Unit 3 — Natural Disasters
Description
Students examine natural disasters through informational texts and narrative nonfiction while developing argument-writing skills. Texts including "Eruption! Volcanoes," "Between the Glacier and the Sea," and "Hurricanes" provide factual information and allow students to synthesize knowledge about different disaster types. The unit emphasizes identifying central ideas in informational texts, understanding cause-and-effect relationships, and evaluating media techniques in videos. Students learn to construct opinion essays with supporting reasons and evidence, developing persuasive writing abilities. The culminating task is an opinion essay about natural disaster preparedness or prevention, supported by text evidence.
Essential Questions
- How can learning about natural disasters make us safer?
- How do you write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence?
- How do we efficiently identify the central ideas in informational texts in order to better understand unfamiliar texts?
- How do we concisely summarize events in informational texts in order to better understand unfamiliar texts?
Learning Objectives
- Determine the central idea of an informational text and cite supporting details
- Summarize informational text using context clues and text features
- Understand text structure in informational writing (cause-effect, comparison)
- Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to meaning
- Write opinion essays with clear claims, supporting reasons, and evidence
- Use transitional words and phrases to link ideas in persuasive writing
Suggested Texts
- Who Studies Natural Disasters? — informational text (letter) (week 1)
- Eruption! Volcanoes and the Science of Saving Lives — narrative nonfiction (week 1)
- Between the Glacier and the Sea: The Alaska Earthquake — informational video (week 2)
- Quaking Earth, Racing Waves — informational text (week 2)
- Hurricanes: The Science Behind Killer Storms — informational text (week 3)
Supplemental Resources
- Graphic organizers for cause-and-effect relationships
- Highlighters for marking supporting details
- Chart paper for recording central ideas from multiple texts
- Printed images or diagrams showing natural disaster formations
- Index cards for recording opinion statement and supporting reasons
Reading: Informational Text
Speaking and Listening
Writing
Students explore inventions, natural disasters, environmental topics, space exploration, and animal behaviors through reading and writing about scientific phenomena and discoveries.
Students apply mathematical thinking through data analysis, problem-solving, measurement, and quantitative reasoning embedded in reading and writing activities across units.
Formative Assessments
- Questioning to monitor comprehension of central ideas
- Note-taking practice from multiple sources
- Small group discussions about cause-and-effect relationships
- Drafting opinion statements with supporting reasons
- Fluency practice with appropriate expression for informational text
Summative Assessment
Opinion essay and End of Unit Assessment
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may respond orally to questions about central ideas and supporting details from natural disaster texts, or work with a teacher to organize ideas using graphic organizers and sentence starters for the opinion essay. Visual supports such as images or video clips may be used to reinforce understanding of disaster types and cause-and-effect relationships.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from graphic organizers that visually map cause-and-effect relationships found in natural disaster texts, supporting both comprehension and note-taking. Providing audio versions of informational texts or using text-to-speech tools allows students to access complex content without being limited by decoding demands. For the opinion essay, consider allowing students to dictate their claim and supporting reasons before writing, or to submit a structured outline with sentence starters in place of a full draft. Extended time and chunked assignments with clear checkpoints will support students in managing the multi-step writing process.
Section 504
Students should be given extended time on reading tasks and the opinion essay to reduce processing pressure during this content-heavy unit. Preferential seating and a low-distraction environment will help students stay focused during informational text reading and note-taking activities. Providing a printed copy of any directions or discussion prompts, rather than relying solely on verbal delivery, supports consistent access throughout the unit.
ELL / MLL
Pre-teaching key domain vocabulary related to natural disasters—such as terms for geological and weather phenomena, as well as opinion-writing language like 'claim,' 'evidence,' and 'reason'—will help students engage more confidently with both the texts and the writing task. Visual supports such as diagrams, labeled photographs, and cause-and-effect charts connected to the unit's content can make complex informational concepts more accessible. Allowing students to discuss ideas or organize their thinking in their home language before composing in English supports deeper engagement with the material and stronger written output.
At Risk (RTI)
Connecting the unit's content to students' prior knowledge or personal experiences with weather events and environmental change can provide a meaningful entry point into informational texts about natural disasters. Offering partially completed graphic organizers or sentence frames for identifying central ideas and cause-and-effect relationships reduces the complexity of the task while keeping students engaged with grade-level content. For the opinion essay, guiding students to focus on a single clear reason supported by one piece of text evidence helps build confidence and writing competency before expanding to a fuller argument structure.
Gifted & Talented
Students may be encouraged to go beyond summarizing central ideas by analyzing how different authors structure arguments or present evidence about similar disaster types, evaluating the effectiveness of each approach. For the opinion essay, students can be challenged to consider and address a counterargument, strengthening the sophistication of their persuasive writing. Exploring how scientists, journalists, and policymakers communicate about natural disaster preparedness across different media types offers an interdisciplinary extension that deepens engagement with both the content and the unit's multimedia analysis objectives.