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Worksheet Grade 7 English Language Arts

Low Pressure on Colverley Rise: A Grade 7 Evidence Worksheet

Students cite several pieces of evidence from a fictional utility's complaint log and a supervisor's memo to explain one week of low water pressure.

Objectives

  1. Students will cite two or more pieces of evidence in support of a stated claim.
  2. Students will separate what a source states outright from what a reader infers.
  3. Students will explain why one source on its own cannot prove a cause.

Vocabulary

Water pressure
Water pressure is the push that makes water flow out of a faucet or hose. In town water systems, the push comes from pumps and from water stored high up in tanks and towers.

Also: evidence, inference, counterclaim, attribution, gate valve

Teacher overview

Brantfold is a fictional town whose water utility logged six pressure complaints in three days. This worksheet pairs that log with a supervisor's memo and asks students to build claims from more than one detail at a time, which is the grade 7 move that separates real evidence work from quoting the first convenient line. Two misconceptions are worth naming before students begin. The first is that low pressure means a town has run out of water, when low pressure more often comes from a problem in the pipes, valves, or pumps between storage and the tap than from the supply running out. The second is that a single quotation settles a question, which is why several items here refuse credit for one detail alone.

Low Pressure on Colverley Rise: A Grade 7 Evidence Worksheet — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Brantfold Water Works is a fictional utility, and both sources below were written for this worksheet. Colverley Rise and Marten Row sit on the north hill, the highest ground in town. Dunning Street sits near the river, at the low end of the system.

Source A: Pressure complaint log, Brantfold Water Works, week of March 3

Call Day and time Street What the caller reported Pressure at the curb
A Monday, 6:40 a.m. Colverley Rise The shower ran as a trickle. 22 psi
B Monday, 7:15 a.m. Colverley Rise The washing machine took an hour to fill. 24 psi
C Monday, 5:50 p.m. Marten Row The garden hose barely reached the flower bed. 26 psi
D Tuesday, 7:05 a.m. Colverley Rise No water at all on the second floor. 21 psi
E Tuesday, 8:20 a.m. Dunning Street Pressure fine; caller reported a wet spot in the yard. 61 psi
F Wednesday, 6:55 a.m. Marten Row Two faucets ran slowly at the same time. 25 psi

Source B: Memo from Ada Renwick, operations supervisor, to the Brantfold town manager, March 6

Crews checked the north hill this week after six pressure calls in three days. Every low reading came from Colverley Rise or Marten Row. Readings on the rest of the system stayed in the normal range of 40 to 80 psi all week.

On Monday the crew looked for a broken main on the hill and found none. On Tuesday the crew tested the hill's booster pump. The pump ran at its normal speed, and the reading at its outlet was normal.

On Wednesday afternoon the crew opened the valve vault at Kettle Lane. The gate valve there was three-quarters closed. A contractor closed it in February to work on a hydrant and did not open it again. Our crew opened the valve at 3:20 p.m. Wednesday. Pressure on the north hill was back to normal within the hour.

The wet spot on Dunning Street is a separate matter. It is a leaking service line on private property, and the owner has been told.

Items

  1. A reader claims that the low pressure reached only one part of Brantfold. Copy two entries from Source A that support this claim. Name each entry by its letter.
  2. Which entry in Source A is not a low-pressure complaint? Name the letter and explain in one sentence how it still relates to the claim in item 1.
  3. Copy the sentence from Source B that names the cause of the low pressure.
  4. The memo reports that the crew looked for a broken main, then tested the booster pump, then opened the valve vault. In one sentence, explain what that order tells a reader about how the crew worked.
  5. Sort these four statements into two groups, stated and inferred: the gate valve at Kettle Lane was three-quarters closed; the contractor forgot about the valve; pressure on the hill was back to normal Wednesday afternoon; the problem bothered people most in the morning.
  6. A resident writes that Brantfold's pipes are worn out and the town should replace them. Do these two sources support that claim? Answer yes or no and give one piece of evidence for your answer.
  7. Another resident argues that the low pressure happened because too many people showered at the same time. Give two pieces of evidence from the sources that a writer could use to answer that argument.
  8. Write one sentence that states the cause of the low pressure and names both sources. Use the word "because" somewhere in the sentence.
  9. Suppose you had Source A and nothing else. Explain in two sentences why the log on its own could not prove what caused the low pressure.
  10. Entry E reports normal pressure and a wet spot in a yard. In one sentence, explain why the supervisor treats it as a separate matter.
  11. In the last line of Source B, who does "the owner" refer to? Explain how you know.
  12. A student writes, "The evidence proves the booster pump failed." Rewrite that sentence so it matches the evidence.
  13. Name the sentence in Source B that shows the sentence in item 12 is wrong, and name one other sentence in Source B that points to the real cause.

