Project Grade 7 English Language Arts
Reporting the Ryecombe Sewer Overflow: A News Feature Project
Over four sessions, grade 7 students turn a five-source packet about a fictional combined sewer overflow into an attributed news feature for a school paper.
Objectives
- Students will attribute every fact in a news feature to a named source.
- Students will explain a technical system in one paragraph for a general reader.
- Students will separate what the sources confirm from what they only suggest.
Vocabulary
Key words: attribution, source, combined sewer, overflow, advisory, correction
Teacher overview
Ryecombe is a fictional town whose oldest neighborhoods send storm runoff and sewage down the same pipe, so a hard rain can push untreated water into the river. The driving question for this project is what a careful reporter can honestly tell readers about that overflow four days later, using only a fixed packet of five sources. Students write a news feature for their school paper, attach a source list, and attach a short note listing what they could not confirm. The teaching note to make early is that students often treat a school newspaper article as a place to say what they think, so they write the cause into the lead before any source states it. The strongest work in this project usually contains fewer claims than the weakest work.
Project Brief
Ryecombe, the Corbie River, and all five sources below are fictional and were written for this project.
Your assignment. You write for the Ryecombe Middle School paper. Your editor wants a news feature of 600 to 800 words about the August 14 sewer overflow, running in the first issue of the year. Readers are students and families who have heard the word "overflow" and know nothing else.
What you turn in.
- The feature, 600 to 800 words, with a headline and a one-line subheading.
- A source list naming every source you used.
- A note of 100 words or fewer titled "What I could not confirm."
Your constraints.
- You use at least four of the five sources. Nothing enters your feature from anywhere else.
- Every number in your feature names the source it came from, in the sentence that uses it.
- You include at least two direct quotations, each with the speaker named.
- One paragraph explains what a combined sewer is to a reader who has never heard the term.
- You state no cause that a source does not state. Where sources disagree, you report both.
- Your feature names one thing that is still unknown.
Source 1. Statement from Ryecombe Water and Sewer, August 15. "Heavy rain on the afternoon of August 14 exceeded the capacity of the combined sewer serving the Millgate and Rowsley neighborhoods. Flow was released at Outfall 3 to the Corbie River between 4:10 p.m. and 10:05 p.m. The plant continued treating all flow it could accept. Crews posted warning signs at the boat ramp and the two footbridges that evening."
Source 2. Corbie County Health Department advisory, August 15. "Avoid contact with the Corbie River from the Rowsley footbridge downstream to the county line for 48 hours. Do not swim, wade, or let pets enter the water. This advisory is precautionary. Sampling results are expected within three days."
Source 3. Interview with Priya Nandi, who kayaks on the Corbie, August 17. "I put in at the ramp Saturday morning and saw the sign. What bothered me is that I had already been on the water Friday evening. Nobody I paddle with knew there was an outfall there. I have lived here eleven years. I would like to know how often this happens, and I have not been able to find that out."
Source 4. Operator shift log, Ryecombe Water Reclamation Plant, August 14 (excerpt). "1:50 p.m. Rain begins. 3:35 p.m. Influent flow rising fast. 4:10 p.m. Outfall 3 begins to discharge; called in to supervisor. 6:00 p.m. Rain gauge at plant reads 2.4 inches since 1:50 p.m. 8:30 p.m. Influent flow falling. 10:05 p.m. Outfall 3 stops. Signs posted at ramp and both footbridges by 10:40 p.m."
Source 5. Summary of the Ryecombe long-term control plan, adopted two years ago. The town plans to separate the combined sewers in its oldest neighborhoods, including Millgate and Rowsley, over twenty years at a cost of about $48 million. Work is scheduled by neighborhood. Millgate is fifth on the list. The plan estimates that separation would reduce overflow events in those neighborhoods to roughly one a year.
Milestones
- Session 1, read and map the sources. Read all five sources twice. Build a chart with a row for each source and columns for who produced it, when, what it states, and what it only suggests. Highlight every number in one color and every direct quotation in the other. Turn in the chart and the marked packet.
- Session 2, decide what you can say. Write three claims your feature will make and, under each, name the source or sources that support it. Then write two claims you had to throw out and one sentence each explaining why. Draft the explainer paragraph on combined sewers. Turn in the claim sheet and the explainer draft.
- Session 3, draft the feature. Write the full feature with a headline and subheading, keeping inside the word range. Attribute every number in the sentence that uses it. Include your two quotations. Trade with a partner, who circles any sentence that states a cause no source states. Turn in the draft with the partner's circles on it.
- Session 4, revise and file. Fix every circled sentence. Write the source list and the "What I could not confirm" note, including two focused questions the packet could not answer. Read your lead aloud to check that it survives without the word "shocking" or anything like it. Turn in the feature, the source list, and the note.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Rubric
| Criterion | 4 Exceeds | 3 Meets | 2 Approaching | 1 Beginning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attribution and accuracy | Every fact and number is attributed in its own sentence, and the wording never overstates what a source says | Every number names its source and no fact is drawn from outside the packet | One or two numbers float without a source, or a source is summarized loosely | Facts appear with no source, or numbers are changed from the packet |
| Restraint about cause | Reports what sources state, marks disagreement plainly, and names what is unknown without guessing | States no cause a source does not state, and names one unknown | Slips one unsupported cause into the lead or a later paragraph | Builds the feature around a cause no source states |
| Explaining the system | The explainer paragraph would work for a reader who has never heard of a sewer, and it is placed where a reader needs it | The explainer paragraph defines a combined sewer clearly and accurately | The explainer paragraph is present yet reuses technical words without defining them | No explainer paragraph, or it is inaccurate |
| Sources, quotations, and form | Four or more sources used with purpose, quotations chosen for what only that speaker could say, and every requirement met | Four sources used, two quotations with speakers named, word range met, source list and note complete | Three sources used, or one quotation, or the word count falls outside the range | Fewer than three sources, no quotations, or the source list is missing |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the source chart from Milestone 1 with the first row completed and with the columns "states" and "suggests" already explained through one worked example. Reduce the required length to 400 to 500 words and the source minimum to three. Provide a lead sentence frame that begins with the date and the place, so drafting starts from a fact rather than from a hook.
Extension
Ask these students to write a second, shorter piece from the same packet for a different reader, such as a one-paragraph notice for families who fish the river, and then to write three sentences on what had to change for the new audience. A second option is to write the two interview questions they would put to the plant supervisor, and to say what each answer would let the feature claim.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "sewer," "outfall," "advisory," "influent," and "capacity" with a labeled cross-section showing one pipe carrying both rain and sewage, and a second showing two separate pipes. Provide an attribution frame bank, including "According to ," " said," and "The advisory states that ___." Allow students to plan the feature as a labeled storyboard of paragraphs before writing, and accept the explainer paragraph as a captioned drawing plus three sentences.
Extensions
Have students look up whether their own community has combined sewers, using their utility's website or annual report, and write a paragraph reporting what they found and what they could not find. Students who find nothing should write the paragraph anyway, naming the office they would ask next, which is exactly what a reporter files when a public record is not online.