G4 document based questions

#8374 Document-Based Questions 4 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.Introduction Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy The questions on the assessment practice pages in Document-Based Questions for Rea

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Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

6421 Industry WayWestminster, CA 92683www.teachercreated.com

ISBN: 978-1-4206-8374-5

Reprinted, 2009Made in U.S.A

Karen J Goldfluss, M.S Ed.

Art Production Manager

The classroom teacher may

reproduce copies of materials in

this book for classroom use only

Reproduction of any part for an

entire school or school system is

strictly prohibited No part of this

publication may be transmitted,

stored, or recorded in any form

without written permission from

the publisher

Author

Debra J Housel, M.S Ed.

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#8374 Document-Based Questions ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book 3

Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy 4

Practice Suggestions 7

Standardized Test Success 8

Standards and Benchmarks 9

True Survival Stories Determined to Go Home 10

Doomed Pioneers: The Donner Party 13

Shipwrecked in Antarctica 16

Against All Odds 19

“Houston, We’ve Had a Problem” 22

Head Downhill and Follow the Water 25

Adrift in the Pacific Ocean 28

Incredible Disasters Chicago: Gone in a Puff of Smoke 31

The Great White Hurricane 34

The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy 37

The Flu Pandemic of 1918 40

The World’s Worst Tornado 43

The Great Alaskan Earthquake 46

Great Adventures The Journey that Proved Earth was Round 49

Wild Ride Down the Colorado River 52

The Klondike Gold Rush 55

The Race to the South Pole 58

A Risky Sea Journey 61

Conquering Mount Everest 64

Around the World in 71 Days 67

Amazing Discoveries Anesthesia 70

Genes 73

Vitamins 76

Antibiotics 79

The Dead Sea Scrolls 82

Qin’s Terracotta Army 85

Interesting Places Egypt: One Nation on Two Continents 88

Liberia, Named for Freedom 91

Mexico, Land of Corn 94

The Netherlands: Land of Windmills, Bicycles, and Tulips 97

North Korea 100

Nunavut, Land of the Inuit 103

Answer Key 106

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©Teacher Created Resources, Inc 3 #8374 Document-Based Questions

Introduction

About This Book

The primary goal of any reading task is comprehension Document-Based Questions for Reading

Comprehension and Critical Thinking uses high-interest grade-level nonfiction passages, related

documents, and critical thinking assessment practice to help you develop confident readers who can demonstrate their skills on standardized tests In addition, you will build the comprehension skills necessary for a lifetime of learning

There are five topic areas with six or seven lessons in each Each lesson consists of three pages: a passage, a related document, and an assessment practice page containing multiple choice, true/false—explain, and short-answer document-based questions This gives your students practice in all of the question types used in standardized testing The students respond to the document-based questions based on the information gleaned from the passage plus its related document Such questions improve

a student’s ability to apply prior knowledge, integrate information, and transfer knowledge to a new situation

Readability

These passages have a 4.0–4.9 reading level based on the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formula This

formula, built into Microsoft ® Word ™, determines readability by calculating the number of words, syllables, and sentences Average readability was determined for each of the five topic areas The topics are presented in order of increasing difficulty

The documents are not leveled Many of them are historical pieces and therefore replicated with the exact wording Some terminology may be challenging, but your students can handle difficult words within the context given

Preparing Students to Read Nonfiction Text

One of the best ways to prepare students to read expository text is to read a short selection aloud to them daily Reading expository text aloud is critical to developing your students’ ability to read it themselves Since making predictions is another way to make students tap into their prior knowledge, read the beginning of a passage, then stop, and ask them to predict what might occur next Do this at several points throughout your reading of the text By doing this, over time you will find that your students’ ability to make accurate predictions increases

Your questions will help students, especially struggling readers, focus on what’s important in a text Also, remember the significance of wait time Research has shown that the amount of time an educator waits for a student to answer after posing a question has a critical effect on learning So after you ask

a student a question, silently count to five (ten if you have a student who really struggles to put his or her thoughts into words) before giving any additional prompts or redirecting the question to another student

Talking about nonfiction concepts is also important Remember, however, that discussion can never replace reading aloud because people rarely speak using the vocabulary and complex sentence

structures of written language

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#8374 Document-Based Questions 4 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

Introduction

Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy

The questions on the assessment practice pages in Document-Based Questions for Reading

Comprehension and Critical Thinking assess all levels of learning in Bloom’s Taxonomy Benjamin

Bloom devised this six-level classification system for comprehension questions The questions on each assessment practice passage are always presented in this order They progress from easiest to most challenging

• Level 1: Knowledge—Students recall information or can find requested information in an

article They recognize dates, events, places, people, and main ideas

• Level 2: Comprehension—Students understand information This means that they can find

information that is stated in a different way than the question It also means students can rephrase

or restate information in their own words

• Level 3: Application—Students apply their knowledge to a specific situation They may be

asked to do something new with the knowledge

• Level 4: Analysis—Students break things into their component parts and examine those parts

They notice patterns in information

• Level 5: Synthesis—Students do something new with the information They integrate

knowledge and create new ideas They generalize, predict, plan, and draw conclusions

• Level 6: Evaluation—Students make judgments and assess value They form an opinion and

defend it They can also understand another person’s viewpoint

These skills are essential to keep in mind when teaching comprehension to assure that your students practice the higher levels of thinking Use this classification to form your own questions whenever your students read or listen to material

Assessment Practice Pages

Teach your students to read the passage and its related document before answering any of the questions

on the assessment practice page Armed with this information, your students can more rapidly and accurately answer each question

Multiple Choice Questions

The first three questions are multiple choice Based solely on the information given in the passage, they cover the knowledge, comprehension, and application levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

For these questions, demonstrate your own thought process by doing a “think aloud” to figure out an answer Tell your students your thoughts as they come to you For example, suppose the question was:

“In Yellowstone National Park, grizzly bears (a) do tricks, (b) roam free, (c) stay in cages, or (d) get caught in traps.”

