Writing prompt Grade 5 Social Studies & Civics
Should Silver Glen Sell Its Spring Water to Clearpeak?
A grade 5 opinion prompt asking whether the fictional town of Silver Glen should sell spring water to a bottling company, with an organizer, exemplar, and rubric.
Objectives
- Students will write an opinion piece that states a clear position on the bottling offer.
- Students will support an opinion with at least two facts from the background material.
- Students will organize reasons in an order that builds toward a closing sentence.
Vocabulary
- Spring
- A spring is a place where groundwater flows out of the ground on its own. Springs form where the water table meets the land surface, often on hillsides or at the bottom of slopes.
Also: offer, opinion, supporting fact
Teacher overview
The fictional town of Silver Glen owns a cold, reliable spring, and a bottling company has offered money and jobs in exchange for pumping and selling that water. The offer is genuinely two-sided: the town would gain income it could use, while the spring, the creek it feeds, and the quiet of Main Street would all carry the cost. Students take a position and support it with facts from the background, practicing opinion writing on a decision that real towns face in different forms.
Prompt
Background. The town of Silver Glen owns a spring on the hill above town. The spring runs cold and clear all year, and its water feeds Glen Creek, where families fish and wade all summer. In late summer, the spring already runs lower than it does in the spring and fall months. A company called Clearpeak Bottling has made the town an offer. Clearpeak would build a bottling plant at the edge of town and hire 25 workers, and some could be Silver Glen residents. Clearpeak would pay the town $40,000 every year for the right to pump spring water. The plant would pump as much as 20,000 gallons on its busiest day. About 12 trucks would load at the plant each day and drive down Main Street to the highway. The town council votes next month, and it has asked residents, including students, to send letters with their opinions.
Writing task. Write an opinion letter to the Silver Glen town council. State your opinion clearly: should the town accept Clearpeak's offer or turn it down? Give at least two reasons for your opinion, support each reason with a fact from the background, put your reasons in an order that makes sense, and end with a closing sentence that tells the council what to do.
Planning Organizer
| Part of your letter | Your notes |
|---|---|
| My opinion sentence (accept or turn down the offer) | |
| Reason 1 | |
| Fact from the background that supports Reason 1 | |
| Reason 2 | |
| Fact from the background that supports Reason 2 | |
| Closing sentence that tells the council what to do |
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:
Dear Silver Glen Town Council,
I think the town of Silver Glen should turn down Clearpeak's offer. Our spring matters more to the town than the money the company would pay.
My first reason is that the spring cannot spare the water. The background says the spring already runs lower in late summer, and Clearpeak would pump as much as 20,000 gallons on its busiest day. Late summer is also when families fish and wade in Glen Creek, which the spring feeds. If the plant pumps hard when the spring is low, the creek could shrink just when the town enjoys it most.
My second reason is that the offer would change daily life on Main Street. About 12 trucks would load at the plant each day and drive down Main Street to the highway. That means more noise and more traffic in the middle of town, every single day.
I understand that 25 jobs and $40,000 each year would help Silver Glen, and I do not think the people who like the offer are wrong to want those things. But the town can look for other ways to raise money, and if the spring runs low, Clearpeak's payment will not put the water back. Please vote no on the Clearpeak offer and keep our spring and creek the way they are.
Sincerely,
A Silver Glen fifth grader
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | No clear opinion is stated | An opinion appears but shifts or is hard to find | States one clear opinion near the beginning | States one clear opinion and keeps it steady through the closing sentence |
| Reasons and facts | Reasons are missing or are not supported | Gives one reason with a background fact | Gives two reasons, each supported by a fact from the background | Gives two or more supported reasons and explains how each fact backs its reason |
| Organization | Ideas appear in no clear order | Some order, but reasons and facts are mixed together | Reasons appear in a sensible order with a closing sentence | Order builds toward the strongest reason, and the closing sentence clearly tells the council what to do |
| Conventions | Frequent errors make the letter hard to read | Errors are noticeable but the meaning survives | Few errors; letter form is mostly correct | Nearly error-free, with correct letter greeting and closing |
Differentiation
Support
Provide sentence starters for each organizer row, such as "I think the town should ___ because ___" and "The background says ___." Allow students to write one strong reason with two supporting facts instead of two separate reasons.
Extension
Ask students to add one condition the council could attach if it accepted the offer, such as limits on pumping in late summer, and explain in two sentences how the condition answers their own strongest worry.
ELL supports
Pre-teach spring, offer, and opinion with a sketch of water flowing from a hillside and a simple two-column chart of "town gets" and "town gives up." Allow the organizer to be completed in phrases, and provide the letter greeting and closing as a frame.
Extensions
After letters are drafted, hold a five-minute mock council session in which volunteers read their strongest paragraph aloud and the class tallies how many letters support each side, then discuss which facts appeared most often.