Unit Title:
Major Work:
Functional
Texts
Science text illustrations
of faults.
Map showing placement
of volcanoes.
Timetables indicating
frequency of natural
disasters.
Learning from Tragedies
The Big Wave
by Pearl S. Buck
Informational
Texts
Gelman, Rita Golden, Mount St.
Helens, The Big Blast
Literary Text
Buck, Pearl S., The Big Wave
Billings, Billings and Dramer,
Critical Reading Series: Disasters
Blank, Joseph P., “The Town
That Disappeared,” Reader’s
Digest, August, 1989
Billings, Billings and Dramer,
Critical Reading Series:
Calamities
Claiborne, Robert, “Can There
Be a Good Forest Fire?”
Reader’s Digest, October, 1972
Planet Earth: Continents in
Collision Time Life Books
Henley, William E., England,
My England “A Treasury of the
Familiar”
Planet Earth: Earthquake, Time
Life Books
Planet Earth: Volcano Time Life
Books
A simply written explanation of
the grief process.
London, Jack, “The Story of an
Eyewitness,” Adventures for
Readers, Book One
Payne, John H., “Home, Sweet
Home!”, Voices of America
Identify Desired Results
What overarching understandings
are desired?
Disasters and catastrophes will unpredictably
occur; however, positive outcomes can happen.
Life is stronger than death.
What the scientific basis is for earthquakes,
volcanoes, and tsunamis.
What one should do in the face of disaster and its
aftermath.
What will students understand as
a result of this unit?
That families and communities are important, especially
in critical situations.
The scientific basis for earthquakes, volcanoes, and
tsunamis.
Some of the skills necessary to survive.
That grief is a process toward healing.
What the earthquake hazards of living in Utah are, and
ways to enhance survival chances.
How to write a paragraph composed spatially,
chronologically, and by order of importance.
How to write an essay.
What are the overarching “essential”
questions?
What positive outcomes can result from tragedy?
In order to survive, what must I know and do?
How are the people around you important in
critical situations?
Why do groups of people remain living in places
where disasters commonly occur?
What “essential” and “unit” questions
will focus this unit?
What positive results can come from tragedies?
What is the scientific basis for earthquakes,
volcanoes, and tsunamis?
How are the people around you important to your
survival?
Why do groups of people remain living in
hazardous places?
Determine Acceptable Evidence
What evidence will show that students understand?
Performance Tasks, Projects
Presentation of personal heritage connections - collage
Answering chapter questions
Literary response journals
Group survival campaign project
Quizzes, Tests, Academic Prompts
Quizzes on readings
Essay on importance of family and community to survival
Writing paragraphs
Other Evidence, e.g., Observations
Work Samples, Dialogues
Class Discussions
Student Self-Assessment
Self-assessment guides on each written work and
project
Group evaluation on collaboration and finished
project
Plan Learning Experience and Instruction
What evidence will show that students understand?
Students will need to know:
How to take notes while viewing and listening.
How to write a paragraph and an essay.
Reading strategies for before, during, and after
reading.
How to make a presentation.
Students will be able to:
Use a graphic organizer to find main and subordinate ideas
and supporting details.Write a paragraph with a topic sentence
and use spatial, chronological, and order of importance
methods of sequencing information (also in an essay).
Use KWL, predicting, strategic reading, and post-reading
synthesis.
Present a collage showing self and heritage to class. Also,
create a campaign to teach younger children about disaster
preparation.
What teaching and learning experiences will equip students to demonstrate
the targeted understandings?
Using KWL before investigating the scientific basis for earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis.
Preparing questions to interview parent/grandparent/adult from same cultural background, and use that information in
presenting self and heritage to class.
Teaching paragraph structure.
Teaching essay structure.
Teaching methods for taking notes.
Working on word choice and organization in writing through creating word banks and composing poetry, paragraphs, and an
essay.
Giving a presentation of self to class and working with a group creating a campaign to teach younger children about disaster
preparation.
Cross-Curricular Connections
What are they learning
in Science?
What are they learning in
language arts?
Biology
Cell structure
Where do they overlap?
