Writing prompt Grade 1 Science
A Second Rain Barrel at Quarrendon School: A Grade 1 Prompt
Room 4's five-day barrel record shows the water rising only on rainy days; students use it to argue for or against a second barrel by the cafeteria.
Objectives
- Students will state an opinion about adding a second rain barrel at the school.
- Students will support the opinion with one reason and one fact from the five-day chart.
- Students will explain what the chart shows about when barrel water goes up.
Vocabulary
- Downspout
- A downspout is the pipe that carries rainwater down from a roof's gutters to the ground. Where that water goes next, whether onto a lawn, into a rain barrel, or straight to a storm drain, makes a big difference in how much runoff a property sends downstream.
Also: barrel, mark, opinion
Teacher overview
The garden club at the fictional Quarrendon School has one rain barrel, standing under the downspout that drains the gym roof, and it wants a second barrel under the cafeteria downspout. Room 4 kept a five-day record of the barrel's water level and the weather, and this prompt hands students that record as the evidence behind an opinion piece. The question has a genuine tension in it, because a barrel collects nothing in a dry week and the record shows the level dropping on the sunny days the club drew from it, so a student who argues against the second barrel can do so honestly. What the record makes visible, and what students should notice before they write, is that the water goes up only on days it rained, which is the point of a barrel in the first place.
Prompt
Quarrendon School has one rain barrel. It sits under the downspout by the gym. Rain from the gym roof runs down the pipe and into the barrel. The garden club uses that water on the school garden.
Room 4 checked the barrel for five school days. They marked the water level on the side. Here is what they wrote.
| Day | Weather | Water in the barrel |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | rain all morning | mark 6 |
| Tuesday | sunny | mark 6 |
| Wednesday | sunny | mark 5 |
| Thursday | light rain | mark 7 |
| Friday | sunny and hot | mark 5 |
The garden club watered the garden on Wednesday and on Friday. Now the club wants a second barrel. It would go under the downspout by the cafeteria.
Write to tell what you think. Should the school put in a second rain barrel? Name the topic first. Then give your opinion. Give one reason for your opinion. Use one thing from Room 4's chart. Tell what the chart shows about the days the water went up. End with a sentence that closes your writing.
Planning Organizer
Fill in each box before you start writing. Use the chart to help you.
| Box | What goes in it | Write or draw here |
|---|---|---|
| My topic | The thing I am writing about | |
| My opinion | I think the school should or should not add a barrel | |
| My reason | Because ... | |
| One thing from the chart | A day, the weather, and the mark | |
| What the chart shows | The water went up on days that ... | |
| My closing sentence | One last sentence to end my writing |
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
Our school has one rain barrel by the gym. I think the school should add a second barrel by the cafeteria. The garden club needs a lot of water in a hot week. Room 4's chart shows the barrel went up to mark 7 on Thursday, when it rained. On the sunny days the water stayed the same or went down. The chart shows the water goes up when it rains and never on a dry day. A second barrel would catch more rain so the garden has water on the hot days.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topic and opinion | Names water or the garden without saying what the writing is about or what the writer thinks. | Names the rain barrel topic but leaves the opinion unclear or states an opinion without naming the topic. | Names the rain barrel topic and states a clear opinion for or against the second barrel. | Names the topic and states the opinion in a first sentence that also points ahead to the reason. |
| Reason | Gives no reason, or repeats the opinion in different words. | Gives a reason that is only loosely connected to barrels or to the garden. | Gives one clear reason that supports the stated opinion. | Gives a clear reason and adds a second sentence explaining how the reason works. |
| Evidence from the chart | Uses no information from the chart. | Mentions the chart in general terms without naming a day, a weather word, or a mark. | Names one specific day with its weather and its mark from the chart. | Names a specific day and compares it with another day to show the pattern. |
| What the chart shows | Does not say what the chart shows. | Says the water changed without connecting the change to rain. | States that the water went up on rainy days. | States that the water went up on rainy days and went down on sunny days when the garden was watered. |
| Closing and conventions | No closing sentence, and most sentences are missing capitals or end marks. | A closing sentence is present but repeats the opinion word for word, with several missing capitals or end marks. | A closing sentence ends the writing, and most sentences have a capital and an end mark. | A closing sentence ties back to the reason, and capitals, end marks, and spacing are consistent throughout. |
Differentiation
Support
Read the chart aloud row by row and have students circle the two rainy days in one color and the three sunny days in another before they plan. Offer the frames "I think the school should ___ a second barrel" and "One reason is ___," and let students dictate the closing sentence for an adult to write while they copy it.
Extension
Ask students to write a second short piece taking the opposite opinion, using a different row of the chart as support, then say which of their two pieces they find more convincing and why. Students can also add a sixth row predicting a rainy Monday and explain what mark they would expect.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "barrel," "downspout," "mark," and "opinion" with a picture of a barrel under a roof pipe and a strip of tape marked with numbers standing in for the barrel's side. Allow the planning organizer to be filled in with drawings or single words, and accept an oral rehearsal of the whole piece before any writing begins.
Extensions
Set a marked jar outside the classroom window and record its level and the weather for one school week, then compare that record with Room 4's chart. Students who see their own jar rise on the rainy days and hold steady on the dry ones have gathered first-hand evidence for the same claim they argued from the printed chart.