Writing prompt Grade 4 Social Studies & Civics
Cleaned Water on the Thornlee Ball Fields: Opinion Prompt
A grade 4 opinion prompt on whether a fictional town should water its ball fields with cleaned wastewater, with background notes, a planner, an exemplar, and a rubric.
Objectives
- Students will state an opinion about a town water choice and support it with reasons.
- Students will use a fact from the background notes to back up each reason they give.
- Students will explain the difference between cleaned water for grass and water for drinking.
- Students will name one cost of the choice they argue for and say how the town would handle it.
Vocabulary
- Purple pipe
- The purple-colored pipes that carry recycled water for watering lawns and other non-drinking uses. The color warns everyone that the water inside is not for drinking.
Also: cleaned water, reuse, park board, opinion
Teacher overview
Students write an opinion piece for a park board in the fictional town of Thornlee, which is deciding whether to water its ball fields with water the town has already cleaned once instead of with drinking water. The question is real for many towns, because watering a field with treated drinking water is expensive and dry summers make it awkward to ask families to save water while the grass stays green. The phrase cleaned water needs settling before students draft, because it can be heard as sewage or as bottled water, with nothing in between. Cleaned water is treated so it is safe for grass, trees, and fields, yet it is not treated to drinking standards, which is why towns run it in separate purple pipes and post signs. Students who hold on to that distinction write stronger reasons on both sides.
Prompt
Read the background notes. Then write your opinion piece.
Background notes about the fictional town of Thornlee:
- Thornlee has a plant that cleans the town's used water every day. Right now all of that cleaned water flows into Ferrin Creek.
- The park board wants to send some of the cleaned water through a new pipe to the ball fields instead.
- Cleaned water is safe for grass, trees, and fields. It is not treated to be drinking water.
- Towns that do this run the cleaned water in purple pipes. The purple color warns everyone that it is not for drinking. Signs go up at the fields.
- Today the fields are watered with drinking water. That water costs the town money every time the sprinklers run.
- The new pipe would cost the town $70,000 one time. After that, watering the fields would cost less each year.
- In dry summers the town asks families to take shorter showers and skip washing cars. The fields stay green during those weeks.
- The plant tests the cleaned water every day before it leaves the building.
- Some neighbors worry about the smell. Others worry about children sliding on the grass.
Your task: Write an opinion piece for the Thornlee park board. Tell the board whether Thornlee should water the ball fields with cleaned water. Give three reasons. Use a fact from the background notes for each reason. Then name one cost or worry on the other side and tell the board how the town would handle it. Finish with a closing sentence that repeats your opinion in new words.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every box before you start writing.
| Part of my writing | What I will write |
|---|---|
| My opinion | |
| Reason 1 | |
| A fact from the notes for reason 1 | |
| Reason 2 | |
| A fact from the notes for reason 2 | |
| Reason 3 | |
| A fact from the notes for reason 3 | |
| A cost or worry on the other side, and how the town would handle it | |
| 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.
Exemplar & Rubric
Exemplar response, written at grade 4:
I think Thornlee should water the ball fields with cleaned water. The town already cleans this water every day, and right now all of it just runs into Ferrin Creek. Using it on the fields would put water we already have to work instead of letting it flow away.
My first reason is that it would save the town money. The notes say the fields are watered with drinking water now, and that water costs the town money every time the sprinklers run. The new pipe would cost money once, and after that the watering would cost less each year.
My second reason is that it is fair to families. In dry summers the town asks families to take shorter showers and skip washing cars. It is hard to hear that while the ball fields stay green from drinking water. If the fields used cleaned water instead, families would not feel that the rules are only for them.
My third reason is that the town can keep people safe. The notes say the plant tests the cleaned water every day. Towns that do this use purple pipes so nobody mixes the water up, and they put signs at the fields. Thornlee could do both of those things.
Some neighbors worry about the smell and about children sliding on the grass. The town should answer those worries with signs, daily tests, and a rule about when the sprinklers run. For all of these reasons, Thornlee should send its cleaned water to the ball fields instead of sending it down the creek.
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | No clear opinion, or the opinion changes partway through | States an opinion but it is hard to find | States a clear opinion in the first paragraph and keeps it all the way through | States a clear opinion at the start, keeps it throughout, and restates it in new words at the end |
| Reasons and facts | Gives fewer than two reasons, or no facts from the notes | Gives two reasons with one fact from the notes | Gives three reasons and backs each one with a fact from the notes | Gives three reasons, backs each with a fact, and explains how each fact supports the reason |
| Weighing the cost | Names no cost or worry on the other side | Names a cost or worry but does not say what the town would do about it | Names one cost or worry the town would carry and says how the town would handle it | Names the cost or worry, says how the town would handle it, and explains why what the town gains is still worth that cost |
| Organization | Ideas are in one block with no order a reader can follow | Some grouping, but reasons run together | Each reason has its own paragraph, in an order that makes sense | Each reason has its own paragraph, linking words connect them, and the closing pulls the reasons together |
| Conventions | Errors make several sentences hard to read | Errors are frequent but the meaning is clear | Sentences are complete and correctly punctuated, with a few small errors | Sentences are complete and varied in length, correctly punctuated, with almost no errors |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the background notes with the four facts most useful for reasons already highlighted, and let them choose from those four. Provide the opinion piece as a paragraph frame with three body starters: "My first reason is ___. The notes say ___." Students who need it may dictate the closing sentence before writing it.
Extension
Ask students to write a second short piece from the other side, arguing the position they did not choose, then mark which of the two was harder to write and why. Students may also write the sign the park board would post at the fields, in twenty words or fewer, and explain what each word on the sign is doing.
ELL supports
Pre-teach cleaned water, reuse, purple pipe, and park board with picture cards, and put a home-language label on each. Allow the planning organizer to be filled with short phrases, and let students rehearse each reason aloud with a partner before writing it. Provide a word bank with because, first, also, and finally.
Extensions
Have students find out whether any nearby park, golf course, or highway median is watered with recycled water, since utilities in dry regions often list these customers on their websites. Students can then write a short letter to their own parks department asking whether the same idea would work at a local field, using two reasons from their opinion piece.