Tell the students all your thoughts as they occur to you:

“Well, the grizzly bears living in Yellowstone National Park are wild bears So of course they don’t do tricks And it didn’t mention that they stay in cages They probably only do that in zoos or circuses

So I’ll get rid of choices A and C That leaves me with ‘roam free’ or ‘get caught in traps.’ Let me look back at the passage and see what it says about traps.” (Refer back to article.)

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©Teacher Created Resources, Inc #8374 Document-Based Questions

Introduction

Multiple Choice Questions (cont.)

“I don’t see anything about traps in the passage And I did see that it says that in Yellowstone National Park the bears are protected and their population is increasing That means they’re safe from traps, which are dangerous So I’m going to select (b)—roam free.”

True/False—Explain Questions

The fourth question is true false—explain It tests the analysis level of Bloom’s Taxonomy This

question may require students to use information from both the passage and the document to generate

an answer Just a one- or two-sentence response is required To respond correctly, the student must not only distinguish facts from falsehoods but also explain them This requires logical reasoning and analytical thinking They cannot receive full credit without an adequate explanation You must demonstrate how to write a good explanation For example, in response to the statement: “Thomas Jefferson wrote the Gettysburg Address,” the students could write, “False Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address” OR “False Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.” Either answer is acceptable and worth full credit

When the statement is clearly true, the student must state that and add information For example, in response to the statement: “Early pioneers in the Midwest had to cope with grasshopper plagues,” the students should write, “True The grasshoppers destroyed crops and even damaged buildings.”

Make sure that your students know that sometimes both “true” and “false” responses can be correct For example, in an article about rescuing Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, it states how hard

it was to convince the parents to let the rescue organization take away their children It also details the methods used to get the kids past the guards (crawling through sewers, sedated babies in toolboxes) In response to the question, “ During the rescue operation, the most difficult part was getting the parents

to release their kids to the rescuers,” some students may respond “True Many parents did not want to let their children go They were not sure that the children were in danger and thought that they could protect them.” But others may say, “False The hardest part was getting the kids out of the Ghetto without the Gestapo discovering what was going on.”

Either response is worth full credit because it is adequately defended This promotes critical thinking since the students must digest the information in order to take a stance

Document-Based Questions

The remaining questions require the students to integrate the information provided in the passage with the information shown in the document You must guide your students in understanding and responding to the document-based questions Again, the best way to teach such skills is to demonstrate how the formulation of an answer is achieved through a think aloud

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The final short answer question will be evaluative—the highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy This means that it is an opinion statement with no right answer Evaluative questions demand the highest thinking and logical reasoning skills The child must take a stance and defend it Although there is

no correct response, it is critical that the students support their opinions using facts and logic Show them a format for the defense—by stating their opinion followed by the word “because” and a reason For example, have a student respond to this question “Do you think that whales should be kept in aquariums and sea parks for people to enjoy?” The student may respond, “I do not think that whales should be kept at sea parks because they are wild animals and don’t want to be there They want to be free in the ocean.” Do not award full credit unless the student adequately supports his or her opinion Sample defenses are given for the evaluative questions, but students may present other valid opinions

as well Also, it would be most effective if you used the defenses written by the students themselves Thus, before passing back the practice papers, make note of two children who had opposing opinions Then, during the wrap-up discussion, call on each of these students to read his or her defense to the class If all the children had the same conclusion, give the opposing opinion from the answer key to show them both sides of the issue When it’s obvious that a topic has generated strong opinions in your students, you can encourage your class to debate

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Introduction

Practice SuggestionsRead aloud the first passage in each of the five topic areas and do its related questions with the

whole class Such group practice is essential The more your students practice, the more competent

and confident they will become Plan to have your class do every exercise in the Document-Based

Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking The activities are time-efficient so that

your students can practice each week To yield the best results, practice must begin at the start of the school year

If you have some students who cannot read the articles independently, allow them to read with a partner, then work through the comprehension questions alone Eventually all students must practice reading and answering the questions independently Move to this stage as soon as possible For the most effective practice sessions, follow these steps:

1 Have students read the text silently and answer the questions

2 Have students exchange papers to correct each other’s multiple choice section

3 Collect all the papers to score the short answer questions

4 Return the papers to their owners and discuss how the students determined their answers

5 Refer to the exact wording in the passage

6 Point out how students had to use their background knowledge to answer certain questions

7 Discuss the document-based questions thoroughly Do think-alouds to show how you integrated information from the passage and the document to formulate your response

8 Discuss how a child should defend his or her stance in an evaluative short-answer question

Scoring the Assessment Practice Passages

To generate a numeric score, follow these guidelines:

Total 100 points

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Introduction

Standardized Test Success

A key objective of Document-Based Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking

is to prepare your students to get the best possible scores on standardized tests You may want to practice environmental conditions throughout the year in order to get your students used to the testing environment For example, if your students’ desks are usually together, have students move them apart whenever you practice so it won’t feel strange on the test day

A student’s ability to do well on traditional standardized tests on comprehension requires these good test-taking skills Thus, every student in your class needs instruction in test-taking skills Even fluent readers and logical thinkers will perform better on standardized tests if you provide instruction in these areas:

• Understanding the question: Teach students to break down the question to figure out what is really being asked of them This book will prepare them for the kinds of questions they will encounter on standardized tests

• Concentrating on what the text says: Show students how to restrict their response to just what is asked When you go over the practice passages, ask your students to show where they found the correct response or inference in the text

• Ruling out distracters in multiple choice answers: Teach students to look for the key words in a question and look for those specific words to find the information in the text They also need to know that they may have to look for synonyms for the key words

• Maintaining concentration: Use classroom time to practice this in advance Reward students for maintaining concentration Explain to them the purpose of this practice and the reason why concentration is so essential

Students will need to use test-taking skills and strategies throughout their lives The exercises in

