Grade 10 Lesson plan
Foxglove Booster Station Startup: A Procedure-Reading Lesson
A grade 10 ELA lesson where students follow a fictional pump station startup procedure, track its special-case exceptions, and write a plain-language summary.
Common Core ELA · Grades 9–10
RST.9-10.3 Following complex multistep procedures
Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
Why water teaches this standard well
Water quality testing gives students authentic multistep procedures to follow precisely, from calibrating a pH meter to completing a bacteria test with its special cases and exceptions. Protocols drawn from real treatment plant practice make attention to procedural detail consequential.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
43 materials aligned to RST.9-10.3
Lesson plans
Grade 10 Lesson plan
The Redbud Plant's Jar-Test Procedure: A Technical Reading Lesson
A grade 10 lesson where students read a fictional treatment plant's jar-test standard operating procedure and write an explanatory summary for new hires.
Worksheets
Grade 10 Worksheet
The Ormerod Membrane Cleaning Procedure: A Close Reading
A grade 10 worksheet on following a complex multistep procedure, with thirteen items on sequence, exceptions, and the difference between shall and may.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Reading the Amberline Reservoir Drawdown Order
A grade 10 worksheet on following a written reservoir drawdown order precisely, including its exceptions, with twelve items on rates, volumes, and conversions.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Verdin Falls Lead Sampling Instructions: A Reading Worksheet
A grade 10 ELA worksheet where students follow a fictional home lead-sampling instruction sheet, track its exceptions, and explain why each step protects the result.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Elkmont Reservoir Sampling Protocol: Following a Procedure
A grade 9 ELA worksheet in which students read a fictional reservoir's water-sampling protocol and answer questions about following its steps and special cases.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Shall, May, and Must: The Fenmoor Valley Water-Sharing Rules
A grade 9 ELA worksheet on obligation language, in which students follow a fictional irrigation association's staged curtailment rules and apply its written exceptions.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Fact, Inference, or Judgment: The Winnow Ridge Main Break Log
A grade 9 ELA worksheet using a fictional water main break log to sort facts from inferences and judgments, follow a valve procedure, and write a public update.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Reading a Water-Testing Field Report: An Aquatic Chemistry Worksheet
A grade 10 worksheet where students read a technician's field report on pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity, then write an evidence-based judgment of water quality.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Sable Creek Pump Log: A Grade 10 Flow-Rate Conversion Worksheet
A grade 10 worksheet in which students read a fictional pump station's field log and convert flow rates between million gallons per day, gpm, and cfs.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Turning Biosolids into Fertilizer: A Grade 9 Vocabulary Worksheet
A grade 9 vocabulary and comprehension worksheet on how a fictional water reclamation facility recovers nutrients from wastewater and turns them into fertilizer.
Labs & experiments
Grade 9 Lab / experiment
Ivelstone Storm Kit: How Stored Tap Water Loses Its Chlorine
Students store tap water four ways, track free and total chlorine with test strips for two days, and turn the results into storage rules for a storm kit.
Classroom activities
Grade 10 Classroom activity
Ferrowdale Main Break: An Operations Tabletop
A 55-minute grade 10 tabletop exercise where student crews isolate a broken water main in timed rounds and calculate lost water, tank drawdown, and zone pressure.
Grade 9 Classroom activity
Frost Wedging and Winter Main Breaks in Grangemoor
A grade 9 four-station rotation investigating why water expands on freezing and how frost depth, not air temperature alone, drives a city's winter main breaks.
Grade 9 Classroom activity
Kestrelford Wellfield: A Sand-Tank Groundwater Model
A 50-minute grade 9 activity where student teams build a sand-tank aquifer, trace dye toward a stream, then pump a well and watch the flow direction reverse.
Reading passages
Grade 10 Reading passage
Reading the Sludge: A Process Control Analyst at Lundbrook
A grade 10 careers reading passage following a process control analyst through the settleability test, the microscope exam, and the wasting decision at a fictional plant.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Dunmoss Wellfield: A Groundwater Technician's Morning Route
A grade 9 careers reading passage following a fictional wellfield technician through water-level soundings, a sampling procedure, and the exception that voids a reading.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Camas Bluff's Water Reuse and Recharge: A Reading Passage
A grade 10 informational passage on how a fictional dry town recycles wastewater and banks it underground, with a treatment-failure exception and comprehension questions.
