What do you know about earthquakes??

Category:Preassessment

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will compare and contrast various writing styles and distinguish technical writing from other writing techniques.
2. Students will assess personal knowledge regarding earthquakes and earthquake preparedness.

Materials, equipment and/or facilities:

• Writing materials
• Pictures, slides, or movies showing earthquake damage.
• Internet access to related Web sites
• Writing outline master, Seismic Sleuths - activity 1.1

Sequence and duration of each part of lesson:

A. Introduction: 20 minutes

Show a selection of images to familiarize students with the kind of damage earthquakes can cause. Tell students that they are going to draw on the knowledge they already have about earthquakes to invent a specific quake and imagine themselves in it. Distribute copies of the writing outlines (at the end of this document) and ask each student to note the date and time of their quake, its location, how much damage it caused, and other basic information at the top of page 1.

B. Lesson Development: 45 minutes

Now tell students that each of them is going to write about his or her hypothetical earthquake from three different points of view: that of a news reporter, a scientists, and an individual directly affected by the quake. Each of the three accounts will describe the same earthquake, but the styles of the three will vary.

• News Reporter: a short, concise article describing the who, what, where, and when of the earthquake and providing information the public needs.

• Scientist: a scientific account stating what is objectively known about the earthquake: its causes, its effects, its magnitude and or intensity, and the likelihood of its recurrence, if known.

• Eyewitness: a personal letter to a friend telling about being in an earthquake. This will describe what happened to the student, to the building in which the student was, to family members and pets, and to the family home during the earthquake. Have the students describe what they had done before the earthquake to be prepared, how effective their preparations were, what life was like in the two weeks following the earthquake, and what they would do differently in preparation for the next earthquake.

Tell students to feel free to make up information, quotations, etc., but to keep the basic facts consistent from one essay to another. Since, in real life, compositions of the second and third type are likely to be written later than news accounts, some discrepancies in details are to be expected.

C. Conclusion: 20 minutes

Ask students to talk about the experience of writing the accounts. Ask:

• Did you feel you had enough information to do the job in each case?
• Did some of you wish you knew more? Is there anything specific you'd like to find out?
• Was one point of view more comfortable than the others? Were some accounts easier to write?

Discuss the validity of the different points of view. Emphasize that each kind of account is valuable in its own right.

Adaptations and Extensions:

1. 1. If time is short, form groups of three students each. Have each student develop one point of view and share it with the group.
2. If this assessment reveals that students have very little basic information about earthquakes, you may want to spend class time with some of the books or videos in the Unit 2 resource list before proceeding.
3. Invite students to write about an earthquake from a premodern point of view, such as that of a Native American in North America before Columbus. Alternatively, students may write from the viewpoint of a traditional culture with which they are familiar.
4. Invite students to bring in samples of writing about earthquakes and classify them as journalistic, scientific, or informal. This could make a long term bulletin board display.

Evaluation:
Student assessment will be evaluated by written work and oral discussion.

Master Writing Outline

Date and time of the hypothetical earthquake:

Location:

Estimated strength and impact:

Richter magnitude:

Injuries:

Maximum Mercalli intensity if known(I-XII):

Deaths:

Property Damage ($):

Use these same facts in each for the three variations that follow.

1. Newspaper account: intended for the general public, who need practical infromation. May appear immediately after the quake, while aftershocks are still occurring and emergency conditions are still in effect.

   Dateline (place and time of filing story):_______________

   Lead sentence: must be catchy, attention-grabbing. May be a particularly startling fact of a quotation (make it up) from a person in authority, an expert, or an eyewitness.

   Rest of lead paragraph- must answer what, where, when, who was affected, and how. (May use quotations.)

   One or more body paragraphs- provide background. Add more details on effects, quotations from more people, possible explanation, analysis. (Think of what people need to know- what to do , where to go, what to watch for.)

   Final sentence- the clincher; ends the story with a punch. (Possibly a warning about aftershocks?)

2. Scientific account: intended for specialists; will probably appear well after the dust has settled.

   Lead paragraph- must answer what, where, when, who was affected, and how. Likely to be heavy with data instead of quotations. (Make them up too, but keep them consistent with the basic data at the top of page 1.)

   One or more body paragraphs- provide background and analysis, more details on effects, maybe quotations from experts, scietific explanations, and hypotheses. (Will probably compare original and revised estimates of severity and effects, compare to other quakes.)

   Final paragraph- summarizes what scientific knowledge has been gained or what plans are underway to gather information as a result of the earthquake.

3. Informal account: intended for a friend, usually also written after the worst is over, may include humor or exaggeration.