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Worksheet Grade 7 English Language Arts

Ordering the Steps at the Saltram Bay Desalination Plant

A grade 7 ELA worksheet on sequence and transitions: students order six treatment steps, fix an out-of-order sentence, and replace weak transitions in a tour script.

Objectives

  1. Students will place the steps of a process in the order they occur.
  2. Students will identify a sentence that breaks a sequence and relocate it.
  3. Students will replace weak transitions with transitions that signal sequence, cause, or contrast.

Vocabulary

Brine
The extra-salty water left over after desalination pulls fresh water out of seawater. Plants must dispose of it carefully so it does not harm sea life.

Also: sequence, transition, membrane, pretreatment

Teacher overview

A tour guide at the fictional Saltram Bay Desalination Plant has drafted a paragraph for visitors, and the draft has the common problems of first-draft process writing: one sentence sits in the wrong place, and two others open with transitions that do no work. This worksheet gives students the six real steps out of order, then asks them to repair the draft. Because the plant's steps depend on each other, a misplaced sentence produces an explanation a reader cannot follow, which makes the revision task concrete rather than cosmetic.

Ordering the Steps at the Saltram Bay Desalination Plant — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the steps and the draft paragraph from the fictional plant at Saltram Bay, then answer the items in order.

The six steps, listed out of order.

  • Step A. High-pressure pumps push the seawater against the membranes.
  • Step B. Screens at the intake keep fish, seaweed, and trash out of the pipe.
  • Step C. Treated water goes into the pipes that serve homes.
  • Step D. Minerals and a disinfectant are added to the fresh water.
  • Step E. Fine filters remove sand and small particles before the membranes.
  • Step F. Fresh water passes through the membranes, and the salty water left behind is piped away.

Draft paragraph from the tour guide.

S1. Our plant turns seawater into drinking water. S2. Also, screens at the intake keep fish, seaweed, and trash out of the pipe. S3. Fine filters then take out sand and small particles, because grit would tear the membranes. S4. The membranes are the heart of the plant, and they let water molecules through while holding salt back. S5. And then huge pumps push the seawater against the membranes at very high pressure. S6. The salty water the membranes hold back is called brine, and it is piped back out to the bay. S7. Minerals and a disinfectant go in at the end, and the finished water enters the pipes that serve homes. S8. Fresh water is heavier to make here than at a river plant.

Fact box. Seawater reverse osmosis uses roughly 11 to 15 kWh of electricity per 1,000 gallons, while conventional treatment and delivery use about 1 to 2 kWh, according to industry engineering references.

  1. Write the six lettered steps in the order they happen.
  2. Which lettered step happens immediately before the high-pressure pumps push the seawater against the membranes?
  3. Explain why that step has to happen before the membranes.
  4. Copy the sentence from the draft that tells what happens to the salt the membranes hold back.
  5. One sentence in the draft is out of order. Write its sentence number.
  6. Which sentence should the out-of-order sentence follow?
  7. Explain in one sentence why that is the right place for it.
  8. Sentence S2 begins with "Also." Write a better opening for S2 that signals sequence.
  9. Sentence S5 begins with "And then." Write a better opening for S5 that signals cause.
  10. Sentence S8 is vague. Rewrite it in one sentence using the fact box and a transition that signals contrast.
  11. In two sentences, explain what a reader loses when a process paragraph has no sequence transitions.

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: B, E, A, F, D, C.
    Screening comes first, then fine filtering, then the pumps, then the membranes, then the minerals and disinfectant, then delivery.
  2. Answer: Step E.
    Fine filters remove sand and small particles just before the water reaches the membranes.
  3. Answer: Grit would tear the membranes.
    The draft states the reason in S3, so accept any answer naming damage to the membranes.
  4. Answer: Sentence S6, which says the salty water the membranes hold back is called brine and is piped back out to the bay.
    Accept the sentence copied in full.
  5. Answer: S5.
    The pumps push the seawater against the membranes, so that sentence has to come before the membranes are described in S4. Also accept S4, since moving it after S5 fixes the order in the same way.
  6. Answer: S3.
    Placing S5 after S3 puts the pumps between the fine filters and the membranes, which matches the order of the lettered steps. If a student named S4 in item 5, accept S5 as the sentence it should follow.
  7. Answer: Accept any explanation that the pumps act before the water reaches the membranes.
    A proficient answer refers to the lettered steps or to the physical order of the equipment rather than to how the sentence sounds.
  8. Answer: Accept any sequence transition, such as "First," or "The water first passes screens."
    The revision must signal that screening is the opening step. "Also" adds an item without placing it in time.
  9. Answer: Accept any cause transition, such as "Because the membranes need pressure to work, huge pumps push the seawater against them."
    Accept "Since" or "So that" constructions. The revision must connect the pumps to a reason.
  10. Answer: Accept any contrast sentence using the energy figures from the fact box.
    A proficient rewrite says something close to: making fresh water here takes roughly 11 to 15 kWh per 1,000 gallons, while a conventional plant uses about 1 to 2 kWh. Look for a contrast transition such as "while," "although," or "by contrast."
  11. Answer: Accept any two sentences naming the loss of order and the resulting confusion.
    A strong answer says the reader cannot tell which step causes the next, and gives an example, such as picturing water hitting the membranes before the pumps have pushed it there.

Differentiation

Support

Give students the six steps on cut-apart strips so item 1 becomes a physical sort before it becomes writing. Provide a short transition bank sorted into three labeled columns for sequence, cause, and contrast, and reduce the set to items 1 through 9.

Extension

Ask students to rewrite the whole paragraph in the corrected order with every transition improved, then mark each transition with an S, a C, or a T to show whether it signals sequence, cause, or contrast. A further step asks them to explain why a paragraph with only sequence transitions still reads flat.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "membrane," "brine," and "pretreatment" with a labeled left-to-right diagram of the plant. Provide the transition bank as a printed strip with an example sentence for each word. Allow item 4 to be answered by underlining, and accept phrase-length answers for items 2 and 3.

Extensions

Students write a six-panel storyboard of the plant with one caption per panel, using a different transition in each caption, then trade storyboards and check whether a classmate can retell the process in order from the captions alone.