Lesson Plan - Water Worries

Watch a Video: Where’s the Water?
Discuss: Why do scientists call droughts the “creeping disaster”? How are they different from other natural disasters? 

Preview Words to Know
Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know. 

• irrigation
• reservoirs

Set a Purpose for Reading
Note the “As You Read” question and have students think about how the drought might affect what people in the U.S. eat.

1. Why does the author include Joe Del Bosque’s personal story?
The author shares Del Bosque’s story to show how farmers have been hurt by the drought. The lack of water forced Del Bosque to leave a lot of land unplanted and to lay off workers.
^{R.1 Make Inferences}

2. How could the drought in California affect the entire country?
More than two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts and one-third of its vegetables come from California. The drought limits what farmers can grow, so these foods may be in short supply.
^{R.5 Cause/Effect}

3. What are two facts you can learn from the “Water Works” diagram?
Sample response: You can learn that snow melting off a mountaintop is called runoff and that this water goes into reservoirs. 
^{R.7 Reading a Diagram}

FEATURED SKILL: Analyzing Evidence
Use the skill builder “Dive Into Data” to introduce a strategy for analyzing statistics in articles. 
^{R.1 Text Evidence}