Graphic organizer Grade 8 English Language Arts
Research Question Frame for the Weldram Orchard Switch
A grade 8 five-column organizer that turns a broad question about switching a fictional orchard to drip irrigation into focused, sourceable research questions.
Objectives
- Students will narrow a broad topic into questions that a named kind of source could answer.
- Students will match each question to a source type and a way of checking that source.
- Students will generate follow-up questions that open a second line of research.
Vocabulary
- Flood irrigation
- Watering crops by letting water flow across the field or down furrows between the rows. It is one of the oldest irrigation methods, and it can lose a lot of water.
- Drip irrigation
- Watering plants through tubes that release water slowly, drop by drop, right at the roots. Very little water is wasted along the way.
- 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: focused question, source type, follow-up question
Teacher overview
This five-column frame takes one broad question about a fictional orchard's irrigation choice and breaks it into focused questions, each paired with the kind of source that could actually answer it and with a follow-up question it opens. Students who skip this step usually research a question no source can answer, such as whether drip irrigation is better, and then quote whatever they find. The water content carries a misconception worth naming as students work: eighth graders generally assume that water applied to a field equals water used by the crop, so any reduction looks like a saving, when some of the water that soaks past the roots under flood irrigation returns to the aquifer that other wells in the valley draw from.
Organizer
The broad question. Should Weldram Orchard switch from flood irrigation to drip irrigation?
What you know so far. The town of Weldram and its orchard are invented for this organizer.
- Note 1. Weldram Orchard grows sixty acres of peaches west of town.
- Note 2. The orchard now floods its rows from a canal turnout for about eight hours at a time.
- Note 3. The owner is weighing drip lines that would carry water to each tree through small emitters.
- Note 4. The irrigation district bills the orchard for the volume of water it delivers.
- Note 5. Some of the water that soaks below the roots under flood irrigation reaches the shallow aquifer that other wells in the valley pump from.
Directions. Write one focused question in each row, then work across the row. A focused question names what would be measured or compared. Row 5 must come from a follow-up question you wrote in an earlier row.
| Row | Focused question | What I would need to know to answer it | Kind of source that could answer it | How I would check that source | Follow-up question this opens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) |
| 2 | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) |
| 3 | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) |
| 4 | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) |
| 5 | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) | (write here) |
Last step. Circle the one row you would research first, and write a sentence under the frame saying why that question has to be answered before the others.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Completed Exemplar
| Row | Focused question | What I would need to know to answer it | Kind of source that could answer it | How I would check that source | Follow-up question this opens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How much water does Weldram Orchard apply per acre in a season under flood irrigation? | The orchard's delivery records and the acres irrigated | The irrigation district's billing records, or the orchard's own logs | Compare two seasons of records and ask whether the acreage changed between them | How much of that applied water actually reaches the peach trees? |
| 2 | How much of the applied water reaches the trees rather than soaking below the roots? | A measurement of what the trees use against what is applied | An agricultural extension publication on irrigation efficiency for orchards | Check whether the publication names the crop and the soil type, since both change the answer | Where does the water that soaks past the roots end up? |
| 3 | Where does the water that soaks below the orchard go? | Whether the shallow aquifer under the valley is recharged by that water | A state or county groundwater report for the valley | Check the report's date and whether it covers this valley rather than the region as a whole | Would other wells in the valley be affected if that recharge stopped? |
| 4 | What would drip lines cost to install and maintain on sixty acres? | Installation cost per acre, the expected life of the emitters, and yearly upkeep | A supplier's published price list, plus an extension budget sheet for orchard drip systems | Compare at least two suppliers and note whether the price includes installation labor | How many seasons would it take for lower water bills to cover that cost? |
| 5 | Would neighboring wells draw less water if the orchard stopped recharging the shallow aquifer? | Which wells sit downgradient of the orchard and how deep they are | A county well log database, read alongside the groundwater report from row 3 | Confirm the logs list well depth and location, and check when the database was last updated | Who decides whether one farm may change how much water it returns to the aquifer? |
The row to research first. Row 1, because most of the other questions depend on the amount of water the orchard uses now, and none of them can be settled until that amount is known.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students rows 1 and 2 already completed as models and ask them to fill only rows 3 and 4. Provide a short list of source types, such as billing records, extension publication, county report, and supplier price list, so the third column becomes a matching task rather than a recall task.
Extension
Require a sixth row built from a follow-up question that no source on the student's list could answer, along with a paragraph explaining what kind of source would have to exist and who would have to collect the information.
ELL supports
Provide question stems such as "How much," "How long," and "Who decides" on a strip, since a focused question usually begins with one of them. Allow the second and fifth columns to be completed as short phrases, and pair each source type in the third column with a small picture of what that source physically looks like.
Extensions
Have students exchange completed frames and mark any question their partner wrote that a source could not settle, then rewrite one of those questions so that it names something a source could measure or compare.