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Worksheet Grade 7 English Language Arts

Research Questions and Sources: The Halesmoor Reservoir Cover

A grade 7 worksheet on planning short research: students narrow a broad question, match six source cards to sub-questions, and write follow-up questions.

Objectives

  1. Students will narrow a broad question into a question that a short research project can answer.
  2. Students will match each sub-question to the source most likely to answer it.
  3. Students will generate focused follow-up questions from a gap in the available sources.

Vocabulary

Key words: research question, sub-question, source, paraphrase, citation, gap

Teacher overview

Halesmoor is a fictional town that has always stored its finished drinking water in an open-air reservoir, and it now has to decide what to do about that. This worksheet does not ask students to write the research paper. It asks them to build the plan that comes before one, which is where most seventh-grade research goes wrong. The misconception worth naming out loud is that a research question and an argument are the same thing: students routinely propose "Halesmoor should cover the reservoir" as their research question, then read only what agrees with it. Items 3, 10, and 12 exist to pull those two moves apart, and the source cards are deliberately uneven so that no single one answers the whole question.

Research Questions and Sources: The Halesmoor Reservoir Cover — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Halesmoor is a fictional town, and all six sources below were written for this worksheet.

The situation. Halesmoor treats its water at a small plant and then holds it in the Fallowdean Reservoir, an open basin on a hill above town. State inspectors have told the town that finished drinking water should not sit uncovered, because birds, dust, and runoff can reach it after treatment. The town council has three choices in front of it: build a floating cover over the basin, replace the basin with a buried tank, or ask the state for more time.

The broad question a student started with. What should Halesmoor do about its reservoir?

Source cards

  • Card 1. State inspection letter, March. Two pages. Lists what the inspectors saw at the basin, names the rule that applies, and gives the town twelve months to submit a plan.
  • Card 2. Town council meeting minutes, April. Six pages. Records what four council members said, including two who want more time, and lists the vote to study the options.
  • Card 3. Engineering study summary, May. Four pages. Compares a floating cover with a buried tank on cost, construction time, and how long the town would be on a backup supply.
  • Card 4. Letter to the newspaper from a resident. One page. Argues that the basin is part of the view from the town park and that covering it would spoil a place people use.
  • Card 5. Utility fact page, "How Halesmoor treats its water." One page. Explains the treatment steps and states which of them happen before the water reaches the basin.
  • Card 6. Interview with the plant's chief operator. Two pages of questions and answers about what the crew does now to protect the open basin and how often they test it.

Items

  1. The broad question above is too wide for a short research project. Name one reason why.
  2. Rewrite the broad question as a research question a student could answer in three or four pages. Keep it a question.
  3. One of these is an argument, not a research question. Name it and explain the difference in one sentence: "How would a floating cover change what the Halesmoor crew has to do each week?" or "Halesmoor should build a buried tank instead of a cover."
  4. Write three sub-questions your research question in item 2 would need answered. Each one must be a question a source could answer.
  5. Match each sub-question below to the card most likely to answer it. Write the sub-question and the card number. What does the state actually require? How much would each option cost? Why do some residents object?
  6. Which card would you use to explain to a reader what the reservoir holds and why an open basin matters after treatment? Name the card and give a reason.
  7. Card 2 is the longest source and Card 5 is one of the shortest. In one sentence, explain why length does not decide which source is more useful.
  8. Card 4 is one resident's opinion. Explain in one sentence how a researcher could use it without treating it as proof.
  9. Name one question about this decision that none of the six cards answers.
  10. A student plans to read only Card 3 and Card 1 because they support the cover. Explain in two sentences what is wrong with that plan.
  11. Write one focused follow-up question you would want to research after reading Card 6.
  12. Write one focused follow-up question that would only occur to a researcher who had read both Card 3 and Card 4.
  13. Write a source-list entry for Card 3 that names what it is and when, and notes that the card does not say who produced it. Invent no details the card does not give.
  14. Read this sentence from Card 1: "The town has twelve months to submit a plan." Write a paraphrase of it, then explain in one sentence when a researcher would quote instead.

