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Worksheet Grade 7 English Language Arts

Wraycross's Lead Pipe Timeline: Claim and Counterclaim

A grade 7 ELA worksheet where students build claims, reasons, counterclaims, and rebuttals about how fast a town should replace its lead service lines.

Objectives

  1. Students will write a clear claim supported by reasons drawn from a briefing.
  2. Students will state a counterclaim and write a rebuttal that answers it directly.

Vocabulary

Service line
A service line is the small pipe that connects the water main under the street to the plumbing inside one home or building. It is the last leg of the trip water makes to your tap.

Also: claim, reason, counterclaim, rebuttal

Teacher overview

The fictional town of Wraycross has about 2,000 lead service lines, the short pipes that connect each home to the water main, and it must decide how fast to replace them. A faster plan protects health sooner but raises bills; a slower plan costs less each year but leaves lead in the ground longer. This worksheet gives students a short briefing with real regulatory context, then walks them through building a claim, reasons, a counterclaim, and a rebuttal.

Wraycross's Lead Pipe Timeline: Claim and Counterclaim — Grade 7 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the briefing, then complete the items. Base every reason on a detail from the briefing.

Briefing: Wraycross's Choice

Lead service lines are the pipes that connect a home to the town's water main. When water sits in them, small amounts of lead can dissolve into it, and lead is unsafe for children even at low levels. Across the country, EPA estimates that about 4 million lead service lines remain in use, more of them in lower-income neighborhoods. Federal rules now set the lead action level at 15 parts per billion, dropping to 10 in 2027, and require towns to replace nearly all lead lines within about ten years.

Wraycross has about 2,000 lead lines. The public works director offers two plans. The fast plan replaces all lines in five years and raises the typical household bill by about $9 a month during that time. The slow plan takes the full ten years and raises the typical bill by about $5 a month. Some residents want the lead gone quickly. Others, especially those on tight budgets, worry about any increase at all. State grant money might cover part of the cost, but the amount is not yet certain.

  1. In your own words, what is a lead service line?
  2. According to the briefing, why is lead in drinking water a concern?
  3. What is the main difference between Wraycross's fast plan and slow plan?
  4. Write a clear claim stating which plan Wraycross should choose.
  5. Give two reasons that support your claim. Base each reason on a detail from the briefing.
  6. Write one counterclaim that someone on the other side would make.
  7. Write a rebuttal that answers your counterclaim directly.
  8. Which single detail from the briefing most strengthens your claim? Explain why.
  9. Explain how the uncertain grant money could change your argument if the grant does come through.

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: A lead service line is the short pipe that connects a home to the town's water main. The briefing states this directly.
  2. Answer: Because lead can dissolve into water sitting in the pipes, and lead is unsafe for children even at low levels, as the briefing explains.
  3. Answer: The fast plan replaces all lines in five years and raises the typical bill by about $9 a month; the slow plan takes ten years and raises it by about $5 a month.
  4. Answer: Answers will vary. A strong claim names one plan clearly, such as "Wraycross should choose the fast plan and replace all lead lines in five years."
  5. Answer: Answers will vary but each reason must tie to the briefing, such as protecting children sooner (health point) or spreading cost over more years (the slow plan's lower monthly increase).
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. A genuine counterclaim states the opposing view, such as "Families on tight budgets may not be able to afford a $9 monthly increase."
  7. Answer: Answers will vary but must answer the counterclaim, such as noting the grant could lower the increase, or that the health cost of waiting is higher than the extra dollars.
  8. Answer: Answers will vary. Students should name one detail and explain its force, such as the ten-year federal deadline making a slow plan risky, or the health risk to children making speed matter.
  9. Answer: Answers will vary but should reason that grant money would lower the monthly increase, which weakens the affordability counterclaim and could make the fast plan easier to defend.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a completed claim (item 4) and a reasons bank pulled from the briefing so these students can concentrate on the counterclaim and rebuttal. Offer frames: "Some people would argue ___, but ___."

Extension

Ask students to write a second, stronger counterclaim and rebuttal, then rank their two counterclaims by which is harder to answer and explain their ranking in one sentence.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "claim," "counterclaim," "rebuttal," and "service line" with a simple diagram of a pipe connecting a house to a main. Allow phrase-length answers for items 1 through 3 and sentence frames for the argument items.