Document-Based Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking will guide your students

to become better readers and test-takers After practicing the exercises in this book, you will be

pleased with your students’ comprehension performance, not only on standardized tests, but with any expository text they encounter—within the classroom and beyond its walls

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Introduction

Standards and Benchmarks

McREL Standards are in bold Benchmarks are in regular print All lessons meet the following

standards and benchmarks

STANDARD 5 Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

Level II

Benchmark 3 Makes, confirms, and revises simple predictions about what will be found in a text

(e.g., uses prior knowledge and ideas presented in text, illustrations, titles, topic sentences, key words, and foreshadowing clues)

Benchmark 7 Understands level-appropriate reading vocabulary (e.g., synonyms, antonyms,

homophones, multi-meaning words)

Benchmark 10 Understands the author’s purpose (e.g., to persuade, to inform) or point of view STANDARD 7 Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of

informational texts Level II

Benchmark 1 Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts (e.g.,

textbooks, biographical sketches, letters, diaries, directions, procedures, magazines)

Benchmark 5 Summarizes and paraphrases information in texts (e.g., includes the main idea and

significant supporting details of a reading selection)

Benchmark 6 Uses prior knowledge and experience to understand and respond to new information

STANDARD 1 Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process

Level II

Benchmark 6 Uses strategies (e.g., adapts focus, point of view, organization, form) to write for a

variety of purposes (e.g., to inform, entertain, explain, describe, record ideas)

Benchmark 7 Writes expository compositions (e.g., identifies and stays on the topic; develops the

topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations; excludes extraneous and inappropriate information; uses structures such as cause-and-effect, chronology, similarities and differences; uses several sources of information; provides a

concluding statement)

Listed below are the McREL standards for Language Arts Level II (grades 3–5) All standards and benchmarks are used with permission from McREL

Kendall, J S., & Marzano, R J (2004) Content knowledge: A compendium

of standards and benchmarks for K-1 education Aurora, CO:

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning Online database:

http://www mcrel org/standards-benchmarks/

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True Survival Stories

Determined to Go Home

Shawnee Native Americans attacked what is now Blacksburg, Virginia, in July 1755 They killed the men and took two women hostage One was Mary Draper Ingles She was pregnant and had two sons, Thomas, age 4, and George, age 2 The Native Americans tied her to a horse with her sons behind her Then they set fire to the homes

Mary’s husband, William, was in the fields He saw the smoke and ran for home But he had no weapon and watched from the trees as the armed Native Americans led his family away Then he rushed to a neighboring settlement to form a rescue party Most of the land west of the Allegheny Mountains was unknown by white settlers And the Native Americans had a big lead The search party lost their trail After a month, the men gave up

After three days with her captors, Mary gave birth to a baby girl Then the group continued until they reached what is now Ohio Thomas and George were given to other tribes and left the area Native Americans often adopted young white children Mary’s heart nearly broke

The Shawnee had Mary make shirts Later they sent her and an old Dutch woman down the Ohio River to a natural salt spring Each day the women boiled the water to make salt Each evening they gathered grapes and nuts Then they returned to camp They knew that if they ran and were caught, they would be killed Yet the women made plans to escape They did not think the baby could survive the 800-mile trip So Mary would leave her behind and hope that she’d be adopted

One night the women did not return They decided to follow the river Each had a blanket and a tomahawk (Native American axe) The Native Americans did not look for them because they thought that wild animals had killed them Mary and her companion did not know this and kept looking over their shoulders It was fall, and the nights were cold Food was not as plentiful as in summer The women ate nuts and grapes When they came to a Native American cornfield, they stole every ear they could carry

Miles of walking wore out their moccasins and left them barefoot They lost their blankets crossing

a swift stream As cold winter winds blew, they huddled together and ate plant roots Exhausted and starved, they trudged along the river The old woman lost her mind and tried to kill Mary to eat her! Mary hid Although unable to swim, she had to get to the other side of the river for safety Luckily she found a canoe From then on, the women saw each other on opposite banks

In December, after 42 days of walking, Mary saw a cabin She shouted, then fainted A man came out and found her lying in the snow She was naked Her bones stuck out Her red hair had turned white, and most of her teeth had fallen out Mary sent the man to look for the old woman He found her and took her to a fort Then he went and got Mary’s husband

No one knows what happened to Mary’s daughter George fell ill and died soon after leaving his mother After 13 years of searching, Mary and William found Thomas

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Schroeder, Joan Vannorsdall Blue Ridge Country “An Extraordinary Woman, And Equal to Any Emergency.”

www.blueridgecountry.com/ingles/ingles.htm

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1 Why did Mary Draper Ingles go on such a difficult journey?

a She thought it was the only way to c She wanted to see her sons

b She wanted to help the old Dutch d She wanted to return to her husband

woman escape

2 How long did Mary Draper Ingles walk in order to reach home?

3 Mary Draper Ingles was kidnapped

a before the American Revolution began c after the American Revolution ended

b during the American Revolution d during the 19th century

4 Mary Draper Ingles was not the only captive of the Shawnee True or False? Explain

5 During her return trip, why didn’t Mary follow the same path that the Native Americans had taken

in the West Virginia area?

6 If you had been Mary Draper Ingles, would you have left your daughter and walked almost 800 miles home? Why or why not?

