Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Start with an everyday case where order and cause come apart.

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "On Monday a student wore new sneakers and her team won. On Tuesday she wore them again and the team won again. She says the sneakers make the team win. What happened first, and what happened next? Did the first event cause the second? What would you need to know to say that it did?"

   Collect answers. Many students will say that the sneakers came first but did not cause the wins. Name the error: treating an event as a cause only because it came first is called post hoc reasoning, from the Latin post hoc, ergo propter hoc, "after this, therefore because of this." Tell students that RH.9-10.3 asks them to trace a series of events in a history text in detail and to decide, for each link, whether the text shows a cause or only an order.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: Three kinds of link. Put this table on the board and keep it up all period. The difference between a stated and a suggested cause is whether the author says it or the reader infers it from the details.

   Three kinds of link between an earlier event (A) and a later one (B)

   Link	What the text does	Words to look for
   Stated cause	Says that A produced B	because, caused by, so ... that, from, by means of, as a result
   Suggested cause	Gives details that show how A led to B, without a signal word	Details placed side by side; the reader explains the mechanism
   Simply preceded	Puts A before B and gives no link, or shows that A ended without producing B	then, next, after, at about this time, the night before

   Two cautions. A stated cause is still the author's claim: say who makes it ("Stetson says ..."), and notice whether he saw it or learned it from someone else. And a real cause may exist that the text does not give; if you know it from another source, label it as outside information.

   Part 2: Model with Stetson. James B. Stetson lived at 1801 Van Ness Avenue and wrote these recollections in June 1906, two months after the events. Read T1 aloud. Students number the paragraphs and mark every event with a dot in the margin, then circle any causal signal word. Work the four examples below.

   1On the morning of April 18, 1906, at 5:13, in my residence, 1801 Van Ness Avenue, I was awakened by a very severe shock of earthquake. The shaking was so violent that it nearly threw me out of bed. It threw down a large bookcase in my chamber, broke the glass front, and smashed two chairs; another bookcase fell across the floor; the chandelier was so violently shaken that I thought it would be broken into pieces. The bric-a-brac was thrown from the mantel and tables, and strewed the floor with broken china and glass. It is said to have lasted fifty-eight seconds, but as nearly as I can estimate the violent part was only about twelve seconds.

   2As soon as it was over I got up and went to the window, and saw the air in the street filled with a white dust, which was caused by the falling of masonry from St. Luke's Church on the diagonal corner from my room. I waited for the dust to settle, and I then saw the damage which had been done to Claus Spreckels's house and the church. The chimneys of the Spreckels mansion were gone, the stone balustrade and carved work wrecked. The roof and the points of the gables and ornamental stone work of the church had fallen, covering the sidewalk and lying piled up against the sides of the building to the depth of eight or ten feet.

   [...]

   3I then went over to the power-house of the California-Street Railroad and found that about seventy feet of the smoke-stack had fallen diagonally across the roof, and about six feet of it into the stable, where were two horses; fortunately it did not touch them, but before they were released they squealed and cried, most piteously. One of them was so badly frightened that he was afterward useless and we turned him out to pasture and he grew lean and absolutely worthless. Things were considerably disturbed, but the engines were apparently uninjured. The watchman was not injured, although surrounded by falling bricks and mortar. I was told that the water supply was stopped, and later learned that it was because the earthquake had broken the water-mains.

   4I then started on foot down-town, this was about 7 A. M.; no cars were running on any line. The sidewalks in many places were heaved up, chimneys thrown down, and walls cracked by the earthquake. St. Mary's Cathedral and Grace Church gave no outward sign of being injured; neither did the Fairmont Hotel. I went on California Street, over Nob Hill, and as I got in sight of the business part of the city, I saw as many as ten or twelve fires in the lower part of the city. The wind was light from the northwest, and the smoke ascended in great columns, and the sun through it looked like a large copper disk. When I arrived at California and Montgomery streets the lower part of both sides of California Street seemed to be all on fire. I did not realize that the whole city would be burned. I had a vague idea that it would stop, or be stopped, as fires had been hundreds of times before in this city.

