence packet

• Card 1. District records show that furrow irrigation on valley soils returns some water to the ground, where part of it reaches the river again later in the season. Drip delivers less water overall and returns almost none.
• Card 2. A district survey of twelve valley farms found that farms on drip used about a third less water per acre than farms on furrows over the same three years.
• Card 3. Installing drip on row-crop ground in the valley costs about $1,200 per acre, and the systems last roughly fifteen years before major parts need replacing.
• Card 4. The orchard grower's records show lower pumping bills after switching, and two seasons when the orchard finished the summer without a cut to its allotment.
• Card 5. The crew leader reports that drip systems in the valley need fewer hours of irrigating labor and more hours of repair work, and that repair work requires training the district does not currently offer.
• Card 6. In the last two dry summers, the river fell below the level the state sets for fish in August. The state has warned the district that further cuts may be ordered from outside.

1. Session 1, take the role and read the packet. Read all six cards and your role card. Write, in one sentence, what your role most wants from this decision. Then mark each card as helping your role, hurting it, or both. Turn in the marked packet and the one-sentence statement.
2. Session 2, build the claim and the objections. Write your claim. Under it, list the four cards you will cite and one sentence each on what that card lets you say. Then write the two strongest objections another role would raise against you, in that role's own words. Add two focused questions the packet does not answer. Turn in the claim sheet.
3. Session 3, draft the paper. Write the full paper. Each counterclaim paragraph opens with the objection stated fairly, then names your move with the words "I concede," "I qualify," or "I refute," then carries it out. Turn in the draft.
4. Session 4, peer review and revision. Trade papers with someone holding a different role. The reader marks any objection stated unfairly and any place where a named move is not carried out. Revise. Cut the paper to a three-minute statement on note cards. Turn in the revised paper and the cards.
5. Session 5, the hearing. The teacher, with any invited adults, sits as the board. First, every student delivers the three-minute statement in a small group that mixes roles, timed by a group member. Then one student from each role speaks for three minutes at the full hearing in an order the board sets, and the board asks one question of each speaker. Afterward, write and turn in the one-page note titled "What would change my mind," naming the specific card or the specific missing evidence.