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Doomed Pioneers:

The Donner Party

In the spring of 1846, about 800 people headed for

California Among them were the Donner and Reed

families These two families joined together to form their

own wagon train They chose George and Jacob Donner

as their leaders More people joined their group in

southern Wyoming Soon they made a mistake that would

leave 90 people stuck in the Sierra Nevadas, a mountain

range in eastern California Of these, only 47 survived

that harsh winter

The trouble started when they left the main trail They took a shortcut that turned out to be anything but short It delayed their progress and made them move too slowly They knew they were in trouble

by October Tension grew Things started to fall apart when James Reed killed another man during a quarrel The group abandoned Reed in the desert without food or water A friend secretly gave him a horse and food Reed made it to California and that winter led a search party looking for the wagon train

The second week of October, panic set in When one man could not keep up, they left him in the desert, too A week later a man was accidentally shot They didn’t take time to bury him By

November, deep snows stopped the group from moving The cattle that had pulled the wagons soon died But their bodies were buried so far under the snow that the people could not reach them

They built crude shelters of logs, rocks, and hides They soon ran out of food and the deep snow made hunting nearly impossible They ate twigs, mice, and their shoes In December the group tried a daring plan Fourteen of the strongest would snowshoe to the nearest settlement It was a trip of 150 miles They carried six days’ worth of food, but the trip took 33 days Along the way half of them died It is believed that, to keep from starving, the remaining survivors had to resort to cannibalism

Seven reached the settlement They sent back food with the First Relief group The rescuers arrived

on February 19 The people in camp were so weak that they thought the men were angels Some had lost all their hair and their eyesight Twelve had died since the group had left A second relief group came to lead the people out of the mountains Death continued to stalk them One three-year-old girl died just five miles from the settlement, and a young boy ate so much dried meat that he died

Despite what the Donner Party faced, people scorned them because of their means of survival But since no one was murdered, no crime was committed They did what they had to do to survive

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Doomed Pioneers:

The Donner Party

In June 1918 a monument was erected in memory of the Donner Party in Donner Memorial State Park

Here is what a plaque on the monument reads:

Donner Party

Near this spot stood near the Breen cabin of the party of emigrants who started for

California near Springfield, Illinois in April, 1846, under the leadership of Captain George Donner Delays occurred and when the party reached this locality on October 29 the Truckee Pass emigrant road was concealed by snow The height of the shaft of this

monument indicates the depth of the snow, which was twenty-two feet After futile

attempts to cross the summit, the party was compelled to camp for the winter The

Graves cabin was situated about three-quarters of a mile to the eastward The Murphy cabin was about 200 yards southwest of the monument, and the Donner tents were at the head of Alder Creek Ninety people were in the party and forty-two perished, most

of them from starvation and exposure.”

In commemoration of the pioneers who crossed the Plains to settle in California

The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco “Donner Monument California State Historic Landmark 134.”

http://www.sonic.net/~laird/landmarks/counties/100-199/134.html

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Doomed Pioneers:

The Donner Party

1 The Donner Party’s end destination was

2 Cannibalism means

a killing other people for food c abandoning people in the desert

3 The group left James Reed in the desert because he

4 The First Relief Group led the settlers out of their snowy encampment True or False? Explain

5 According to the plaque, which families had cabins during that terrible winter of 1846–47?

6 Were the people in the Donner party wrong to eat the dead members of the group? Why or why not?

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Shipwrecked in Antarctica

Ernest Shackleton was a British explorer who hoped to be the first to travel across Antarctica In 1914, Shackleton and his crew of 27 seemed ready for the adventure as they packed food, tents, and warm

clothes onto the ship Endurance The men did not know how apt the ship’s name was They would

face an incredible ordeal that would require endurance

When the Endurance was just 100 miles from Antarctica’s shore, ice floes closed around it The ship

could not move It was stuck for 10 months Then millions of tons of ice started to crush the ship The captain made the men get off and take all the supplies they could carry in three rowboats The men had to trek through freezing winds on the cold, barren ice pulling these boats At night they slept

in sleeping bags on the ice One night the ice cracked beneath a sleeping man He fell into the icy water, but Shackleton plucked him out They had no extra clothes, so the man walked around for hours until his clothing dried If he had stopped moving, he would have frozen to death

Sometimes large leopard seals chased the men They followed the men’s shadows through the ice and then burst through cracks in the ice with their jaws opened wide showing their huge, saw-like teeth The men shot and ate them They caught fish, too

After 497 days on ice and water, the captain and crew made it to Elephant Island It was covered with rocks and ice Most of the men stayed there, but Shackleton and five men rowed away in a small boat They rowed for 800 miles through Earth’s most stormy seas Exhausted, they landed on South Georgia Island This island had a whaling town But they landed on the wrong side! The men had to cross steep mountains that had never been crossed before They had just a rope On the way down, Shackleton tied the men together, and they slid down 2,000 feet Upon reaching town, he immediately got a ship and headed back for his men But the seas were so rough that it took him three months and four attempts to get close to Elephant Island

Meanwhile the men on Elephant Island had lost hope They had waited for four months Perhaps the little rowboat had sunk If so, no one would know where they were Then they saw sails coming toward them They waved and cheered Their leader had come for them at last! Every man had survived

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January 8, 1922

Death Notice

Shackleton, Ernest Age 47 Struck

down by a heart attack on January

5 near South Georgia Island on his

fourth trip to Antarctica Survived

by his wife Emily and three children

Knighted in 1909 Sir Shackleton

accompanied Robert Scott’s trip to

Antarctica (1901–1904) He then led

his own group (1908–1909) On a third

trip, his ship, Endurance, was lost, but

the crew survived Author of Heart

of the Antarctic (1909) and South

(1919) Burial at Whaler’s Cemetery in

Grytviken, South Georgia.

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1 Shackleton and five men set out in a rowboat to go to

2 Which was not a danger faced by the men on the expedition?

3 Why were the men better off on Elephant Island than they had been on the ice floes?

b They could find more things to eat d They were more likely to be seen

by a passing ship

4 Shackleton’s ordeal ended when he set foot on South Georgia Island True or False? Explain

5 What really interested Ernest Shackleton? How do you know? Include details from his death notice

6 Which part of this survival story is the most amazing? Why?

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Against All OddsSeventeen years before becoming U.S president, John F

Kennedy survived against all odds During World War II

he was the captain of a Patrol Torpedo boat serving in the

Solomon Islands These small boats launched torpedoes at

Japanese ships Most PT boats went out only after dark

Kennedy commanded PT 10 They were in dangerous

waters and cut the engine to reduce the chance of detection

It was pitch black with a fog rising from the water

Suddenly a Japanese destroyer slid through the darkness

It sliced PT 10 in half! One half quickly sank, and two

of the crew died instantly The other 11 men would face a

long ordeal No rescue party would search for them Another PT captain had seen the flames from the collision He believed that all hands were lost Back at their base in Rendova, a funeral service was held for the men