Earth structuring
-Genes
-Ecology
-Plant life
-Animal life
Geology
-Land structure
-Types of rocks
Land structures
-Tectonic plates
Rocks
-Continental drift theory
Ecology
-Effects of volcanoes and
earthquakes on earth structure
and ecology
Sociology
-Family heritage
-Adoption
-Death
-Occupations
How will I reach each strand?
Presenting
Reading informative texts.
Demonstrate and help students with their interviewing process to do a
presentation of themselves and their heritages.
Prepare a campaign in groups for the purpose of teaching younger children.
Viewing
Listening
Through note-taking guides and
graphic organizers, students will
demonstrate that careful listening
has occurred.
Reading narrative texts.
Reading functional texts.
Using pre-reading strategies:
KWL, anticipation guides.
During reading strategies:
strategic questioning, literature
response journal.
View videos on volcanoes and
earthquakes while using note taking guides.
Summarize the main ideas
presented in the video in
journals.
Reading
Post-reading strategies: writing
paragraphs, writing an essay, and
giving two presentations.
Core Curriculum
Speaking
Writing
Journal entries.
Presentation of self and heritage to
class with the help of a collage.
Descriptive paragraphs – using
spatial, chronological and order
of importance methods.
Possibly in the group –
presentation on survival
preparedness.
Essay on the importance of
families and communities.
Class discussions.
Creating poetry from word
banks.
An EXPOSITORY Writing Assignment With a
Six Trait Component
Prompt:
Writing poems about volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis (paying particular attention to word
choice).
Writing an essay about the importance of family and community.
Prewriting Activities
Reading about the subject.
Watching videos portraying the
subject.
Composing Activities
Writing phrases using word banks.
Writing poems.
Creating word lists.
Revision Activities
Peer and self-assessment of
poems.
Reading poems and comparing
positive and negative aspects.
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Reading about the subject.
Composing thesis – listing
supporting criteria.
Presenting guidelines for revision.
Journal writing.
Viewing photographs.
Organizing paragraphs.
Summarizing.
Peer assessment paying attention
to organization and word choice.
Adult assessment other than
teacher.
Detail of Activity to Teach Listening,
Speaking, Viewing, Presenting (Choose One)
Strand: Word Choice
Class creates lists of words that describe earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. Divide lists
into categories of adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Students may use thesauruses to build the
lists. Lists are posted on a bulletin board.
Students pair descriptive and active words to create an image. Discuss the use of “dead”
words and the avoidance of using them.
Students use words and phrases to create poems.
Present the 1-5 point rating scale (1994 Spandel and Culham) to students to rate their
writing.
In small groups, students read each other’s poems. At the suggestions of the students in the
groups, the author circles unnaturally forced and dead words.
Students rewrite their poems.
Members of groups rate the poems for word choice using the 1-5 scale. The best poem of
each group is presented to the class.
Detailed Revision of Activity Ideas, Organization, Voice,
Word Choice, or Sentence Fluency (Choose One)
Trait: Presenting
Personal demonstration of student’s family connections and heritage and how they have been
important to their survival and success in life.
Students compose lists of questions for interviewing parent/grandparent/significant adult in
their lives about heritage and cultural background.
Students conduct the interview (encourage the use of audiotapes and videotapes).
Students create a poster collage connecting themselves to their heritage.
Students show and explain their collages to the class.
Posters are displayed along with student’s photos where available.
___________________________________________________________________
Group campaign for teaching survival preparedness to younger children.
Group lists important criteria about subject – what to know about a disaster and how to
survive it.
Group makes up a skit, composes a song/chant/rap, and makes a poster.
Group presents it for the class (if connections can be established, presentations may be made
to local elementary schools).
Reading Activity to Teach Text Structure
Other Than Narrative
Text Type:
Using an overhead, show a series of graphs and diagrams to students. Point out the
use of color, symbols, arrows, and other devices used to facilitate understanding.
Have students discuss the meaning of each one.
Also using the overhead, show transparencies of photographs and pictures. Have
students make guesses about the subject mater. After they think they have the
message figured out, show author/artist/photographer information. Compare
student’s assumptions with reality.
Help the students make the leap to understanding that the overheads exercise is
similar to their Science, Social Studies, and other texts.