Writing prompt Grade 3 Social Studies & Civics
Should Copperbeech Buy the Quarrowick Woods? A Grade 3 Prompt
A grade 3 opinion prompt on whether a fictional town should buy the woods above its wells or let a store be built there, with an exemplar and a four-level rubric.
Objectives
- Students will state an opinion about a town land purchase and give two reasons.
- Students will use facts from the background to support each reason.
- Students will close an opinion paragraph by restating their opinion.
Vocabulary
Key words: well, soak, council, opinion
Teacher overview
This two-session opinion prompt is built on a choice many towns face, which is whether to buy the land above a drinking-water well or let it be developed. The background gives both sides plainly: protecting the water and having a place to walk, set against the money the town would spend and the store and jobs it would give up. Third graders often believe that well water sits in an underground lake and that whatever happens on the surface stays on the surface, so the background states instead that rain soaks down through the soil of the woods and into the same water the wells pull up. Grade 3 opinion writing asks for a point of view supported by reasons, which is exactly what the planning organizer and the rubric here are built to score.
Prompt
Read this first.
Copperbeech is a made-up town. Its drinking water comes from three wells. The wells are on the edge of the Quarrowick Woods.
Rain falls on the woods. It soaks into the leaves and the soil. It sinks down through sand and rock. The soil cleans the water on the way down. That water fills the wells the town pumps from.
The family that owns the woods is selling the land. A builder wants to buy it. The builder would put up a store with a big parking lot. The town council could buy the woods instead and keep them as a town forest, open for walking.
What people in town are saying.
Some people say the town should buy the woods. Rain that falls on a parking lot does not soak in. It runs off, and it carries oil and winter salt with it. Trees and soil clean the water before it reaches the wells. A town forest would also give families a place to walk.
Other people say the town should not buy the woods. The town has been saving that money to replace old pipes on Miller Street. A store would bring jobs and a place to shop close to home. They say the builder could leave a strip of trees around the wells instead.
Your writing task.
Write an opinion paragraph. Should the Copperbeech town council buy the Quarrowick Woods, or not? Tell what you think. Give two reasons. Use facts from the background for each reason. End with a sentence that tells your opinion again.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every box before you write your paragraph.
| Part of my paragraph | What I will write |
|---|---|
| My opinion (I think the council should ...) | |
| Reason 1 (because ...) | |
| A fact from the background that supports reason 1 | |
| Reason 2 (also, because ...) | |
| A fact from the background that supports reason 2 | |
| My last sentence (says my opinion again in new words) |
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
I think the Copperbeech town council should buy the Quarrowick Woods. One reason is that the woods keep our drinking water clean. Rain soaks into the leaves and soil there, and the soil cleans the water before it reaches our three wells. If a parking lot covered that ground, the rain would run off instead, and it would carry oil and winter salt with it. My second reason is that a town forest would be for everyone. Families could walk there, and the town would still own the land many years from now. I know the town has been saving money for the pipes on Miller Street, and those pipes do need fixing. Still, the town can only buy this land once, and it can fix pipes any year. For these reasons, I believe the council should buy the Quarrowick Woods.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | No clear opinion is stated, or the writer states both sides without choosing. | An opinion appears somewhere in the paragraph but not near the start. | The first sentence states a clear opinion about buying the woods. | The first sentence states a clear opinion, and the wording shows the writer knows a choice is being made. |
| Reasons | No reason is given, or a reason repeats the opinion. | One reason is given. | Two different reasons are given, each connected to the opinion. | Two different reasons are given, and the writer explains why one matters most. |
| Facts from the background | No background facts are used. | One fact is used, or a fact is stated incorrectly. | At least one accurate background fact supports each reason. | Accurate facts support both reasons, and the writer answers something the other side says. |
| Ending and order | The paragraph stops without an ending. | An ending appears but only repeats the first sentence word for word. | A closing sentence restates the opinion in new words, and the parts follow the organizer's order. | The closing restates the opinion in new words and leaves the reader with the writer's strongest point. |
| Conventions | Sentences run together and are hard to read. | Some sentences begin and end correctly. | Most sentences are complete, with capital letters and end marks. | Sentences are complete and varied, and linking words such as because and also join the ideas. |
Differentiation
Support
Read the background aloud twice and highlight the two sentences that support each side. Give students the organizer with the opinion box already offering two choices to circle, and allow the reasons to be dictated and then copied.
Extension
Ask students to write a second short paragraph from the point of view of a neighbor who disagrees with them, using two facts from the background that they did not use the first time.
ELL supports
Pre-teach soak, well, and council with a simple side-view drawing showing rain, soil, and a well pipe. Provide sentence frames for each organizer row, such as "I think the council should ____ because ____," and allow the first draft to mix first-language notes with English sentences.
Extensions
Have students find out where their own community's drinking water comes from and what sits on the land above or around that source, then mark those places on a local map posted in the classroom.