One man was badly burned Another had a hurt leg Kennedy dove into the water and pulled each one

to safety on the half of the boat still afloat Every man had a life vest, but the ship was sinking By morning they had to get to land Kennedy chose an island about three miles away He took the strap

of the burned man’s life vest between his teeth Then he swam for five hours with him in tow He still reached the island before the rest of his men Then he went back to help the injured man and a poor swimmer

Once all the men had hidden in bushes, Kennedy took to the water again He wanted to go to a place where PT boats often lurked He had to walk across a sharp coral reef that slashed his feet But that night, no boats came It took him the rest of the night to return to the others He had had nothing

to drink and was getting weak The next night another man made the same trip But again no boats came Kennedy said that they must go to another island Again he took the burned man in tow It took them three hours to reach the island That night it rained, and they got water by sucking on leaves Moving resulted in some luck They found a keg of water, Japanese hardtack*, and candy The men shared these things and felt a little stronger Two natives paddled by in a canoe These people had been invaded by the Japanese and were on the Americans’ side Kennedy signaled them He scratched

“Rendova” on a coconut The natives took it and paddled away

The next day four natives came The New Zealand Navy had sent them They put Kennedy in the bottom of their canoe and covered him with palm branches They crossed the passage right in front of Japanese troops The men smuggled Kennedy to the New Zealand base From there a PT boat rescued him that night He guided it to the island where his crew awaited They had endured six awful days and nights

*a biscuit made of just flour and water

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Against All Odds

Navy & Marine Corps Medal

ToLieutenant, Junior Grade, John Fitzgerald Kennedy

United States Navyfor service as set forth in the following

CITATION: “For heroism in the rescue of 3 men following the ramming and

sinking of his motor torpedo boat while attempting a torpedo attack on a

Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands area on the night of Aug 1-2, 1943

Lt KENNEDy, Capt of the boat, directed the rescue of the crew and personally

rescued 3 men, one of whom was seriously injured During the following 6

days, he succeeded in getting his crew ashore, and after swimming many hours attempting to secure aid and food, finally effected the rescue of the men His

courage, endurance and excellent leadership contributed to the saving of

several lives and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States

Naval Service.”

Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center “Lt John F Kennedy’s NMCM Citation.”

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq60-10.htm

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Against All Odds

1 It’s clear that Kennedy was a strong swimmer since he

b did more swimming than the other men d swam for miles towing another man

2 Why did no one come to rescue the crew of PT 10?

a No one knew that they had crashed c The crew did not want help

b Another PT captain reported that d During a war, no one searches for

3 The natives took the coconut from Kennedy to

4 Moving to the second island was a good idea True or False? Explain

5 According to the Navy and Marine Corps Medal citation, when did Kennedy and his men suffer through their ordeal in the Solomon Islands?

6 Do you think that Kennedy’s heroism helped him to win the U.S presidential election 17 years later? Why or why not?

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“Houston, We’ve Had

Lovell and his men left the main ship They got into the lunar module (LM) This tiny craft was meant

to land on the moon It was built to keep two men alive for two days Now three men sat inside it They were four days away from home

Getting into the LM kept them from suffocating Now NASA engineers had to find a way to keep the men breathing with a small supply of oxygen At the same time, scientists went to work They did long math calculations They figured out when the men should fire their rockets and what course they should take

Making the remaining oxygen last was of top importance To do this, a filter had to be made Luckily NASA engineers had a detailed list of what was on board They knew every item they had to work with A ground team designed and built the filter They used just the things that the astronauts had Then they radioed instructions to the crew

The cardboard from an instruction manual formed part of the filter Special thermal underwear was aboard with thin tubing woven into the fabric Water would flow through these tubes to keep the men cool as they worked on the moon Now the underwear was unneeded But its plastic tubing was used

in the filter It took the three men one hour to make it Lovell said later, “It wasn’t handsome, but it worked.”

The men had to circle the moon Just before reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the crew cast off the

service and lunar modules They made a safe landing in the command module They splashed down

in the Pacific Ocean Some people think that bringing the Apollo 13 crew home safely was NASA’s

finest hour

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a Problem”

Since You Want My Opinion

My money’s on Apollo 13 being the best film this year Don’t be surprised to see multiple

Oscar nominations I went in knowing the ending, and it still managed to keep me on the edge of my seat The film has the feel of science fiction suspense, but it’s actually a true tale of amazing heroism and inventiveness

Ron Howard expertly directs Apollo 13, a film documenting the near-fatal 13th mission

of the Apollo space program Tom Hanks is outstanding in the role of Jim Lovell, the

commander of the mission The rest of the cast gives great performances as well

Many Americans already know Apollo 13’s saga In April 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft

blasted off with a three-man crew They were to be the third group to walk on the moon

By then, a moon landing was so commonplace that the launch wasn’t broadcast on

television But on the way, an oxygen tank exploded The men had to forget their moon landing Worse, it was unlikely that they could get home Their determined struggle to return to Earth is one of the most heart-stopping, heroic stories of modern times

The film details what happens after the explosion It shows the tension on the ground

as Mission Control members race to design a makeshift filter and make painstakingly

accurate mathematical calculations It details the distress of the men’s wives who must deal with the fact that they may never return while the media constantly pesters them The real tension is felt in the scenes inside the spaceship Howard’s use of special effects gives you the feeling that you are there The men shut down all nonessential systems to save power You shiver as they nearly freeze to death inside the unheated space module You swallow hard as they cobble a carbon dioxide filter to keep from suffocating You’re gripping the arms of your seat when you find they must make course corrections with a malfunctioning computer

Go see Apollo 13; you’ll be glad you did I usually don’t like sitting through movies that

go over two hours This one is 140 minutes, but I guarantee you’d need a heart of stone

to get restless

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a Problem”

