Graphic organizer Grade 4 Health & Consumer Science
Tap Water or Bottled Water in Pemberly: An Opinion Organizer
A grade 4 compare-and-contrast organizer with an opinion box, built so students gather reasons about tap and bottled water before writing an opinion piece.
Objectives
- Students will compare tap water and bottled water across five stated questions.
- Students will state an opinion and support it with three reasons taken from their comparison chart.
Vocabulary
Key words: opinion, reason, reusable, water quality report
Teacher overview
This organizer is a two-column compare-and-contrast frame stacked above an opinion box, and the two parts are meant to be filled in that order. The five comparison rows give students something to compare before they are asked what they think, which keeps the opinion box from being filled in on preference alone. The scenario is set in the fictional town of Pemberly so that the cost row has specific numbers a student can point to. Fill the top chart as a class using a local water quality report if one is available, then let students complete the opinion box independently.
Organizer
Fill in every box in the top chart before you write anything in the opinion box.
| Question to compare | Tap water at school | Bottled water from the store |
|---|---|---|
| Where does the water come from? | ||
| Who checks the water, and how often? | ||
| What does a week of drinking water cost? | ||
| What happens to the container when it is empty? | ||
| How does it taste to me? |
| Opinion box | My writing |
|---|---|
| My opinion sentence | |
| Reason 1, with a detail from the chart | |
| Reason 2, with a detail from the chart | |
| Reason 3, with a detail from the chart | |
| My closing sentence |
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Completed Exemplar
This exemplar uses the fictional town of Pemberly. Student charts will differ, and the taste row will differ most, since it asks for a personal answer. Students may argue for either choice, and an opinion box that favors bottled water is equally acceptable when each reason points to a row of the chart.
| Question to compare | Tap water at school | Bottled water from the store |
|---|---|---|
| Where does the water come from? | The Pemberly water plant treats water from Sanders Creek and sends it through pipes to the school fountains. | A company fills the bottles at a plant far from town, and trucks bring them to the store. |
| Who checks the water, and how often? | Plant operators test the water on a set schedule, and the town mails a water quality report to every home once a year. | The company tests its own water and prints a phone number on the label for people who want the results. |
| What does a week of drinking water cost? | In our scenario, refilling a bottle at the school fountain costs the family almost nothing. | In our scenario, a case of bottled water costs the family $6 a week, which comes to $24 in four weeks. |
| What happens to the container when it is empty? | The reusable bottle is washed at home and used again the next day. | The empty plastic bottles go into the recycling bin, and any that miss the bin end up in the trash. |
| How does it taste to me? | Sometimes it tastes a little like chlorine when the water is warm, and better when it is cold. | It tastes plain, and it is already cold when it comes out of the refrigerator. |
| Opinion box | Sample writing |
|---|---|
| My opinion sentence | I think our family should refill a bottle with tap water instead of buying bottled water. |
| Reason 1, with a detail from the chart | Tap water costs almost nothing to refill, while a case costs 6 dollars a week in our scenario. |
| Reason 2, with a detail from the chart | The town tests the water on a set schedule and mails a report about it once a year. |
| Reason 3, with a detail from the chart | One reusable bottle is washed and used again, so our family throws away fewer plastic bottles. |
| My closing sentence | For those three reasons, a refilled bottle is the better choice for my family. |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the chart with the first row already filled in for both columns and with the five questions read aloud in advance. Let them dictate their reasons to a partner or an adult who writes them in the boxes, then copy the sentences themselves. Reducing the opinion box to two reasons is acceptable as long as each reason still points to a row of the chart.
Extension
Ask students to add a sixth comparison row of their own choosing, such as what happens during a power outage or which choice is easier to carry to a game, fill it for both columns, and then decide whether the new row changes the opinion they wrote. Students should write one sentence explaining what changed or why nothing did.
ELL supports
Provide the chart with small sketches beside each question: a treatment building for the source row, a clipboard for the testing row, a coin for the cost row, a recycling bin for the container row, and a face for the taste row. Post sentence frames for the opinion box, including "I think ___ because ___" and "One reason is ___." Allow students to complete the taste row with a rating from one to five instead of a sentence.
Extensions
Turn the completed organizers into a class tally. Post the two choices on chart paper, have each student add a mark under the choice they argued for, then count the reasons that appeared most often under each side. Ask the class which reason showed up in the most charts and whether a reason that many people share is automatically the strongest one, which sets up the opinion paragraph students will draft next.