Writing prompt Grade 9 English Language Arts
Explaining a Hidden Leak to Halvers Point Renters
A grade 9 explanatory writing prompt: students write a one-page guide teaching neighbors in a fictional apartment building how to find and report a silent leak.
Objectives
- Students will explain a technical process to a stated non-expert audience.
- Students will select supplied evidence that supports a reader's decision to act.
- Students will organize an explanation with transitions that show sequence and cause.
Vocabulary
Key words: silent leak, flapper, shared meter, dye test, explanatory, audience
Teacher overview
Explanatory writing is easiest to teach when the reader has a decision to make, and this prompt supplies one. Students write for neighbors in a fictional apartment building where water is billed on a single meter and split evenly, so one running toilet quietly raises everyone's charge. The task requires them to explain what a silent leak is, walk a reader through two simple tests, and say what to report, all in about one page. Because the audience includes people who have never seen a water bill, students have to define terms without talking down to the reader, which is the harder half of explanatory writing.
Prompt
Background. Halvers Point Apartments is a fictional building with 48 units. All of them draw from one water meter, and the building splits the water charge evenly, so each household paid about 26 dollars last month no matter how much water it used.
The building manager has noticed that the water charge has climbed for four months in a row while the number of tenants has stayed the same. She suspects silent leaks. A silent leak is one that wastes water without making any sound a tenant would notice. The most common is a worn toilet flapper, the rubber seal at the bottom of the tank, which lets water slip from the tank into the bowl and down the drain all day.
Two facts from the EPA's WaterSense program are worth knowing. Household leaks waste an average of about 180 gallons a week, which is nearly 9,400 gallons a year. The average American household uses about 300 gallons of water a day, roughly 70 percent of it indoors, so a bad leak can add a noticeable share to that total. The same program gives a figure that is easier to picture: a faucet that drips once a second can waste more than 3,000 gallons in a year, though the total depends on the size of each drip.
There are two simple tests. Any tenant can run the first, and the manager runs the second.
The first is the dye test. Put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet tank, do not flush, and wait about fifteen minutes. If color shows up in the bowl, the flapper is leaking.
The second is the meter test, which the manager will run for the whole building late at night after asking every unit not to use water for one hour. The manager reads the meter, waits the hour, and reads it again. If the reading has moved, water is leaking somewhere in the building.
The tenant council has asked for a one-page guide to hand to every unit. The manager will pay for parts and will replace any flapper a tenant reports, at no cost to the tenant.
Your task. Write a one-page explanatory guide for the tenants of Halvers Point. Explain what a silent leak is, how a tenant can test for one, and why a leak in one unit affects every household's charge. Use at least three of the facts or figures from the background, and say exactly what a tenant should do after a failed test. Write for neighbors, not for plumbers, and do not take a side on whether the building's billing method is fair. Your guide should run four to six paragraphs.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every row before drafting. Each row matches a criterion on the rubric.
| Part of the guide | What you will write |
|---|---|
| My reader, in one phrase | |
| What I want my reader to do after reading | |
| Key point 1: what a silent leak is | |
| The detail or example that makes point 1 clear | |
| Key point 2: how to test for one | |
| The steps of the test, in order | |
| Key point 3: why one unit's leak reaches every bill | |
| The fact or figure that supports point 3 | |
| Two transitions I will use to show sequence or cause | |
| My closing instruction, naming who to contact |
Check one thing before you draft. Every term a plumber would use, such as flapper or meter, needs a short definition the first time it appears.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Exemplar & Rubric
A proficient grade 9 response for this fictional building might read as follows.
How to find a leak you cannot hear.
If you live at Halvers Point, your water charge is not really your own. All 48 units share one meter, and the bill is split evenly, which means a toilet running in one apartment shows up on everyone's statement. That is why this guide is going to every door.
The problem is a silent leak. A silent leak wastes water without any sound you would notice. The usual cause is the flapper, which is the rubber seal at the bottom of a toilet tank. When the flapper wears out, water slips from the tank into the bowl and straight down the drain, hour after hour, with no gurgle to give it away. The amounts add up faster than most people expect. According to the EPA's WaterSense program, household leaks waste an average of about 180 gallons a week, which comes to nearly 9,400 gallons in a year. For comparison, the same program reports that an average American household uses about 300 gallons a day in total.
Fortunately, you can check your own toilet in about fifteen minutes. Take the lid off the tank and put a few drops of food coloring into the water. Do not flush. Wait fifteen minutes, then look in the bowl. If you see color in the bowl, water is leaking past the flapper, and the flapper needs to be replaced.
The manager can also run a building-wide test. On a night the office announces, please do not use any water for one hour, and make sure the dishwasher and washing machine are off. The manager will read the meter before and after, and if the number has moved, water is leaking somewhere in the building.
If your dye test shows color in the bowl, call the office and say what you saw. The manager pays for the parts and will replace a leaking flapper at no cost to you. A repair takes a few minutes, and it stops a loss that every unit in the building is currently paying for.
Rubric.
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus and audience | Purpose is unclear, or the writing addresses no particular reader | Names the reader but slips into technical language without definitions | Holds a clear purpose and defines each technical term for a neighbor | Anticipates a reader's likely objection, such as not owning the toilet, and answers it |
| Development with evidence | Uses no supplied facts | Uses one supplied fact, or uses one inaccurately | Uses at least three supplied facts accurately and connects each to the reader's decision | Uses the facts accurately and adds a comparison that makes a number easier to picture |
| Organization and transitions | Ideas appear in no workable order | Some order, but the test steps are hard to follow | Moves from problem, to test, to action, with transitions that show sequence and cause | Structure makes the guide usable at a glance, with a closing instruction that is impossible to miss |
| Precision and conventions | Frequent errors interrupt meaning, and steps are vague | Steps are mostly clear, with errors that slow the reader | Steps are specific and correct, and errors are few | Wording is exact throughout, and the guide could be handed out without editing |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the guide's four paragraph purposes printed as headings, so drafting becomes filling four boxes rather than shaping a whole page. Provide a definition bank for flapper, meter, and silent leak, and let the test steps be written as a numbered list before they are turned into sentences.
Extension
Ask these students to write a second, shorter version of the guide for a door hanger of no more than sixty words, then explain in two sentences which facts they cut and why the shorter version can still get a tenant to act.
ELL supports
Pre-teach silent leak, flapper, shared meter, and dye test with a labeled drawing of a toilet tank showing the flapper at the bottom. Provide transition frames such as "First," "Once you have," and "Because the building shares one meter," and allow students to explain the dye test aloud to a partner before writing it.
Extensions
Have students count the toilets and faucets in one wing of the school building and write a memo to the facilities office proposing a testing schedule, using the same explanatory structure. The memo should define each term once, give the test in order, and end with a specific request.