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Project Grade 8 English Language Arts

Filters or Fixtures: A Report to the Pallingford School Board

A four-session grade 8 argument project: students weigh an evidence packet on lead in school taps and write a recommendation report with a counterclaim section.

Objectives

  1. Students will build a recommendation from an evidence packet rather than from opinion.
  2. Students will write a counterclaim section that concedes a real point before answering it.
  3. Students will rewrite a technical recommendation as a fact sheet for families.

Vocabulary

Action level
A trigger number in lead and copper testing. If too many homes test above this level, the utility must take steps like improving treatment and telling the public.
Point-of-use filter
A small filter at a single faucet, like a pitcher filter or one that attaches to the tap. Certified filters can remove lead or PFAS from the water a family drinks.

Also: fixture, counterclaim, concession, sampling

Teacher overview

Students take a small evidence packet about lead in a fictional school's drinking taps and write a recommendation report to the school board, then rewrite the recommendation as a one-page fact sheet for families. The project turns on a real choice districts face, which is whether to spend limited money on filtered filling stations now or on replacing old fixtures over several summers. The misconception this project is designed to correct is the belief that lead arrives in water at the reservoir or the treatment plant, when in fact it enters after treatment, from the pipes and fixtures the water passes through on its way to a tap, which is why two taps in the same building can test very differently. Expect that error in first drafts and require a correction with a cited source before Milestone 3.

Filters or Fixtures: A Report to the Pallingford School Board — Grade 8 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Project Brief

Driving question. Pallingford Middle School has money for one project this year. Should the district install filtered filling stations now, or replace the school's old fixtures over three summers?

The situation. The town of Pallingford is invented for this project, and so are its test results. The federal action level for lead is 15 ppb, and it drops to 10 ppb in 2027. The action level is not a safe level. EPA's health goal for lead in drinking water is zero, and the action level is the point at which a water system must take further steps. The Pallingford district tested every drinking tap in the middle school in March and gave the results to your class.

Your evidence packet. Use these six items. You may not add outside numbers.

  • Item 1. Of the 24 drinking taps tested at Pallingford Middle School in March, 3 came back above 15 ppb. The highest reading was 27 ppb, at a hallway fountain outside the gym.
  • Item 2. All 3 high readings came from fixtures installed in 1974. The 21 taps that tested below the action level are in wings built after 1998.
  • Item 3. The district's facilities director estimates that six filtered bottle-filling stations would cost about $9,400 and could be installed over one winter break.
  • Item 4. The same director estimates that replacing every 1974 fixture would cost about $41,000 and would take three summers.
  • Item 5. A filter cartridge must be changed on a schedule. The district has no staff position assigned to that task today.
  • Item 6. A letter from a parent group argues that filling stations leave the old pipes in the walls and only move the problem out of sight.

What you turn in.

  • A recommendation report of 700 to 900 words addressed to the Pallingford school board.
  • A one-page fact sheet for families, no more than 300 words, explaining the recommendation in plain language.

Constraints you must meet.

  • Your report states one claim in its first paragraph and does not change it later.
  • You give at least three reasons, each supported by a specific item from the packet, cited by item number.
  • One section is titled "What the other side gets right." That section concedes a real point from the packet before you answer it.
  • Every number in the report comes from the packet or from the federal action level given above.
  • The fact sheet defines "action level" in one sentence that a fifth grader could read.

Milestones

  1. Session 1: read and mark the packet. Number the packet items and mark each one as support for filling stations, support for fixture replacement, or support for neither. Turn in the marked packet with a one-sentence working claim.
  2. Session 2: reasons and evidence chart. Complete the planning chart with three reasons, the packet item behind each one, and one sentence explaining how that item supports the reason. In the last row, write the strongest objection to your claim and name the packet item behind it.
  3. Session 3: draft the report. Write the full report, including the section titled "What the other side gets right." Cite packet items by number wherever you use them.
  4. Session 4: fact sheet, review, and final package. Trade reports with a partner, who marks any claim without a cited item and any place where the concession is not a real concession. Revise, write the family fact sheet, and turn in both documents with the marked packet.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Rubric
Criterion Emerging Developing Proficient Advanced
Claim and reasons No stated claim, or reasons that do not connect to it. A claim that shifts, or fewer than three reasons. One clear claim with three reasons, though the order does not build. One clear claim, held throughout, with three or more reasons in an order that builds.
Use of the packet No citations, or numbers invented rather than drawn from the packet. Items are named but used as decoration, or a number appears from outside the packet. Most reasons cite items, with one citation that fits loosely. Every reason cites a specific item, and the citation genuinely supports the reason.
Counterclaim section No counterclaim section. The section states the other side and dismisses it without a concession. The section concedes a point and answers it, though the answer leans on assertion. The section concedes a real point from the packet, then answers it with evidence rather than by repeating the claim.
Fact sheet Missing, or contradicts the recommendation in the report. Reads as a shortened report, with jargon left in place. Meets the length and defines the term, with one passage a family would find technical. Within the length, defines the action level plainly, matches the report's recommendation, and would be understood by a family with no science background.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the packet already marked for side, so their work begins at the reasoning step. Provide a report frame with four section headings (Recommendation, Reasons, What the other side gets right, Conclusion) and a sentence starter for each, and reduce the required reasons from three to two while keeping the counterclaim section, which carries the standard. Check the planning chart before drafting begins.

Extension

Require a third document, a two-minute spoken statement for the board's public comment period, and a short written comparison explaining which reason moved to the front for a listening audience and why.

ELL supports

Provide the six packet items in a simplified parallel version with the same item numbers, so citations match across both versions. Give a bilingual card for action level, fixture, filter cartridge, and concession. Offer the frames "The strongest reason to ___ is ___, because Item ___ shows ___" and "Families who prefer ___ are right that ___, and still ___."

Extensions

Have students write the follow-up memo the board would need one year later, listing what the district should measure to find out whether the choice worked and naming who would collect each measurement.