Writing prompt Grade 8 English Language Arts
Rationing Groundwater in Quarry Notch Valley: A Grade 8 Prompt
A grade 8 argument writing prompt where students take a position on mandatory groundwater rationing in a fictional farming valley, addressing a counterclaim from farmers.
Objectives
- Students will write an argument essay that states a claim, addresses a counterclaim, and supports both with evidence.
- Students will use real irrigation and groundwater-recovery information to evaluate a rationing tradeoff.
Vocabulary
- Groundwater
- Groundwater is water that has soaked into the ground and fills the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rock underground. It is a large underground source of fresh water that wells and springs draw from.
- Aquifer
- An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, or gravel that holds water in the tiny spaces between its grains. Wells reach down into aquifers to bring water up to the surface.
Also: rationing, counterclaim, irrigation
Teacher overview
Quarry Notch Valley (a fictional farming valley used for this prompt) sits above an aquifer that has supplied both farms and small towns for generations, and three years of drought have pushed the local water board to consider mandatory groundwater rationing. This prompt asks students to take a position on the rationing plan, using real information about agricultural water use and how slowly groundwater recovers once it is depleted, while acknowledging that farmers have a legitimate stake in the outcome.
Prompt
Background: Quarry Notch Valley is a fictional farming valley used for this prompt. It sits above a large aquifer. That aquifer has supplied both farms and nearby towns for generations. The valley has been in drought for three years. Its aquifer's water level has dropped noticeably. Farmers pump more groundwater to irrigate crops when rain is scarce, and irrigation is by far the valley's largest water use. Agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals.
Groundwater does not recover quickly once it is pumped out faster than rain and snowmelt can replace it. Water that reaches deep aquifers can take centuries to build up underground in the first place. A river, by contrast, can refill within days of a storm. The Quarry Notch Valley water board is considering a mandatory rationing plan. That plan would limit how much groundwater each farm may pump during drought years. It would set stricter limits for the largest operations.
Writing task: The Quarry Notch Valley water board is deciding whether to adopt the rationing plan. Write an argument essay that takes a clear position on the plan. Address at least one counterclaim a farmer might raise about rationing. Support your position with evidence from the background material above.
Planning Organizer
| Category | Your notes |
|---|---|
| Claim (should the board adopt the rationing plan?) | |
| Reason 1 + evidence from background material | |
| Reason 2 + evidence from background material | |
| Counterclaim a farmer might raise | |
| Your rebuttal to the counterclaim | |
| Concluding statement |
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:
The Quarry Notch Valley water board should adopt the mandatory groundwater rationing plan, because protecting the aquifer now is the only way to keep it usable for farms in the future. Groundwater does not behave like a river that refills after a single storm; water that reaches deep aquifers can take centuries to accumulate underground in the first place, which means pumping it out faster than it can be replaced creates damage that could take generations to reverse. Three years of drought have already lowered the aquifer's water level noticeably, a warning sign the valley cannot afford to ignore.
Some farmers will argue that rationing threatens their livelihood, since agriculture already depends heavily on irrigation and roughly 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals go toward farming, meaning any cut to irrigation water is a serious cut to how a farm operates. This is a legitimate concern, and the water board should not dismiss it. But an aquifer that runs critically low would threaten every farm in the valley at once, not just for one drought year but for decades afterward, since groundwater recovers so slowly. A temporary, carefully managed limit today protects the water supply every farm in Quarry Notch Valley depends on for the long term, a smaller sacrifice than losing reliable groundwater altogether.
The water board should move forward with the rationing plan. The evidence shows that groundwater, once depleted, does not come back on any timeline a single farm's business plan can wait for, and a managed limit now is the more responsible choice for the whole valley.
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | No clear position stated | States a position but it shifts or is vague | States one clear, consistent position | States a clear position and previews the essay's reasoning |
| Evidence & reasoning | No evidence from background material | Restates one fact without explaining its relevance | Uses at least one specific figure and explains how it supports the claim | Uses two or more specific figures and explains how each supports the claim |
| Counterclaim | No counterclaim addressed | Mentions an opposing view without a rebuttal | States a counterclaim and offers a rebuttal | States a counterclaim, rebuts it specifically, and ties the rebuttal back to the claim |
| Organization & conventions | Ideas are disconnected; frequent errors interfere with meaning | Some organization; errors are noticeable but do not block meaning | Clear paragraph structure; few errors | Clear, purposeful structure with a strong concluding statement; virtually error-free |
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide sentence starters for each Planning Organizer row, such as "One reason the board should/should not adopt the plan is ___, because the background material says ___," and allow the counterclaim and rebuttal to be combined into a single simpler sentence.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to work out (using only the background material provided, not outside sources) how the "stricter limits for the largest operations" mentioned in the background might be structured fairly, and add a second counterclaim addressing whether that structure is fair to smaller farms.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "groundwater," "aquifer," "rationing," and "counterclaim" with visuals, such as a cutaway diagram of an aquifer being pumped faster than it refills, before the writing task. Allow the Planning Organizer to be completed with phrases rather than full sentences before drafting begins.