Group # 1 = 1-4
Group # 2 = 5-8
Group # 3 = 9-12
Group # 4 = 13-16
Group # 5 = 17- 20
Group # 6 = 21- 24
Group # 7 = 25- 28
Group # 8 = 29- 32
Ch.14 sec. 4
The Plague Reading Activity
Group Work Norms
•Be Respectful.
•Be Productive.
•Be Helpful.
•Be Positive.
Step 1 + 2
• Hover: Start at the end of the selection, and
quickly skim for (don’t read) and circle words
that you don’t know the meaning of.
• Talk to your group members and see what
words you have in common- see if anyone
knows the meaning.
Step 3
• Share out with the class words
your table still does not know.
Step 4
• Underline the parts of the
passage …
Paragraph #1
• Underline the continents
the Plague struck.
Paragraph #1
• Underline the name of this
deadly disease.
Paragraph #1
• Underline what fathers and
mothers refused to do with
their children.
Paragraph #2
• Underline where the Plague
began.
Paragraph #2
• Underline the description of
buboes.
Paragraph #3
• Underline carrier(s) of the
disease.
Paragraph #3
• Underline the fraction of the
European population killed by
the Plague in Europe
• 1 The Black Death Strikes
• During the 1300s an epidemic struck parts of Asia, North
Africa, and Europe. Approximately one-third of the population
of Europe died of the deadly disease known as the bubonic
plague. Unlike catastrophes that pull communities together,
this epidemic was so terrifying that it ripped apart the very
fabric of society. Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer of the
time, described its effect:
• This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of
men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles
their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives
deserted their husbands. But even worse, . . . fathers and
mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children.
• GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO, The Decameron
• 2 Origins and Impact of the Plague The plague began in Asia.
Traveling trade routes, it infected parts of Asia, the Muslim
world, and Europe. In 1347, a fleet of Genoese merchant ships
arrived in Sicily carrying bubonic plague, also known as the
Black Death. It got the name because of the Painful swellings
in the lymph nodes particularly those in the armpits and groin
called buboes (BOO•bohz). Other symptoms were purplish or
blackish spots on the skin and extremely high fever, chills,
delirium, and in most cases, death. The disease swept through
Italy. From there it followed trade routes to Spain, France,
Germany, England, and other parts of Europe and North
Africa.
• 3 Disease Spreads
• Black rats carried fleas that were infested with the disease.
Because people did not bathe, almost all had fleas and lice. In
addition, medieval people threw their garbage and sewage
into the streets. These unsanitary streets became breeding
grounds for more rats. The fleas carried by rats leapt from
person to person, thus spreading the bubonic plague with
incredible speed. The bubonic plague took about four years to
reach almost every corner of Europe. Some communities
escaped unharmed, but in others, approximately two-thirds to
three-quarters of those who caught the disease died. Before
the bubonic plague ran its course, it decimated one-third of
the European population (almost 25 million Europeans), and
many more millions in Asia and North Africa. The plague
returned every few years, though it never struck as severely as
in the first outbreak. However, the periodic attacks further
reduced the population.
Step 5: As a group, put on the paper provided this list
of gruesome symptoms into the order that you think a
sufferer would have experienced them.
a) Internal bleeding
b) Arms and legs become sore
c) Headaches, chills and a fever
d) Death
e) Buboes split open, oozing blood and pus
f) Buboes form
g) Nausea and vomiting
Gruesome symptoms order…
c) Headaches, chills and a fever
g) Nausea and vomiting
b) Arms and legs become sore
f) Buboes form
e) Buboes split open, oozing blood and pus
a) Internal bleeding
d) Death
Step 6
• Create a six- comic strip that
includes the main idea(s) for
each paragraph -- due at the
end of the hour (?)