1 The astronauts first knew that they had trouble when

a the service module blew up c they started losing oxygen and electricity rapidly

b Houston contacted them and d they began to suffocate

told them that there was a problem

2 The astronauts safely landed in the ocean in the

3 How did the makeshift filter help the crew?

a It gave them more electrical power c It kept the spacecraft from overheating

b It let them have enough oxygen d It gave them something to do so that

4 Teamwork saved the crew of the Apollo 13 mission True or False? Explain.

5 List three compliments that the movie reviewer includes to encourage readers to go see Apollo 13

6 There are several books written about Apollo 13, two of them by Commander Jim Lovell Which would help you to better understand what the astronauts went through: watching the film Apollo 13

or reading one of these books? Why? _

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Head Downhill and Follow the Water

Juliane Koepcke, 17, sat next to her mother in a Lockheed Electra plane on the night of December 24,

1971 The German girl had just graduated from high school in Lima, Peru The pair was on the way to meet her father But when lightning struck the plane, its right wing burst into flames

Juliane has no memory of what happened next She passed out Still strapped into her seat, she awoke three hours later The plane had crashed into a mountainous region of the Amazon rain forest Juliane had a broken collarbone and a deep gash in her right arm Even worse, she’d lost the sight in one eye She searched for others But of the 92 people aboard, she was the sole survivor

Juliane was in shock The pain was overwhelming Yet she remembered her father saying that if a person was lost in the jungle, she should go downhill That would lead to water, and water always leads to people She had on one sandal and a skirt Still, she knew she had to follow his advice if she were to survive So she struggled along, breaking a path through the thick growth on the dark jungle floor Several times she heard planes pass overhead But she had no way to signal to them

At last she found a muddy stream and followed it Hundreds of mosquito bites drained her blood Worms and leeches clung to her legs Her feet were covered with blisters Juliane did not know what was safe to eat So she ate nothing Her only water came from drinking the rain that fell on leaves After ten days of walking, she came to a hunter’s hut She stumbled into it and collapsed

The next day a group of hunters arrived They saw that the insect eggs buried in her skin had begun to hatch To kill them, they poured gasoline on her Then the men put her into their canoe and paddled for seven hours They reached the town of Tournavista on January 2, 1972 From there a helicopter carried her to a hospital When she was released, a local pilot flew her to her father

Later she led rescue workers to the plane wreckage From the remains, it was estimated that she

survived a fall of two miles from the sky High winds had slowed her fall so that she spiraled instead

of plummeting Today Juliane is a biologist in Germany

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Causes of Plane Crashes

These percentages come from 2,147 commercial aviation accidents from 1950 through 2004

In cases with several causes, the most important one was used Military, private, and charter aircraft were not included

Notes:

*Pilot error includes accidents in which pilots made a mistake based on weather conditions

or mechanical problems

*Other human error includes air traffic controller error, improper loading of aircraft, fuel

problems, poor maintenance, etc

*Sabotage includes bombs, shoot-downs, and hijackings

Plane Crash Info “Accident Statistics.” http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm

Pilot Error 37%

Other Causes 1%

Other Human Error 4%

Weather

7%

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1 Why did Juliane walk downhill?

a Her injured mother had begged c Her father had once said that doing

b She was in a canoe and water d She couldn’t go up the mountain

always flows downhill

2 Why did the hunters douse Juliane with gasoline?

b to kill the insects living on her d to kill her

3 Why did Juliane drink only rainwater?

a She wasn’t sure if any other c Drinking water from a stream

b She never found any other water d She only had access to saltwater

4 Juliane was saved by a group of hunters True or False? Explain

5 Based on the pie graph, was the plane crash that Juliane survived caused by one of the two most common reasons for fatal aviation accidents? Give the percentages for each

6 Look at the most common causes of fatal plane crashes What could be done to reduce this type

of accident?

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Adrift in the Pacific Ocean

Richard Van Pham is a survivor He came to the United States in 1976 after fleeing communist

Vietnam But escaping a war-torn country did not turn out to be his biggest challenge That came in 2002

In May 2002, Van Pham, 62, set out from California on what was meant to be a three-hour sailing trip

to Catalina Island It was a trip of just 22 miles Instead, a sudden storm broke the mast, radio, and

motor of the Sea Breeze

Van Pham was retired He had no boss or coworkers to notice his absence He also had no family to report him missing He lived on his sailboat in the Long Beach Harbor No one knew that he was out

in the water So for nearly four months his boat drifted

But Van Pham did not perish He was resourceful He drank rain water that he collected in a bucket

He ate sea turtles, fish, and sea birds He found that he hated the taste of raw meat So he used some

of the wood from his own boat to build a fire He didn’t know how often he’d be lucky in trying

to catch game So he tried to conserve as much food as possible He figured out how to evaporate seawater and used the salt to preserve the meat!

In September a plane flew over Van Pham’s boat He waved frantically The pilot tipped his wings

to show that he saw that the boat was in trouble Two hours later a U.S Navy frigate arrived at Van Pham’s location He was speechless with joy His boat had drifted about 2,500 miles He was found

275 miles off the coast of Costa Rica

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Course of Richard Van Pham’s Unplanned Journey

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1 Van Pham was stuck on his boat for nearly

2 Van Pham had moved to the United States from

3 Van Pham’s most vital survival skill was his ability to

b let the plane know that he was in trouble d figure out how to get food and water

4 The U.S Coast Guard didn’t search for the Sea Breeze because they never heard his distress

signal True or False? Explain

5 In what direction did Van Pham’s boat drift? Why do you think it went in this direction?

6 If Van Pham’s boat had had an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), rescuers could have quickly located his boat Between 1982 and 2002, EPIRBs helped to save 14,700 people Should there be a law requiring all ocean-going boats to have an EPIRB? Why or why not?

