Standards Correlations

R.1, R.3, R.4, R.6, R.7, R.9, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Learning Objective

Students will use text evidence to draw and support a conclusion.

Key Skills

text evidence, text features, vocabulary, sequence of events, author’s craft, cause and effect, critical thinking, synthesizing, narrative writing

Complexity Factors

Purpose: The text describes the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 through the experience of a teen who survived it.

 

Structure: The text includes narrative and informational passages.

 

Language: The article contains some domain-specific vocabulary, which is defined in the vocabulary box.

 

Knowledge Demands: Some knowledge of what causes earthquakes will aid comprehension.

Levels

Lexile: 500L-600L 

Guided Reading Level: T 

DRA Level: 50

SEL Connection

This story and lesson plan promote social awareness.

Lesson Plan: “This Is the End of the World”

Essential Questions

  • How do the forces of nature affect our lives?
  • How do we survive great hardships?

Literature Connection

  • Historical fiction: I Survived the Great Alaska Earthquake, 1964 by Lauren Tarshis
  • Novel: Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret

1. Preparing to Read 

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article in their magazines or at Action Online. Preview the text features by asking the following questions:

  • Read the article’s title and subtitle. Study the illustration included. What about the illustrated scene would make someone describe it as “the end of the world”? Sample answer: The road has split open, and cars are falling into the gaps. Buildings are destroyed. A power pole looks like it’s about to fall to the ground. There is smoke in the air. The sky looks dark in some parts and yellowish in others, which seems unnatural. 
  • Study the map “The Ring of Fire” and read its caption. What is the Ring of Fire? What does it have to do with the 1964 earthquake? The Ring of Fire is an area where many plate boundaries exist. That means it’s also an area where many earthquakes happen. The 1964 earthquake happened inside the Ring of Fire.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

  • Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (tremble, wilderness, isolated, prone, miraculously) aloud and discuss their definitions.
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

  • Set a purpose for reading by telling students that the article “‘This Is the End of the World’” describes the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964, focusing on a teen survivor.
  • Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.
  • Tell students that as they finish each section, they should think about how the text features on the page (e.g., photos, captions, and section headings) relate to what they’ve just read.
  • Point out the activity at the end of the article. Tell students they’ll complete it after reading. Encourage them to keep the Think About It! question at the bottom in mind as they read.

 2. Reading and Unpacking the Text

Read the article. (Higher- and lower-Lexile versions are available on the Story page at Action Online. Click Presentation View to access an audio read-aloud.) Then discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

  • How was Tom feeling on the morning of the earthquake? Why do you think the author includes this detail? (author’s craft) Tom was feeling extra happy on the morning of the earthquake. He had a day off from school and was expecting to enjoy it. The author probably mentions Tom’s good mood to help readers understand how completely unexpected the disaster was.
  • In the section “Like a Bomb,” what details help the reader imagine the scary experience of being in an earthquake? (author’s craft) Examples of details about the scene include: The earth split apart, the harbor looked like it was boiling, the Chena tossed and turned like a toy in a bathtub, and the waterfront crumbled into the sea.
  • Why did the people of Valdez rebuild the town in a different location after the earthquake? (cause and effect) Valdez was in danger after the earthquake. Scientists said that the ground it had been built on was not stable. The people could have left for other towns and cities, but they wanted Valdez to live on. They rebuilt Valdez a few miles away, where the ground was firmer.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

  • What makes a town a town? After the Great Alaska Earthquake, the town of Valdez was rebuilt in a new location. It was built from scratch, with new homes, roads, and docks—and yet it was still Valdez. Explain how this can be. (critical thinking) Answers will vary. Students will likely say that although the town’s location on the map changed and its buildings and roads were brand-new, the people were the same, with shared experiences, relationships, traditions,  and memories. Put another way, the most important part of a town or any community is its people.
  • Based on what you learned about earthquakes in the article, what makes this type of disaster so destructive? (synthesizing) Sample answer: Earthquakes don’t have obvious warning signs, so they are hard to predict. They are not caused by the actions of humans, so there are no rules or laws we can put in place to prevent them. They cause buildings to come crumbling down and roads to split open. They can also have very destructive aftereffects, such as tsunamis and fires. 

3. Skill Building and Writing

  • Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Text Evidence activity. As a class, discuss students’ answers and the Think About It! question.
  • Have students work independently to complete our Sequence of Events Skill Builder, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
  • Writing prompt: Imagine that you were one of the other kids in the car with Tom and Ed when the Great Alaska Earthquake struck. Write a journal entry describing what you saw, heard, felt, and were thinking in the minutes or hours after the shaking started. Use details from the article, as well as your own imagination, to describe the experience.

Learn-Anywhere Activity

An enrichment activity to extend the learning journey at home or in the classroom

Project the task below on your whiteboard or share it with students in your LMS.

Discuss the Power of Human Resilience

After reading the article, watch our video “Behind the Scenes: ‘This Is the End of the World.’” In the video, author Lauren Tarshis talks about how and why she wrote the story. 

Tarshis says that this story shows the power of human resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from, recover from, or try again after a big change or problem. The people of Valdez showed resilience by rebuilding their town after the earthquake brought death, destruction, and fear into their lives. 

Think of another story, fiction or nonfiction, that shows the power of human resilience. It can be a story you’ve read, a movie, or something you experienced yourself. It can be about someone recovering from an illness or an injury, living through a disaster, trying again after a failure, or anything similar that inspires you. Once you’ve chosen your story, answer these questions on a separate sheet of paper:

  • Who is the story about?
  • What difficulty does the person (or people) in the story face?
  • How does the person (or people) show resilience?
  • What are some other qualities a person might have that would help them through difficult times? Does the person (or people) in the story you’re writing about show these qualities?
  • What lessons can others learn from the story?

After answering the questions, sit down with a partner or a small group and tell each other about your stories. Like Tarshis did in the video, explain what interests you about the story and why you wanted to share it.

Language-Acquisition Springboard

Review hard and soft th sounds to boost fluency.

The article’s title includes the words this and the, which begin with a hard th sound. The article is about an earthquake, a word that contains a soft th sound. For new English speakers, it can be tough to know how to pronounce each th they encounter.

Practice saying these common words that include a th. If the word has a hard th, have students shout it. If the word has a soft th, have them whisper.  

Words with a hard th: bother, brother, father, feather, leather, mother, other, that, then, these, those

Words with a soft th: birthday, both, fifth, healthy, math, month, theme, third, thing, think, thirsty, with  

Encourage students to look for patterns to help them decide how to pronounce each word. But also let them know that English is full of exceptions and that getting some wrong is to be expected.

Looking for more ELL support? Download our full lesson plan and scroll to p. 5 to find questions that will help your ELLs respond to the text at the level that’s right for them.

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