Writing prompt Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics
Should Yewbridge Limit Lawn Fertilizer?
A grade 7 argument prompt on a fictional town's proposed ban on phosphorus lawn fertilizer, with background on algae, storm drains, and enforcement.
Objectives
- Students will state a clear claim about a proposed town ordinance and support it with two reasons.
- Students will address a counterclaim about enforcement or fairness and answer it with evidence.
- Students will use background evidence rather than personal opinion to support each reason.
Vocabulary
- Dissolved oxygen
- Dissolved oxygen is the oxygen gas mixed into water that fish and other underwater animals breathe. Cold, moving water holds more oxygen than warm, still water.
Also: phosphorus, algae, ordinance, counterclaim
Teacher overview
Nutrient rules divide communities because the damage is easy to see in a lake and hard to trace back to any one property. This prompt gives students a fictional town that is deciding whether to restrict phosphorus lawn fertilizer to protect a lake that turns green every August. The argument has real weight on both sides, since the town controls its own storm drains but not the farmland upstream, and its code office has two staff members. Students take a position and must answer the strongest objection rather than ignore it.
Prompt
Background. Yewbridge is a fictional town of about 14,000 people. Mardleby Lake sits at its eastern edge. People swim there in June and July. By mid-August the water often turns a dull green.
The green color comes from algae. Algae are tiny plant-like living things that grow fast when they get extra phosphorus. When those algae die, bacteria break them down. That process uses up oxygen in the water. Most fish need dissolved oxygen above 5 mg/L to survive. In late August the deeper parts of Mardleby Lake fall below that level, and the town has recorded fish kills in three of the last six years.
Phosphorus reaches the lake in several ways. Rain washes lawn fertilizer off grass, sidewalks, and driveways. That runoff flows into storm drains. Yewbridge storm drains empty into the lake without any treatment. Farms in the hills west of town also apply fertilizer, and some of it reaches the streams that feed the lake.
The Yewbridge council is considering an ordinance. It would ban the use of lawn fertilizer containing phosphorus anywhere in town from April 1 through October 31. Two exceptions would apply. A new lawn in its first year could use it, and so could any lawn where a soil test shows phosphorus is needed. A repeat violation would bring a $100 fine.
People have spoken on both sides. Lawn care companies say the rule would cost them customers, and they point out that most fertilizer sold today already contains no phosphorus. Several homeowners say the farms west of town send more phosphorus to the lake than every lawn in Yewbridge combined. The code office has two staff members, and both already handle parking and building complaints. Supporters answer that the town cannot write rules for the farms outside its borders, and that lawns are the part of the problem the town can reach. They also note that two neighboring towns adopted the same rule four years ago.
Writing task. Write an argument essay for the Yewbridge council. State a clear claim about whether the council should adopt the fertilizer ordinance. Support your claim with at least two reasons, and use specific evidence from the background for each one. Then state one counterclaim that someone on the other side would raise, and answer it. End with a conclusion that returns to your claim.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every row before you begin drafting. Each row matches one part of the rubric.
| Part of the essay | Your notes |
|---|---|
| Claim: should the council adopt the ordinance? | |
| Reason 1, plus the evidence from the background that supports it | |
| Reason 2, plus the evidence from the background that supports it | |
| Counterclaim: what would the other side say? | |
| Rebuttal: how do you answer that counterclaim? | |
| Conclusion: what should the council do, and why? |
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
The Yewbridge council should adopt the fertilizer ordinance. Mardleby Lake is turning green every August, and the town has recorded fish kills in three of the last six years. Algae grow fast on extra phosphorus, and when they die, bacteria use up the oxygen that fish need. Most fish need dissolved oxygen above 5 mg/L, and the deep water in the lake drops below that level in late summer. A rule that keeps phosphorus off lawns during the growing season attacks the problem where the town can actually reach it.
The second reason to adopt the ordinance is that Yewbridge owns the path the phosphorus takes. Rain carries fertilizer off lawns and driveways into the town's storm drains, and those drains empty straight into the lake without any treatment. The council cannot write rules for the farms in the hills, because those farms sit outside the town. It can write rules for what people spread on the ground above its own drains. The ordinance also leaves room for real needs, since a new lawn or a lawn with a soil test showing low phosphorus may still use it.
Opponents raise a fair point about enforcement. The code office has two staff members, and both are already busy with parking and building complaints. No one believes those two people can inspect every yard in a town of 14,000. That objection is real, but it argues for a different kind of rule, not for no rule at all. A ban makes the phosphorus bags harder to sell and easier to refuse, and most fertilizer sold today already contains no phosphorus, so the rule asks little of most homeowners. Two neighboring towns adopted the same ordinance four years ago, so Yewbridge would not be the first to try it.
The council should pass the ordinance. It will not fix Mardleby Lake by itself, because the farms upstream will keep sending phosphorus down the streams. It is still the one part of the problem Yewbridge controls, and a town that will not act on its own storm drains has no standing to ask anyone else to act either.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | No clear position on the ordinance | States a position that shifts or stays vague | States one clear position and holds it throughout | States a clear position and previews the reasoning that supports it |
| Evidence and reasoning | Gives opinions with no background evidence | Repeats one detail without explaining its relevance | Uses at least two specific details and explains how each supports the claim | Uses several details, explains each, and shows how they build one line of reasoning |
| Counterclaim and rebuttal | No opposing view appears | Names an opposing view but does not answer it | States a counterclaim and answers it with evidence | States the strongest counterclaim, answers it with evidence, and concedes what is fair in it |
| Organization and conventions | Ideas are disconnected and errors block meaning | Some structure, with errors that are noticeable | Clear paragraphs and a conclusion, with few errors | Purposeful structure, a conclusion that adds something, and nearly error-free writing |
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Give these students the Planning Organizer with the claim row offering two checkbox options, so drafting begins from a stated position. Provide sentence starters for each remaining row, such as "One reason is ___, because the background says ___," and allow the counterclaim and rebuttal to be written as two sentences rather than a full paragraph.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to draft the ordinance itself in four numbered provisions covering dates, exceptions, penalty, and enforcement, then write a paragraph explaining which provision they expect the fictional town's lawn care companies to challenge first and how they would answer that challenge.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "phosphorus," "algae," "dissolved oxygen," and "ordinance" with a simple three-panel drawing of fertilizer on a lawn, runoff entering a storm drain, and green water in a lake. Provide the background with the two sides listed in a labeled two-column chart, and allow the organizer to be completed in phrases before drafting begins.