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At that time the city had 651 miles of wooden sidewalks It also had 60,000 buildings Nearly all of them were wooden Constant winds blowing off Lake Michigan gave Chicago its nickname of the Windy City Now the wind spread the flames rapidly Even worse, it sent sparks flying across the Chicago River If that hadn’t happened, the river could have provided a natural firebreak

The night the fire began, the city’s firemen were tired They had fought 30 fires in the past week A lookout atop the courthouse saw smoke coming from the O’Leary’s barn But in his excitement, he gave the wrong location The blaze was already out of control by the time the firemen got there

A burning plank crashed through the wooden roof of the city’s waterworks This knocked the water pumps out of action And it left the frustrated firemen nothing with which to fight the flames Then the fire reached the “inflammable” city hall High heat made the limestone and marble building crack

It didn’t burn But it turned into a big pile of rubble

Some people waded as far as possible into the lake and kept all but their heads underwater They had

to keep dodging the flaming debris falling all around them Makeshift hospitals and morgues were set

up in homes But they had to keep moving to stay ahead of the relentless flames After a while the dead bodies were abandoned It was more important to keep moving the injured The blaze raged for

24 hours It wiped out the downtown area and most of the North Side It ended when rain fell

The fire killed at least 300 people and left 90,000 homeless At least $200 million in property was lost, too At that time insurance was a luxury Most people lost all they owned and did not get an insurance payment

Like a phoenix, Chicago rose from its ashes to become one of the greatest cities in the world In just six months, half of the city had been rebuilt The new buildings and homes were made of brick

and stone

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Chicago, October 24, 1871

To all in the service of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society:

With donations pouring in and with multitudes of sufferers every tendency will be towards a generous distribution of supplies But remember that there are from six

to eight months before us in which we will have to fight the hunger, cold, and nakedness

of our poor

you will, therefore, see that not a single dollar be expended for persons able to

provide for themselves Every carpenter or mason can now earn from $3 to $4 per day, every laborer $2, every half-grown boy $1, every woman capable of doing household work from $2 to $3 dollars per week Clerks, and persons unaccustomed to outdoor labor, if they cannot find such employment as they have been accustomed to, must take such as is offered or leave the city Any man, single woman, or boy, able to work, and unemployed at this time, is so from choice and not from necessity you will, therefore, give no aid to any families who are capable of earning their own support (except to supply some needed articles of clothing, bedding, or furniture which their earnings will not enable them to procure1, and at the same time meet their ordinary expenses of food and fuel)

Our aid must be for the aged, infirm2, widows and orphans, and to supply to families those actual necessities of life, which they are unable to procure by their labor

Any failure on the part of any employee of the Society to conform to the instructions above given will be regarded as sufficient cause for his instant dismissal

O C GIBBS,

Gen’l Sup’t of Distribution of Supplies

Approved by the Executive Committee

WIRT DEXTER, Chairman

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Incredible Disasters

Chicago: Gone in

a Puff of Smoke

1 Chicago’s nickname is

2 The Great Chicago Fire finally ended when

a the fire reached the shores of b the fire couldn’t cross the

from neighboring towns’ firemen

3 For a short time after the fire, the O’Learys hid They went out only in disguise Why?

a They were embarrassed for not b They had deliberately set the city on fire helping anyone to escape from the fire

c They thought that people might d They were rich and thought that

attack them and blame them for the fire everyone would beg them for money

4 In the notice dated October 24, 1871, Mr O.C Gibbs urges relief workers to be generous in distributing the relief funds True or False? Explain _

5 After reading the Chicago Relief and Aid Society notice, what conclusions can you draw about the wages of men (carpenters, masons, and laborers) and boys compared to women?

6 Does the Chicago Relief and Aid Society put too much of a burden on the poor to prove their need for funds? Why or why not?

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The Great White Hurricane

Blizzards are snowstorms with high winds and cold temperatures The blowing snow makes it hard

to see even a few feet ahead The bitter cold can cause frostbite and death These storms occur most often after a spell of warm weather in the winter For that reason March is one of the worst months for blizzards

The United States, Canada, and Russia have blizzards In America, blizzards often hit the plains states

In the 1800s, settlers built homes there They had to go to the barn to care for their animals To keep from getting lost during a storm, they strung a rope between the cabin and the barn Then they held

it as they walked back and forth If they didn’t, they might not find their way back! If a person were stuck out in the open, he or she would try to find shelter under a pile of hay The settlers learned how

to live with blizzards But people in East Coast cities were not as familiar with these storms They did not understand the danger

The Great White Hurricane of 1888 followed the normal pattern for bad blizzards The weather had been too warm for March Rain turned to snow The temperature fell The storm lasted 36 hours At other times there had been heavier snowfalls, higher winds, and colder temperatures But the three factors together created one of the worst blizzards in American history Strong gusts blew the snow into drifts as tall as four-story buildings! The blizzard slammed the East Coast of the United States from Chesapeake Bay to Maine It battered eastern Canada, too

At least 400 people died in the storm This includes the 100 sailors that died when 200 ships were blown from the Atlantic Ocean onto the coast

One of the hardest-hit places was New York City It had snowdrifts 50 feet high A locomotive

derailed when it ran into a huge drift Many other trains got stuck Buildings were buried People had

to dig tunnels through the snow packed around their homes Thousands were stranded Some were stuck in carriages on the street Others were in their offices Nearly 15,000 people were trapped on elevated tracks in unheated cars More than 200 people froze to death on the streets One was a U.S senator He tried to walk home from his office during the storm! People who ran out of fuel even froze to death at home

The streets were choked with snow No one could get into or out of the city for a week Food and fuel grew scarce Thousands of men worked for two weeks shoveling snow from the streets The communication and transportation problems worried city leaders They decided that New York City should run its telegraph, phone, and power lines under the streets They also wanted an underground subway

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Twelve-year-old Milton Daub lived in New York City in 1888 When he was an old man, he wrote about his experience after the blizzard:

On the morning of March 12, 1888 snow was piled up to the windows one story high Our front and back doors were blocked with snow All our windows were covered

My father said to my mother, “How are we fixed for food?”