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: Any two of entries A, B, D on Colverley Rise and C, F on Marten Row. Full credit requires two letters, both from the north hill streets, since one entry does not show a pattern.
  2. Answer: Entry E. It reports normal pressure (61 psi) on Dunning Street, away from the north hill, which shows the low pressure did not reach the rest of town.
  3. Answer: "The gate valve there was three-quarters closed." Also accept the two sentences naming the contractor who closed it in February and did not open it again, copied exactly.
  4. Answer: The crew ruled out the more common causes first and kept going when each one came back normal, so the valve was found by elimination rather than by luck. Accept any answer that names checking and ruling out in order.
  5. Answer: Stated: the valve was three-quarters closed, and pressure was back to normal Wednesday afternoon. Inferred: the contractor forgot, and the problem bothered people most in the morning. The memo says the contractor did not open the valve again yet never says why, and the log shows five of the six calls in morning hours without saying when the trouble was worst.
  6. Answer: No. Neither source mentions the age or the condition of any pipe, and the memo traces the low pressure to a valve a contractor left closed. Do not accept a yes answer, since neither source supports the claim.
  7. Answer: Any two of these three. Readings on the rest of the system stayed in the normal range all week, so heavy morning use would have shown up elsewhere. Entry C came at 5:50 p.m., which is not a morning hour. Pressure returned to normal within an hour of the valve being opened, which points to the valve rather than to water use.
  8. Answer: Accept any sentence that names the closed gate valve as the cause and credits both sources. A strong response reads something like, "Pressure on the north hill fell below the normal range because a gate valve at Kettle Lane sat three-quarters closed, as the complaint log and the March 6 memo together show." Withhold credit if only one source is named.
  9. Answer: The log records where and when pressure was low, yet it never records what the crew checked or what they found. A reader could tell from the log that the north hill had a problem and still have no way to choose among a broken main, a failed pump, and a closed valve.
  10. Answer: The pressure measured there was 61 psi, which sits inside the normal range, and the memo places the leak on a private service line rather than on the utility's own pipes.
  11. Answer: The property owner on Dunning Street. The sentence just before it puts the leak on a service line on private property, so "the owner" is the person who owns that property.
  12. Answer: Accept any rewrite that matches the memo, such as, "The evidence shows the booster pump worked normally and a closed gate valve caused the low pressure." Credit requires both the correction and a cause the sources actually support.
  13. Answer: The sentence "The pump ran at its normal speed, and the reading at its outlet was normal." For the real cause, accept "The gate valve there was three-quarters closed," "Our crew opened the valve at 3:20 p.m. Wednesday," or "Pressure on the north hill was back to normal within the hour."

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the log with the two north hill streets shaded in one color and Dunning Street in another, so the geography is visible rather than held in memory. Model item 1 aloud using a different claim, saying the two-detail rule out loud each time. For item 5, provide the sorting headings as two labeled boxes and shorten the list from four statements to three by removing the contractor statement.

Extension

Ask these students to write the memo Ada Renwick would send on Thursday to the contractor who closed the valve, using three pieces of evidence and naming each one. A second option is two paragraphs comparing what the log alone shows with what the log and the memo together show, ending with a sentence naming the detail that changed the conclusion most.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "gate valve," "vault," "booster pump," "curb," and "service line" with a simple labeled side view of a hill, a pump, and two houses. Provide the sentence frames "Entry ___ supports this claim because ___" and "The memo states ___, so I infer ___" for items 1 through 7. Allow students to answer items 2, 10, and 11 by underlining in the sources and adding three or four words instead of writing a full sentence.

Extensions

Have students write the short notice the utility could have posted on the north hill on Tuesday evening, before the cause was known, saying only what the crew had confirmed by then. Then have them write the Thursday version of the same notice. Comparing the two shows how honest writing changes as evidence comes in, which is the problem a reporter faces on a running story.