Standards- See Appendix A
Essential question
What are the similarities and differences between manmade and natural disasters?
Application
Students will create a list of manmade and natural disasters.
Students will classify disasters according to whether they are natural or manmade.
Students will compare and contrast similarities and differences between natural and manmade disasters.
Students will write a paragraph and share it orally with a partner.
Instruction, information and Resources
Instruction- Definition of what a disaster is. How to create and use a comparison matrix
Information- Students will need to know the definition of what a disaster is and the difference between a manmade and a natural one.
Resources- The student will be provided with sentence starters to complete a paragraph comparing manmade and natural disasters, a vocabulary log, and a rubric.
Evidence- Students will create their own paragraph using the class comparison matrix, the groups list, and the sentence starters to compare and contrast similarities and differences between manmade and natural disasters, They will present orally their paragraph, create a vocabulary log with the word 'disaster' and self assess their work.
Procedure
In order to activate prior knowledge regarding disasters, students, in cooperative groups, students read the definition of disaster written on the blackboard and brainstorm all the types of disasters that they can think of and that meet this definition. Some of these events could be: lots of homework, cleaning the house, a tree falls on the house, war, etc.
After the five-minute brainstorm, each group shares with the class. The teacher, or a student, writes down the group responses on chart paper in order to create a class list. Then the groups are given three minutes to include any other disaster they did not have as part of their group list. The teacher then introduces the modifier of 'manmade' and "natural" disasters asking for one example of each in the class list. Next, the students, in groups, are asked to classify their list according to whether they are manmade or natural disasters. After, as a class, a comparison matrix is created with the following headings:
Disaster | Manmade | Natural | Both | Neither
In the next step, the essential investigative question is read aloud and individually students are asked to complete the following sentence starters using the class comparison matrix in order to write a paragraph:
Manmade disasters versus natural disasters
. . . is an example of a manmade disaster. . . . is a manmade disaster because. . .
. . . is an example of a natural disaster. . . . is a natural disaster because. . .
One of the similarities between a manmade and a natural disaster is. . . because. . .
One of the differences between a manmade and a natural disaster is. . . because. . .
The following could be an example of a paragraph using the sentence starters:
A car crash is an example of a manmade disaster. A car crash is an example of a manmade disaster because nature is not a cause of the accident. An earthquake is an example of a natural disaster. An earthquake is an example of a natural disaster because its origin is due to the movement of tectonic plates. One of the similarities between a manmade disaster (a car crash) and a natural disaster (an earthquake) is that both can cause destruction. One of the differences between a manmade disaster (a car crash) and a natural disaster (an earthquake) is that the number of people affected is fewer.
Students are then paired and are asked to share their writing with their partner.
Finally, the students self assess their performance through the use of the rubric on Appendix C.