Grade 10 Reading passage
The Night the Ice Storm Reached Marnwood's Water Plant
A grade 10 informational passage on a fictional plant's overnight power failure, the outage procedure its operators follow, and the careers that keep a system running.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Ninebark's Activated Sludge Process: A Reading Passage
A grade 10 informational passage on how a fictional plant uses microbes and aeration to clean wastewater, with a wet-weather exception and comprehension questions.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Measuring the Tullis River in February: Winter Stream Gaging
A grade 10 informational passage following a hydrologic technician through a winter discharge measurement under ice, with six comprehension questions and a key.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Castleton's Lead Pipe Search: Reading a Service-Line Inventory
A grade 9 informational passage on a fictional town's lead service line inventory and the pipe test homeowners can run, with comprehension and procedure questions.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Surge Pressure on the Corvane Transmission Main
A grade 9 ELA reading passage in which a fictional operator traces a banging pipe and a leaking joint back to a valve that was closed too fast.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Sending a Camera Down the Halloway Trunk Sewer
A grade 9 ELA reading passage following a fictional crew that uses flow meters, a sewer camera, and smoke testing to find where storm water gets into a sanitary sewer.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Knowing When to Backwash a Filter at the Tarnwell Plant
A grade 9 informational passage following a fictional plant operator's decision about when to backwash a filter, with literal, inferential, and procedure questions.
Grade 10 Reading passage
How the Elmscott Plant Turns Sewage into Water and Energy
A grade 10 science passage on wastewater treatment, tracing the stages a fictional reclamation plant uses to clean sewage and recover energy from sludge.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Why PFAS Are Called Forever Chemicals in Our Water
A grade 10 science passage on PFAS: why the carbon-fluorine bond makes them persist, how they reach water, and how a shifting federal rule limits them.
Grade 9 Reading passage
PFAS in Brindle Falls' Wells: Rules Still Being Written
A grade 9 science reading passage on PFAS, the 2024 federal limits and a proposed deadline exemption, and how a fictional town treated a contaminated well with carbon.
Grade 9 Reading passage
The Buried Network: Why Water Pipes Are Aging
A grade 9 science reading passage on the hidden network of aging water pipes, the cost of replacing them, and how a utility decides which pipes to fix first.
Grade 9 Reading passage
The Sampling Route at Havenbrook: A Water Quality Technician's Day
A grade 9 reading passage that follows a technician through a fictional district's sampling route, with questions on procedure, limits, criteria, and career paths.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Collecting a Compliance Sample: A Water Technician's Protocol
A grade 9 careers reading passage following a sampling technician through the protocol for a compliance sample, including the lead and bacteria special cases.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Millbrook's Constructed Wetland: A Biotechnology Reading Passage
A grade 10 informational passage on how a fictional town's constructed wetland uses plants and microbes to treat stormwater, with comprehension questions.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Turning Salty Groundwater into Tap Water: A Reverse Osmosis Passage
A grade 10 informational passage on how a fictional inland town uses reverse osmosis to treat brackish groundwater, with comprehension and vocabulary questions.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Booster Pump Stations and the Problem of Elevation
A grade 9 informational passage on how booster pump stations restore water pressure on a fictional hillside neighborhood, with procedure and inference questions.
Grade 9 Reading passage
Testing the Chemistry of Cobalt Reservoir Before Treatment
A grade 9 informational passage on the daily raw-water testing protocol technicians follow at a fictional reservoir, with questions on procedure and inference.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Turning Seawater into Drinking Water: The Carlsbad Desalination Plant
A grade 10 reading passage on the Carlsbad desalination plant, tracing how reverse osmosis works and weighing its costs against water reuse alternatives.
Grade 9 Reading passage
From Wastewater to Groundwater: Orange County's Recycling System
A grade 9 informational passage on the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System, tracing its three-step purification process and comparing it to ocean desalination.
Grade 10 Reading passage
Reverse Osmosis at the Carlsbad Desalination Plant
A grade 10 informational passage on the chemistry and engineering of reverse osmosis, using the real Carlsbad plant, with questions on procedure and inference.
Writing prompts
Grade 10 Writing prompt
Before Anyone Goes In: A Confined Space Entry Explainer
A grade 10 careers writing prompt in which students explain a fictional utility's permit-required confined space entry for a new-hire handbook.
Projects
Grade 9 Project
Thorncross Membrane Plant: The Shift Turnover Package
A four-session grade 9 careers project in which teams build the turnover form and escalation rules a fictional membrane plant's operators hand across at shift change.
Graphic organizers
Grade 10 Graphic organizer
Harrowgale's Discolored Water Call: A Role Handoff Chain
A grade 10 careers organizer tracing a discolored water complaint through six utility roles, with an exception table and a completed teacher exemplar.
Grade 9 Graphic organizer
When Filter Turbidity Climbs at Millgate: A Response Chain
A grade 9 cause-and-effect organizer that walks a fictional plant's turbidity response step by step, naming who acts at each stage and what each record must show.
Grade 10 Graphic organizer
Driftlow Avenue New Main: A Commissioning Sequence Organizer
A grade 10 sequence organizer for putting a fictional new water main into service, pairing each construction step with its acceptance test and its failure path.