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: The question asks about everything at once, so it has no single answer a short paper could reach. Accept any reason naming the missing limits, such as no named option, no stated measure of what counts as a good outcome, and no time frame.
  2. Answer: Accept any narrowed question that names an option or a measure, such as, "How would a floating cover and a buried tank compare for Halesmoor on cost and on time without the reservoir?" Withhold credit if the rewrite is a statement rather than a question.
  3. Answer: "Halesmoor should build a buried tank instead of a cover" is the argument. A research question sends a writer out to find an answer, while an argument states the answer first and then looks for support.
  4. Answer: Accept any three researchable sub-questions that serve the item 2 question, such as what the state requires, what each option costs, how long each takes to build, what the town drinks during construction, and what residents value about the basin now. Withhold credit for a sub-question no source could answer, such as what people will think in fifty years.
  5. Answer: What does the state require, Card 1. How much would each option cost, Card 3. Why do some residents object, Card 4. Accept Card 2 as a second answer for the third sub-question if the student notes that the minutes record objections as well.
  6. Answer: Card 5. It explains the treatment steps and states which ones happen before the water reaches the basin, which is what a reader needs in order to see why water sitting uncovered after treatment is the problem.
  7. Answer: Length measures how much a source says, not how much of it answers the question, so a one-page source aimed at the question can be worth more than six pages that circle it.
  8. Answer: A researcher can cite it as evidence that some residents object and can name what they value, while attributing the view to one letter writer rather than reporting it as fact.
  9. Answer: Accept any real gap, such as what the cover or tank would cost to maintain later, whether other towns of this size chose one or the other, how the town would pay, what the state does if the deadline passes, or how the basin affects water taste. Withhold credit if the named question is answered by one of the cards.
  10. Answer: Reading only the sources that agree turns research into a search for support, so the student would never meet the residents' objection in Card 4, the council's divided views in Card 2, or the crew's current protections in Card 6, any of which could change the conclusion. A plan like that also leaves the paper open to the first reader who has read Card 4.
  11. Answer: Accept any focused question that grows out of the operator interview, such as, "How much of the crew's weekly work exists only because the basin is open?" or "What do the crew's test results show about how often birds affect the water?" Withhold credit for a question the card already answers.
  12. Answer: Accept any question that only appears when cost and community use are held together, such as, "Would a floating cover keep the park view that residents value while costing less than a buried tank?" or "Could the town rebuild the overlook on top of a buried tank, and what would that add to the cost?"
  13. Answer: Accept any entry naming what the source is and when, and noting that no author is given, such as, "Engineering study summary, author not given, May. Four pages." Withhold credit if the student invents an author name, a firm, or a title the card does not supply.
  14. Answer: Accept any accurate paraphrase, such as, "Halesmoor must turn in a plan within a year." A researcher quotes instead when the exact wording matters, as it does when a deadline or a rule could be disputed later.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the six source cards cut apart and spread on the desk, so item 5 becomes sorting rather than searching. Provide the item 2 question stem "How would ___ compare with ___ for Halesmoor on ___?" and reduce item 4 from three sub-questions to two. Model item 1 aloud using a different broad question about the school day.

Extension

Ask these students to rank all six cards from most to least useful for the research question they wrote in item 2, then to defend the ranking in one paragraph that names at least one card they ranked low but would still cite. A second option is to write the two interview questions they would add to Card 6 and to say what each new answer would let the paper claim.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "reservoir," "basin," "cover," "council," and "inspector" with a labeled sketch of an open basin on a hill above a town. Provide a two-column chart headed "question a source can answer" and "opinion a source can only report" for items 3 and 8. Allow students to answer items 5 and 6 by writing card numbers alone, and give a fill-in frame for the source-list entry in item 13.

Extensions

Have students find the annual water quality report their own utility publishes and list three questions it answers plus two it does not. Then have them write a sentence naming which office they would ask for each unanswered question, which is the step that turns a reading list into a real research plan.