Writing prompt Grade 7 English Language Arts
Why the Hydrants Run: Explaining Flushing in Trewick Hollow
A grade 7 informative writing prompt where students explain a town's spring hydrant flushing program to a new neighbor, with a planning organizer, exemplar, and rubric.
Objectives
- Students will write an informative article that explains a process to a reader who knows nothing about it.
- Students will develop a topic with at least three distinct reasons drawn from provided background.
- Students will define domain-specific terms in context rather than assuming a reader knows them.
Vocabulary
- Dead-end main
- A dead-end main is a section of water pipe that stops instead of connecting to another pipe on the far end, so water can only flow in and out from one direction. Water can sit still longer in a dead-end main, so utilities flush them regularly to keep the water fresh.
- Distribution system
- A distribution system is the network of pipes, pumps, valves, and storage tanks that carries treated water from a treatment plant to homes, schools, and businesses. Most of it is buried underground beneath streets.
Also: flushing, sediment, hydrant, informative
Teacher overview
Every spring, many water utilities open hydrants one street at a time and let them run, which looks to a passerby like an expensive waste. The practice has several reasons behind it, and explaining those reasons to a skeptical neighbor is a genuine informative writing task with a real audience. This prompt gives students background from the fictional Trewick Hollow Water Department and asks for a short newsletter article aimed at a new resident. One difficulty is worth naming for students, which is that the writer has to explain why water is deliberately let out of the system without sounding defensive.
Prompt
Background: The Trewick Hollow flushing program (fictional)
Trewick Hollow is a fictional town of about six thousand people. Its water department flushes the pipes every April. Crews open one hydrant at a time and let it run into the street until the water runs clear. Then they close it and move to the next block. A whole town takes about two weeks.
Here is what the department says the flushing does.
First, it removes sediment. Water leaving the plant is clean, but small amounts of iron and other minerals settle out in the pipes over the year. The layer builds up slowly on the bottom of the main. Opening a hydrant sends water through the pipe fast enough to lift that layer and carry it out.
Second, it moves stale water out of dead-end mains. A dead-end main is a pipe that stops rather than looping back to the rest of the system. Water at the far end can sit for days, and sitting water loses its chlorine and can pick up a taste. Flushing pulls fresh water out to the end of the line.
Third, it tests the hydrants. A hydrant that has not been opened in years may be stuck, and a firefighter should not be the first person to discover that. Crews record which hydrants open easily, which need repair, and how strong the flow is.
The department also tells residents what to expect. Water may look rusty or brown for a few hours on a street that was just flushed. The color comes from the same iron the crews are removing, and it is not a sign that the water is unsafe. Residents should run a cold tap for a few minutes until the water clears. They should wait to wash white laundry until then, because iron can stain fabric. The department posts the schedule on its website and on signs at each end of the street.
Your task
A family has just moved onto your street in Trewick Hollow. They saw a crew open a hydrant this morning and let it run for twenty minutes, and they are upset. One of them told you it looked like the town was pouring water down the drain on purpose.
Write an informative article for the Trewick Hollow neighborhood newsletter that explains why the town flushes its hydrants and what residents should do while it happens. Write for a reader who knows nothing about water pipes. Your article should:
- open with an introduction that names the topic and tells the reader why it matters to them;
- explain at least three distinct reasons the department flushes, each in its own paragraph;
- define at least two terms from the background, such as sediment or dead-end main, in your own words;
- give clear advice about the rusty water and the laundry;
- close with a conclusion that ties the reasons together;
- stay informative rather than persuasive, which means you explain the practice instead of arguing that readers should like it.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every row before you draft. Each claim you make in the middle column must trace back to something in the background.
| Part of the article | What I will say | Detail from the background that supports it |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction: topic and why it matters | ||
| Reason 1 | ||
| Reason 2 | ||
| Reason 3 | ||
| Two terms I will define | ||
| Advice for residents | ||
| Conclusion |
Before you draft, check three things. Have you used three different reasons rather than one reason stated three ways? Does every row in the last column point to the background? Have you written the introduction for someone who has never thought about pipes?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Exemplar & Rubric
Exemplar response
If you moved to Trewick Hollow this spring, you may have watched a crew open a hydrant on your street and walk away while the water ran into the gutter. It looks like waste, but it is actually a yearly job called flushing, and the water department has three good reasons for doing it.
The first reason is sediment. Sediment is the fine material that settles out of water and collects on the bottom of a pipe. The water that leaves the treatment plant is clean, but small amounts of iron and other minerals drop out slowly over a year. A hydrant lets water move through the pipe much faster than usual, and that speed lifts the layer and carries it out of the system instead of leaving it to reach your faucet.
The second reason is stale water. Some streets end in what operators call a dead-end main, which is a pipe that stops instead of looping back to the rest of the system. Water sitting at the end of that pipe can lose its chlorine and pick up a flat taste. Flushing pulls fresh water all the way out to the end of the line.
The third reason has nothing to do with taste. Crews use flushing to test the hydrants themselves. A hydrant that has sat unused for years can seize up, and a crew cannot afford to discover that while a building is burning. While the water runs, the crew records which hydrants open easily and which ones need repair.
Here is what to do while your street is being flushed. Your water may look rusty or brown for a few hours. That color is the same iron the crew is removing, and the department says it is not a sign that the water is unsafe. Run a cold tap for a few minutes until it clears. Hold off on white laundry until then, because iron can stain fabric.
Flushing is not the town throwing water away, but the town clearing out sediment, refreshing the far ends of the system, and making sure the hydrants will work when somebody needs them. The schedule is posted on the department website and on signs at each end of the street, so you can plan around your street's turn.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topic development | Names flushing but gives fewer than two reasons, or repeats one reason | Gives two distinct reasons, each briefly | Gives three distinct reasons, each developed in its own paragraph | Gives three distinct reasons and explains how they connect to one another |
| Use of background detail | Few details, or details that contradict the background | Uses some details accurately but leaves reasons unsupported | Every reason is supported by a specific detail from the background | Details are selected and arranged so the least obvious reason still convinces |
| Audience and vocabulary | Uses terms such as sediment or dead-end main without defining them | Defines one term, or defines a term in copied wording | Defines at least two terms clearly in the writer's own words | Definitions are woven into the explanation so the article reads smoothly to a newcomer |
| Organization and conventions | Paragraphs run together; frequent errors interfere with meaning | Some structure is present; errors are noticeable but meaning is clear | Clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion, with few errors | Purposeful transitions carry the reader between reasons, and the writing is essentially clean |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the organizer with the three reason rows already labeled sediment, stale water, and hydrant testing, so the planning work is limited to matching details and drafting. Provide a paragraph frame for each reason ("The first reason is ___. This matters because ___. The department says ___.") and allow a three-paragraph article.
Extension
Ask students to write a second, shorter version of the article as a card that could be hung on a door handle the morning of a flush, limited to one hundred words. They should then write two sentences explaining which details they cut and why the audience for a door card is different from the audience for a newsletter.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "hydrant," "flush," "sediment," "stale," and "dead-end" with a labeled sketch of a street, a main, and a hydrant, and demonstrate sediment by shaking a jar of sand and water and letting it settle. Allow students to record the article aloud before writing it, and provide the definition frame "A ___ is a ___ that ___."
Extensions
Most utilities publish a flushing schedule and a short explanation of the program. Students can find a real notice from any utility, compare its structure with their own article, and write a paragraph naming one thing the real notice does better and one thing their article explains more clearly.