Water for Schools
Menu

Worksheet Grade 9 English Language Arts

Shall, May, and Must: The Fenmoor Valley Water-Sharing Rules

A grade 9 ELA worksheet on obligation language, in which students follow a fictional irrigation association's staged curtailment rules and apply its written exceptions.

Objectives

  1. Students will distinguish obligation, permission, and prohibition in the modal verbs of a written rule.
  2. Students will determine which stage of a written procedure applies to a stated condition.
  3. Students will apply a written exception to a case the general rule appears to forbid.

Vocabulary

Curtailment
An official order to cut back or stop taking water from a river or stream because there is not enough to go around. In many Western states, the newest water users are cut off first.

Also: obligation, permission, prohibition, exception, watermaster

Teacher overview

Rules that govern shared water are written in a narrow vocabulary, and the whole meaning turns on a few small words. This worksheet gives students the curtailment rules of a fictional irrigation association, where "shall" creates a duty, "may" grants permission, and a short list of exceptions overrides the general stage. Students trace what happens to a member under stated conditions, then repair one sentence that leaves a reader unsure whether it commands or merely suggests. The skill transfers directly to school handbooks, permission forms, and any contract a student will later sign.

Shall, May, and Must: The Fenmoor Valley Water-Sharing Rules — Grade 9 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The Fenmoor Valley Irrigation Association is fictional, and so are the rules and the creek below. Members share water from Sallowfield Creek, and the association measures the creek at the Dunmore gauge.

Stage rules.

Stage Flow at the Dunmore gauge What members shall or may do
Normal 30 cubic feet per second or more Members may irrigate on any day.
Stage One Below 30 and at or above 20 Members shall irrigate only on their assigned days.
Stage Two Below 20 and at or above 12 Members shall irrigate only between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and only on their assigned days.
Stage Three Below 12 Members shall not irrigate. Only the exempt uses listed below may continue.

How a stage takes effect. The watermaster shall post the new stage by 5 p.m. on the day the gauge crosses a trigger. The posted stage takes effect at 6 a.m. the following day.

Exceptions.

  • Water taken for livestock to drink may be taken at any stage.
  • An orchard planted within the past three years may be watered at Stage Three for up to two hours each week, but only if the member filed a young-orchard notice with the association before April 1.
  • A member whose drip system was certified by the association before 2024 may irrigate one extra day each week, and this exception applies at Stage One only.
  • The board may suspend any exception for a member who has not paid the annual assessment.
  1. The Dunmore gauge reads 24 cubic feet per second. Name the stage that applies.
  2. The Dunmore gauge reads 11 cubic feet per second. Name the stage that applies.
  3. The gauge falls past a trigger at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, and the watermaster posts the new stage at 4 p.m. that day. Name the day and hour the new stage takes effect.
  4. The Normal row uses "may" while the other rows use "shall." Explain what that difference tells a member about choice.
  5. At Stage Three, a member wants to water an orchard planted last spring. State the condition the member had to meet before April 1.
  6. Assume that condition was met. State the weekly limit that then applies to watering the young orchard.
  7. A member whose drip system was certified in 2022 asks for one extra irrigation day at Stage Two. State whether the rules allow it, and quote the words that decide the question.
  8. A member has not paid the annual assessment. Explain what the board may do about that member's exceptions.
  9. Rewrite this clause so a reader can tell whether it is an obligation or a permission: "Members are encouraged to irrigate at night during dry periods."
  10. Explain your reasoning: at Stage Three, may a member fill a tank so cattle can drink? Quote the words from the rules that settle 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: Stage One. A reading of 24 is below 30 and at or above 20, which is the Stage One range.
  2. Answer: Stage Three. A reading of 11 is below 12, and the Stage Three row covers every reading below that trigger.
  3. Answer: 6 a.m. Wednesday. The rule sets the effective time at 6 a.m. the day after the stage is posted, so the afternoon posting on Tuesday does not restrict Tuesday itself.
  4. Answer: "May" grants permission and leaves the choice with the member, so a member at Normal stage can irrigate or not. "Shall" creates a duty, so at Stage One a member has no choice about limiting irrigation to assigned days.
  5. Answer: The member had to file a young-orchard notice with the association before April 1. Without that filing, the Stage Three prohibition applies to the orchard like any other irrigation.
  6. Answer: Up to two hours each week. The exception permits watering the young orchard at Stage Three only within that weekly limit.
  7. Answer: The rules do not allow it. The drip-system exception says it "applies at Stage One only," so it gives the member nothing at Stage Two.
  8. Answer: The board may suspend that member's exceptions. The rule uses "may," so suspension is a choice the board can make rather than an automatic consequence.
  9. Answer: Accept any rewrite that chooses one meaning and states it plainly, such as "Members shall irrigate at night during dry periods" or "Members must irrigate at night during dry periods" for an obligation, or "Members may irrigate at night during dry periods" for a permission. The revised clause must use one modal verb rather than "are encouraged."
  10. Answer: Yes. The first exception states that water taken "for livestock to drink may be taken at any stage," and "at any stage" includes Stage Three, so the general prohibition does not reach that use.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a copy of the stage table with the three flow triggers marked on a simple number line, so items 1 and 2 can be answered by locating a value before naming a stage. Provide a word bank pairing "shall" with duty, "may" with permission, and "shall not" with prohibition, and let item 4 be answered by matching rather than explaining.

Extension

Ask these students to write a fifth exception the association might reasonably add, using the same sentence pattern as the existing four, then explain in two sentences which stage it would change and which members it would help.

ELL supports

Pre-teach obligation, permission, prohibition, curtailment, and exception, pairing each with one short example sentence from the rules. Provide sentence frames for items 4, 8, and 10, such as "The rules say ____, which means the member ____," and allow students to highlight the deciding words in the text before quoting them.

Extensions

Have students compare these rules with a page of the school handbook and mark every sentence that uses "shall," "may," "must," or "will." They then rewrite the vaguest sentence they find so a reader can tell whether it commands or permits, and explain the change in one paragraph.