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Lesson plan Grade 8 English Language Arts

Kettle Rise's Proposed Tiered Water Rate: A Grade 8 Argument Lesson

A 55-minute grade 8 argument lesson where students plan a claim, evidence, and counterclaim about a fictional town's proposed tiered water rate.

Objectives

  1. Students will state a claim about a proposed tiered water rate and support it with a reason.
  2. Students will identify a counterclaim about fairness or cost and answer it in writing.

Vocabulary

Key words: tiered rate, flat rate, claim, counterclaim, conservation

Teacher overview

Water rates are a real argument every town has, and they give students a concrete reason to write. This lesson sets up a fictional town deciding whether to move from a flat rate to a tiered rate that charges heavy users more per gallon. Students learn to separate a claim from its evidence and from the opposing view, then plan their own argument. A common student misstep this lesson addresses is treating any strong-sounding sentence as evidence, when a claim and its evidence do different jobs.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Ask students to imagine two homes on the same street. One uses a little water, and the other uses a lot. Should they pay the same rate per gallon, or should the heavy user pay more? Take a quick show of hands and record the split on the board without comment.

Direct instruction (12 min): Explain the two rate designs. In the fictional town of Kettle Rise, every home now pays a flat rate of about $3 for each 1,000 gallons, no matter how much it uses. Under a tiered rate, the first block of water is cheaper and later blocks cost more. For example, the first 4,000 gallons might cost $2 for each 1,000 gallons, while any water above 4,000 gallons costs $5 for each 1,000 gallons. Note the real pressure behind the debate: combined water and sewer bills rose about 24% from 2019 to 2024 and about 5.1% in 2025, and a widely used rule of thumb, built from two EPA benchmarks, treats costs above roughly 4.5% of household income as a high burden. Define claim, evidence, and counterclaim.

Model (10 min): Read one short position statement aloud and think aloud as you label its claim, its one piece of evidence, and the counterclaim it answers. Show how a tiered rate can be argued as fair (it rewards conservation) or unfair (large families use more water for basic needs), so a strong argument must answer the other side.

Guided practice (12 min): In pairs, students read three stakeholder statements on the handout and label each as claim, evidence, or counterclaim, underlining the words that gave it away. Circulate and check that pairs are citing specific words, not guessing.

Independent practice (11 min): Each student completes the planning items on the handout: a claim sentence, one reason with evidence, and one counterclaim with a one-sentence answer.

Closure and formative check (5 min): Collect the handouts as exit tickets. Scan items 1 through 3 for correct labeling; if more than a few students miss the counterclaim, reteach that distinction before the drafting session.

Kettle Rise's Proposed Tiered Water Rate: A Grade 8 Argument Lesson — Grade 8 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

The town of Kettle Rise is deciding whether to switch to a tiered water rate. Use what you learned in the lesson.

Part A. Label each statement as a claim, evidence, or counterclaim. Underline the words that helped you decide.

  1. "Kettle Rise should switch to a tiered water rate."
  2. "Under a tiered rate, the first 4,000 gallons cost less per gallon than the water a home uses above that amount."
  3. "A tiered rate is unfair to large families, because they use more water for everyday needs."

Part B. Plan your own argument.

  1. Write a claim sentence that states your position on the tiered rate.
  2. Write one reason, with evidence from the lesson, that supports your claim.
  3. Write one counterclaim someone could raise, and one sentence that answers it.

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: Claim. It states a position the writer wants readers to accept, using the word "should."
  2. Answer: Evidence. It gives a specific fact about how the tiered rate works, the kind of detail used to support a claim.
  3. Answer: Counterclaim. It states an opposing view, that the rate is unfair to large families, and even signals it with a reason ("because").
  4. Answer: Answers will vary. A correct claim clearly states that Kettle Rise should or should not adopt the tiered rate.
  5. Answer: Answers will vary. Look for a reason tied to a lesson detail, such as a tiered rate rewarding conservation or protecting homes that use little water.
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. Look for a genuine opposing point, such as higher costs for large families, paired with a direct answer rather than a dismissal.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a labeled example that shows one full claim, one piece of evidence, and one counterclaim already sorted, and let them use it as a model while they label the three statements in Part A.

Extension

Ask students to add a second counterclaim to their plan and answer it, or to propose a fairness feature (such as a lower first block for large households) and argue why it improves the tiered rate.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "tiered rate," "flat rate," "claim," and "counterclaim" with a simple two-step picture of cheaper water first and pricier water after. Provide sentence frames for Part B, such as "Kettle Rise should ___ because ___," and allow labeling in Part A with the letters C, E, and CC.