Lesson plan Grade 7 English Language Arts
Boating on Hazelrigg Reservoir: A Counterclaim Lesson
A grade 7 ELA lesson in which students weigh a fictional town's plan to open its drinking water reservoir to boats, then write an argument with a counterclaim.
Objectives
- Students will state a claim about reservoir boating and support it with two reasons from a provided briefing.
- Students will acknowledge an opposing claim in writing and answer it with a reason.
- Students will explain why a lake used for drinking water is managed differently from a lake used only for recreation.
Vocabulary
- Reservoir
- A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.
- Watershed
- A watershed is all the land where rain that falls will drain to the same stream, river, or lake. Everyone lives in a watershed, no matter how far from the water they live.
Also: claim, counterclaim, rebuttal, source water
Teacher overview
The fictional town of Hazelrigg draws its drinking water from a reservoir behind an earthen dam, and the town council has proposed opening that reservoir to canoes, kayaks, and small fishing boats. The water department opposes the change, so students have a two-sided dispute to argue rather than a question with one obvious answer. Grade 7 is the year the writing standards add the counterclaim, and this lesson makes that move concrete by requiring every student to name the strongest point on the other side and then answer it. A misconception worth addressing out loud is the belief that treatment removes whatever enters a reservoir, which leads students to conclude that activity on the water cannot matter. Treatment is a last line of defense rather than the only one, and utilities protect their source water precisely so that treatment has less work to do.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Post the question, "Should the town let people boat on the lake that supplies its tap water?" Ask for a show of hands, record the split on the board, and tell students they will return to the same question after reading. Do not settle the question yet.
Read the briefing (10 min): Distribute the student handout and read the two positions aloud while students follow along. Have students underline one reason on each side as they listen. Check comprehension by asking two students to restate the water department's main worry in their own words.
Model the counterclaim move (10 min): On the board, write a sample claim about a different fictional town's park rules, then think aloud as you add the sentence frame, "Some residents argue that ___. That concern is reasonable, but ___." Point out that the second half must give a reason rather than simply repeat the claim. Label the three parts as claim, counterclaim, and rebuttal so students can name them later.
Guided writing (15 min): Students complete the three handout items, ending with a full argument paragraph that includes a claim, two reasons, one counterclaim, and one rebuttal. Circulate and ask any student who stalls to say the opposing argument aloud before writing it down.
Peer check (6 min): In pairs, students trade paragraphs and mark the counterclaim sentence with a check. If a partner cannot find one, the writer revises before the period ends. This is the formative check: a paragraph without a locatable counterclaim is not yet finished.
Exit ticket (4 min): On an index card, each student writes the single strongest reason against their own position and one sentence answering it. Collect the cards and sort them into two piles, those that answer the opposing reason and those that only restate the original claim, to plan the next day's mini-lesson.
Student Handout
Briefing: The Hazelrigg Reservoir question
Hazelrigg is a fictional town of about nine thousand people. Its drinking water comes from Hazelrigg Reservoir, a lake held back by an earthen dam east of town. Water leaves the lake through an intake pipe, travels to the treatment plant, and then flows to homes and schools. No boats or swimmers have been allowed on the lake since it was built.
The town council wants to change that. Council members say the lake is the largest open space the town owns, and that families now drive an hour to reach a lake they can use. They propose allowing canoes, kayaks, and small fishing boats, with no gasoline engines and no swimming. A ranger would check boats at the ramp for weeds and mud that can carry invasive species. The council argues that the plan brings visitors, gives residents a place to fish, and keeps the rules tight enough to protect the water.
The water department disagrees. Its staff point out that every boat brings something into the lake, including sunscreen, bait, fishing line and tackle, litter, and whatever clings to a hull that was last used somewhere else. Geese follow picnic areas, and geese leave waste that adds bacteria and nutrients near the shore. The department notes that the intake pipe sits only a few hundred feet from the proposed boat ramp. Staff also say that keeping a source clean costs far less than treating a problem after it appears, and that a ranger cannot inspect every boat on a busy Saturday.
Both sides agree on one thing. The treatment plant is good at its job, and it would almost certainly keep the water safe. The argument is about how much risk the town should accept before the water reaches the plant.
Write
- State one reason the town council gives for opening the reservoir to boating. Use the briefing.
- State one reason the water department gives against opening the reservoir to boating. Use the briefing.
- Write an argument paragraph that answers the question, "Should Hazelrigg open its reservoir to boating?" Include a claim, two reasons from the briefing, one sentence that names an opposing claim, and one sentence that answers that opposing claim.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Accept any reason stated by the council, such as that the lake is the largest open space the town owns, that families now drive an hour to reach a usable lake, or that boating would bring visitors and give residents a place to fish. The reason must come from the briefing rather than from personal experience.
- Answer: Accept any reason stated by the water department, such as that boats carry in sunscreen, bait, fishing line and tackle, litter, or hitchhiking weeds, that geese near picnic areas add waste, that the intake pipe sits close to the proposed ramp, or that protecting a source costs less than treating a problem later.
- Answer: Accept either position when the paragraph contains all four required parts. A proficient response states a clear claim, gives two reasons taken from the briefing, names the strongest opposing point in a sentence that begins with a phrase such as "Some residents argue that," and then answers that point with a reason rather than a repeat of the claim. A paragraph that lists reasons on one side only has not met the task.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a paragraph frame with the claim sentence started and the counterclaim frame supplied ("Some residents argue that ___. That concern is reasonable, but ___."). Highlight the briefing so that council reasons appear in one color and water department reasons in another, which turns item 3 into a selection task before it becomes a writing task.
Extension
Ask students to write a second paragraph from the perspective of the ranger who would inspect boats at the ramp, explaining which single rule would do the most to protect the water and why. The paragraph must still acknowledge one objection to that rule.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "claim," "counterclaim," "rebuttal," "reservoir," and "intake" with a simple labeled sketch of a lake, a pipe, and a plant. Provide the counterclaim frame on a desk card so the sentence shape is available while students concentrate on the reasoning. Allow items 1 and 2 to be answered by copying and citing the sentence from the briefing.
Extensions
Have students find the source of their own community's drinking water using a public utility page or a call to the local water department, then write one paragraph explaining whether that source is open to recreation and what rules apply. Comparing a real local policy with the fictional Hazelrigg proposal gives the argument a second, verifiable set of evidence.