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Lesson plan Grade 7 English Language Arts

Should the Drayton Mills Dam Come Out? An Argument Lesson

A grade 7 ELA lesson in which students read a four-document packet about a fictional mill dam and draft an argument with a counterclaim and a rebuttal.

Objectives

  1. Students will cite several details from a mixed evidence packet to support a claim.
  2. Students will write a counterclaim that states the opposing position fairly.
  3. Students will write a rebuttal that answers the counterclaim instead of repeating the claim.

Vocabulary

Drawdown
Drawdown is how far the water level in a well drops when a pump pulls water out. The harder and longer you pump, the bigger the drawdown gets.

Also: claim, counterclaim, rebuttal, sediment, fish passage

Teacher overview

In the fictional town of Drayton Mills, a stone dam built for a grain mill still holds back a pond on Umber Creek, though the mill itself closed generations ago. The town council must decide whether to repair the dam or take it out, and the four short documents in this lesson give students genuine reasons on both sides. The misconception to plan for is the assumption that the pond is the town's drinking water supply, which leads students to argue that removing the dam would leave the town without water. The public works notice states plainly that wells supply the town, and the procedure asks students to find that sentence before they take a position.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Project a simple sketch of a creek with a low dam and a pond behind it. Ask students to write one sentence predicting what would change upstream and downstream if the dam were taken out. Take three or four responses without correcting them, and tell students they will return to their prediction at the end of the period.

Setting up the packet (12 min): Distribute the Student Handout. Read the four documents aloud while students follow along, pausing after each one to name its writer and its purpose. Students highlight in one color any detail that would help someone argue for repairing the dam in the town of Drayton Mills, and in a second color any detail that would help someone argue for removing it. Confirm that most students have marked at least two details in each color before moving on.

Modeling the counterclaim (10 min): On chart paper, model a counterclaim from a position you do not intend to argue. Say the claim aloud, then write the opposing side's best reason in its own words, using a detail from the historical society statement. Show students the difference between a fair counterclaim and a weak one by writing a weak version beside it and asking the class which version an opponent would accept as accurate.

Guided sorting (8 min): In pairs, students decide which single document gives the strongest support for each side and explain the choice to their partner in one sentence. Circulate and listen for students naming a document rather than a general feeling. Push any pair that says "everyone knows" toward a specific line of text.

Independent drafting (15 min): Students complete handout items 4 through 8 on their own. Remind them that the rebuttal must answer the counterclaim they wrote and not restate the claim. Students who finish early may draft a concluding sentence.

Formative check and closure (5 min): Have students reread their hook prediction and revise it in one sentence using a detail from the packet. Collect the handouts and read item 7 only. If fewer than three-quarters of the class wrote a counterclaim that an opponent would accept as accurate, plan a ten-minute reteach of fair restatement at the start of the next class before students revise.

Should the Drayton Mills Dam Come Out? An Argument Lesson — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

The town of Drayton Mills is deciding what to do with an old dam. Read all four documents, then answer the items in order.

Document A. Notice from the Drayton Mills Public Works Department. The Drayton Mills Dam was built in 1874 to turn a grain mill. The mill stopped running in 1951, and the dam has done no work since. A state inspection last spring rated the spillway as poor. Repairing the dam and the spillway would cost the town about $1.2 million. Taking the dam out would cost about $740,000. The town's drinking water comes from three wells on Pettifer Road. It does not come from the pond.

Document B. Letter from the Umber Creek Fishing Club. Brook trout once swam up Umber Creek every fall to lay their eggs in the gravel. The dam blocks that trip. Taking the dam out would open about nine miles of creek to fish again. The pond also sits still and warms up in July, and warm water holds less oxygen than cool moving water. Most fish need dissolved oxygen above 5 mg/L to stay healthy.

Document C. Statement from the Drayton Mills Historical Society. The mill pond appears in nearly every old photograph of this town. The dam is the last standing piece of the mill that gave Drayton Mills its name. Families skate on the pond in winter and paddle on it in summer. A creek running through a muddy flat would not draw anyone.

Document D. Memo from the town engineer. Sediment has settled behind the dam for a century and a half. Released all at once, that mud would smother the insects and eggs living in the creek bed downstream. A slow, staged drawdown protects the creek, but it adds cost and takes two seasons. A repaired dam, on the other hand, must be inspected and maintained every year for as long as it stands.

  1. According to the public works notice, what did the Drayton Mills Dam originally power?
  2. According to the public works notice, where does the town's drinking water actually come from?
  3. The fishing club letter gives a reason the pond holds less oxygen than the creek. Copy the sentence that gives that reason.
  4. Write a claim in one sentence: should the town repair the dam or remove it?
  5. Give your first reason, and name the document the supporting detail comes from.
  6. Give a second reason that comes from a different document, and name that document.
  7. Write a counterclaim: state the strongest reason someone on the other side would give, using a detail from the packet.
  8. Write a rebuttal that answers the counterclaim you wrote in item 7.

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 grain mill.
    Document A states that the dam was built in 1874 to turn a grain mill.
  2. Answer: Three wells on Pettifer Road.
    Document A says the town's water comes from those wells and not from the pond. Students who argue that removing the dam would take away the town's water have missed this sentence.
  3. Answer: The sentence saying the pond sits still and warms up in July, and that warm water holds less oxygen than cool moving water.
    Accept a copied sentence rather than a paraphrase, since the item asks students to copy.
  4. Answer: Accept any clear one-sentence position on either side.
    The claim must take a side. A sentence that lists both options without choosing is not yet a claim.
  5. Answer: Accept any reason tied to a named document.
    A proficient response names the document, such as Document A for cost or Document B for fish passage, and does not simply assert an opinion.
  6. Answer: Accept any second reason drawn from a different document than item 5.
    Check that the two documents named are genuinely different.
  7. Answer: Accept any fair counterclaim supported by a packet detail.
    Strong counterclaims against removal include the loss of the skating pond from Document C. Strong counterclaims against repair include the yearly inspection burden in Document D.
  8. Answer: Accept any rebuttal that answers the counterclaim directly.
    A proficient rebuttal names the opposing reason and gives a reason it does not settle the question, such as a staged drawdown that protects the creek bed. Restating the original claim is not a rebuttal.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the packet with the four documents already labeled "cost," "fish," "history," and "sediment" in the margin, and reduce the drafting task to items 4, 7, and 8. Provide the frame "Some people would say that ___, because Document ___ says ___," so the counterclaim step begins with structure rather than a blank line.

Extension

Ask students to rank the four documents from most to least useful for their own side and defend the ranking in a short paragraph. A stronger version asks students to name a piece of evidence the packet does not contain that would change their position, which pushes them to consider what a real council would need before voting.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "sediment," "spillway," and "drawdown" with a labeled cross-section sketch of a dam and pond. Allow item 3 to be answered by underlining in the text rather than copying it out. Provide a two-column chart with the headings "repair" and "remove" so students can sort details before they write.

Extensions

Students write a short letter to the Drayton Mills council in the voice of one document's author, arguing that position and answering the objection they expect from the other side. Pair the letters and have partners mark whether the rebuttal answers the objection or dodges it.