She replied, “We have everything All we need is some milk.”

I said, “I will make a pair of snow shoes [Using] two wooden barrel hoops, some wire, some twine, a piece of canvas, and my roller skates without the wheels my father and myself had a pair of home made snow shoes Father nailed a box on top of my sledge, [the] sledge and snow shoes were placed outside of the window.”

I bought 50 cents worth of condensed milk at Mike Ash’s grocery shore Mr Ash charged me the regular price I sold the milk at the same amount Every delivery I made I received a fine reward In less than 20 minutes I had tips of $2 and my original 50 cents.

Milton went back to the store, bought a case of condensed milk and sold it He kept doing this for about three hours When he got home, his worried parents were upset But after he ate lunch, they agreed to let him go back out At 5 p.m he returned home with $67.65 in tips That amount of money was worth about the same as $800 today!

Excerpts from a letter by Milton Daub, dated March 12, 1944; from the BV Blizzardmen of 1888 Collection in the New York Historical Society.

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1 Which nation is least likely to experience a blizzard?

2 Blizzards occur most often in

3 Why did more than 200 people die on the streets of New York City during the 1888 blizzard?

c They went out to look at the derailed d They were used to blizzards and

locomotive and couldn’t find their way home didn’t think this was a major one

4 The Great White Hurricane of 1888 did not cause trouble for ships at sea True or False?

Explain _

5 How and why did Milton Daub make so much money after the Blizzard of 1888?

6 If an identical blizzard struck New York City today, would it cause as much trouble as it did in 1888? Why or why not?

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The Triangle Shirtwaist TragedyAmerican factories were growing fast in the 1900s But business

owners did not treat their workers well They made them work for long

hours and low wages Often the workers faced hot, dirty, and dangerous

conditions Such workplaces were called sweatshops Many women

and children worked in these awful places They did not dare to argue

If they didn’t work, they wouldn’t eat Unlike today, there were no

social programs to help them

Then, in February 1910, the workers of 13 sweatshops in New York

City went on strike They wanted better conditions One of the affected

firms was the Triangle Shirtwaist Company But the strike failed The

people were fired New people were hired At that time many new

immigrants entered America each day They wanted to work They

took any job offered to them

Just a little over a year after the strike, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company was the scene of a terrible tragedy In those days, people worked six days a week March 25, 1911, was a Saturday It was also payday Near quitting time paychecks were handed to the workers on the tenth floor Most were teenage girls Many were Italian and Jewish immigrants They had taken the jobs of the fired strikers They sewed shirts for low pay

Suddenly a fire broke out It quickly swept through the tenth floor The one escape route could not let all the women pass Very few got out The only fire escape fell apart when the women stepped on to it! Some waited at the windows for the firemen But their ladders did not reach high enough Water from the hoses did not reach the top floors either Many girls chose to leap to their deaths They didn’t want to burn alive A total of 146 died The second exit could have saved lives But it was nailed shut

to keep workers from taking spools of thread

News of the fire brought to light the poor conditions under which the girls had labored People

demanded that the factory’s owners be brought to trial Eight months after the fire, a jury had to decide

if the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire The jurors decided they were not guilty This upset many people The dead girls’ families brought lawsuits against the men The owners ended up paying $75 for each life lost

But some good did come of this disaster It brought about laws that required safer working conditions That’s why today’s workers are 30 times less likely to die on the job than the workers of 1911

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy

Nellie Bly, who worked for New York World, was the first female reporter She went undercover to

find out the truth Here are excerpts from the articles she wrote after working with the young women

in a box-making factory:

I did not find the work difficult to learn, but rather disagreeable The room was not

ventilated*, and the paste and glue smells were very offensive The piles of boxes made conversation impossible with all the girls except a beginner who sat by my side She was very timid at first, but after I questioned her kindly she grew more communicative

“Have you worked in the box factory long?” I asked

“For 11 years, and I can’t say that it has ever given me a living On an average

I make $5 a week I pay out $3.50 for board, and my wash bill is 75 cents Can

anyone expect a woman to dress on what remains?”

“What do you get paid for boxes?”

“I get 50 cents a hundred for one-pound candy boxes, and 40 cents a hundred

for half-pound boxes.”

“What work do you do on a box for that pay?”

“Everything I get the pasteboard cut in squares the same as you did I first

‘set up’ the lids, then I ‘mold in’ the bottoms This forms a box Next I do the

‘trimming,’ which is putting the gilt edge around the box lid ‘Cover striping’

(covering the edge of the lid) is next, and then comes the ‘top label,’ which

finishes the lid Then I paper the box, do the ‘bottom labeling,’ and then put in

two or four laces (lace paper) on the inside as ordered Thus you see one box

passes through my hands eight times before it is finished I have to work very

hard and without ceasing to be able to make two hundred boxes a day, which

earns me $1 It is not enough pay you see I handle two hundred boxes sixteen

hundred times for $1 Cheap labor, isn’t it?”

One girl who worked on the floor below me said they were not allowed to tell what they earned However, she had been working here five years, and she did not average more than $5 a week

The factory itself was a totally unfit place for women The rooms were small and there was no ventilation In case of fire there was practically no escape

*causes air to enter and move about freely in a room or building

Bly, Nellie, 1887 “Experience in the Role of a New york Shop-girl Making Paper Boxes.”

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy

1 The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory happened in

2 Why did the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory strike fail?

a The owners set a fire that c The strikers didn’t dare to leave their

b A fire killed most of the strikers d New immigrants took the jobs from which

the strikers had walked away

3 The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory’s second exit was locked because the owners

a wanted to protect the workers c thought that the workers were

4 The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory helped to bring about needed reforms True or False? Explain _

5 Name the two things that workers in the box-making factory had in common with the workers in Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

6 Should the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory have been found guilty of manslaughter (accidental murder)? Why or why not?

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