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Worksheet Grade 8 English Language Arts

Two Op-Eds on Marrow Bend's Water Rate Increase: A Grade 8 Worksheet

A grade 8 worksheet using two op-ed excerpts about a fictional town's proposed water rate increase, where students identify claims, cite evidence, and compare arguments.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify the central claim each op-ed writer makes about the proposed rate increase.
  2. Students will cite specific evidence each writer uses to support a claim about aging infrastructure or affordability.
  3. Students will evaluate which pieces of evidence are most convincing and explain why.

Vocabulary

Key words: claim, evidence, rate increase, aging infrastructure, affordability

Teacher overview

Marrow Bend (a fictional town used for this worksheet) is facing a decision familiar to real communities across the country: whether to raise water rates to pay for replacing water mains before they fail. This worksheet gives students two short op-ed excerpts, attributed to two fictional Marrow Bend residents who disagree, and asks them to identify each writer's claim, locate the strongest evidence supporting it, and weigh the two arguments against each other. A useful classroom note: eighth graders often summarize an op-ed's topic without pinning down its actual claim, so several items below push students to state the claim as a complete sentence before they can move on to evidence.

Two Op-Eds on Marrow Bend's Water Rate Increase: A Grade 8 Worksheet — Grade 8 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Op-Ed 1: "Fix the Pipes Before They Fail," by a fictional Marrow Bend resident named Dara Whitfield

Marrow Bend's water mains are getting old. Old pipes break. Nationally, a water main breaks somewhere in the United States roughly every two minutes. The country's drinking water infrastructure earned a C- on the most recent national report card. Fixing that problem costs money. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that $625 billion in drinking-water infrastructure investment is needed nationwide over the next 20 years. Distribution pipes, the very kind Marrow Bend is worried about, account for about two-thirds of that total. A modest rate increase now is a small price to pay. Compare it to the cost of an emergency repair after a main actually fails. A burst pipe can shut off water to an entire street with no warning.

Op-Ed 2: "Rates Are Already Too High," by a fictional Marrow Bend resident named Theo Marsh

Before Marrow Bend raises rates again, the town council should look at what residents are already paying. Combined water and sewer bills across the country rose about 24 percent between 2019 and 2024. They rose another 5.1 percent in 2025 alone. Both increases outpaced inflation. A widely used rule of thumb, built from two Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks, treats combined water and sewer costs above roughly 4.5 percent of household income as a high financial burden. Several Marrow Bend families are already close to that line. Old pipes are a real problem. But the town should look for state or federal infrastructure grants first. It should do that before asking residents, especially those on fixed incomes, to absorb another increase.

Now answer the questions below using both op-eds.

  1. State Dara Whitfield's claim about the proposed rate increase in one complete sentence.
  2. State Theo Marsh's claim about the proposed rate increase in one complete sentence.
  3. What national statistic does Dara Whitfield use to show that aging pipes are an urgent problem?
  4. Find the sentence in Theo Marsh's op-ed that cites a guideline built from EPA benchmarks. Write that sentence or a close paraphrase.
  5. Both writers use a fraction or percentage to strengthen their argument. Identify one that each writer uses and explain what it measures.
  6. Which piece of evidence in Dara Whitfield's op-ed do you find most convincing, and why? Cite the specific evidence in your answer.
  7. Which piece of evidence in Theo Marsh's op-ed do you find most convincing, and why? Cite the specific evidence in your answer.
  8. Both writers agree on one fact about Marrow Bend's pipes. What is it, and how does each writer use that same fact to support a different conclusion?

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: Dara Whitfield claims that Marrow Bend should raise water rates now to fix aging pipes before they fail, arguing that a modest increase now costs less than an emergency repair later.
  2. Answer: Theo Marsh claims that Marrow Bend should not raise rates again until the town explores other funding sources, because water and sewer costs are already a financial burden for many residents.
  3. Answer: Dara Whitfield cites the national statistic that a water main breaks in the United States roughly every two minutes, along with the country's C- infrastructure report card grade.
  4. Answer: "A widely used rule of thumb, built from two Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks, treats combined water and sewer costs above roughly 4.5 percent of household income as a high financial burden." Paraphrases are acceptable if they keep the 4.5 percent figure and its basis in EPA benchmarks.
  5. Answer: Dara Whitfield uses "about two-thirds," describing the share of the $625 billion national infrastructure need that comes from distribution pipes like Marrow Bend's. Theo Marsh may cite any one of three: "24 percent," how much combined water and sewer bills rose nationally from 2019 to 2024; "5.1 percent," how much they rose in 2025; or "4.5 percent," the share of household income above which a widely used rule of thumb, built from EPA benchmarks, treats water and sewer costs as a high burden. Accept any one of Theo Marsh's figures with its correct meaning. Dara Whitfield's figure measures the scale of the pipe problem; Theo Marsh's figures measure how much residents are already paying.
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. A strong answer names one specific piece of evidence (the two-minute national main-break rate, the C- report card grade, or the $625 billion estimate) and explains why that specific number makes the pipe problem feel urgent or costly.
  7. Answer: Answers will vary. A strong answer names one specific piece of evidence (the 24 percent and 5.1 percent bill increases, or the 4.5 percent affordability threshold) and explains why that number makes the affordability concern feel real.
  8. Answer: Both writers agree that Marrow Bend's water mains are old. Dara Whitfield uses that fact to argue the town should act now and pay more to prevent a costly failure, while Theo Marsh uses the same fact to argue the town should look for other funding before raising rates again, since residents are already paying more than they used to.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Highlight the claim sentence in each op-ed with a different color before students read (or use two different fonts), and provide a sentence frame for items 1 and 2: "___ claims that Marrow Bend should ___, because ___."

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to write a two-sentence rebuttal Theo Marsh might give in response to Dara Whitfield's strongest piece of evidence, using only facts already present in the two op-eds.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "claim," "evidence," and "affordability" with a simple visual (a scale weighing "pipes breaking" against "bills rising"). Allow students to complete items 3, 4, and 8 by underlining the supporting sentence directly in the text instead of writing a full response.