   • A stated cause (T1, paragraph 2)

     "I got up and went to the window, and saw the air in the street filled with a white dust, which was caused by the falling of masonry from St. Luke's Church."

     Result: Stated cause. The signal "caused by" links the falling masonry (A) to the dust (B). Stetson also shows that the masonry fell in the earthquake: he looks out "as soon as it was over" and sees "the damage which had been done." The chain is earthquake, falling masonry, dust.

   • A stated cause learned secondhand (T1, paragraph 3)

     "I was told that the water supply was stopped, and later learned that it was because the earthquake had broken the water-mains."

     Result: Stated cause, with the signal "because." Stetson did not see the broken mains: he was "told" the water had stopped and "later learned" the reason. An accurate analysis keeps that source: "Stetson reports that he later learned the earthquake had broken the water-mains."

   • Only an order (T1, paragraph 4)

     "I saw as many as ten or twelve fires in the lower part of the city."

     Result: Simply preceded, as far as T1 goes. The fires come after the earthquake in the text, but T1 gives no signal word and no detail about how any fire began. A reader who writes "the earthquake started the fires" is using outside information, and must say so. Order in the text is not a causal claim.

   • A model analysis of T1 (78 words)

     Task: in 80 words or fewer, analyze the chain of events in T1 and say which links the text shows as causes.

     Result: Stetson's account ties two chains to the earthquake. First, the shock brings down stone from St. Luke's Church, and the falling masonry fills the street with dust, a link he states with "caused by" (paragraph 2). Second, the water supply stops, and he "later learned" the cause was broken water-mains (paragraph 3). The fires differ: he sees them about two hours after the shock, but T1 never says what started them, so here the earthquake only precedes them.

   Show Diagram 1. Each row is one chain from T1; the solid arrows are links the text states or clearly shows, and the dashed arrows are links where the text gives only the order. Then show Diagram 2 and walk through its questions with the example of the fires.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read T2 together. It is the afternoon of the next day, April 19, and the fire is approaching Stetson's own street. Pairs list the events of paragraph 2 in order with the times Stetson gives (3:00, 3:30, 4:00-4:30), then label each link with Diagram 2. Stop after paragraph 2 and ask: Which link does Stetson state with the word "caused"? Is it something he saw, or his judgment?

   1As it approached Van Ness it did not burn north of Washington Street. The wind being northwest, and Van Ness Avenue 125 feet in width, I felt sure the fire would not cross.

   [...]

   2At 3 o'clock the soldiers drove the people north on Van Ness and west up to Franklin Street, saying that they were going to dynamite the east side of Van Ness. From my window I watched the movements of the fire-fighters and dynamiters. They first set fire to every house on the east side of Van Ness Avenue between Washington and Bush streets, and by 3:30 nearly every one was on fire. Their method was this: A soldier would, with a vessel like a fruit-dish in his hand, containing some inflammable stuff, enter the house, climb to the second floor, go to the front window, open it, pull down the shade and curtain, and set fire to the contents of his dish. In a short time the shades and curtain would be in a blaze. When the fire started slowly, they would throw bricks and stones up to the windows and break the glass to give it draught. It took about 20 minutes for a building to get well on fire. From 4 to 4:30 St. Luke's and the Presbyterian Church and all the houses on Van Ness Avenue from Bush to Washington were on fire. At about this time they began dynamiting. Then they started backfiring, and, as the line, of fire was at Polk Street, the idea was to meet the flames and not allow them to cross Van Ness Avenue. This was a great mistake, as it caused the whole of the blocks between those streets to be on fire at once, which made an intense heat, while if allowed to approach Van Ness from Polk Street the heat would have been much less, and would not have ignited the west side of Van Ness. The explosions of dynamite were felt fearfully in my house; those within two blocks would jar and shake the house violently, breaking the windows, and at the same time setting off the burglar alarm. As the windows would break it tore the shades and curtains, covered the floor with glass, and cracked the walls. After it was over I found that it had demolished in my house twelve plates and fifty-four sheets of glass, each measuring about thirty by fifty inches.

   [...]

   3Another tier of blocks, from Leavenworth to Van Ness, between Jackson and Pacific, had taken fire. This was about 10:15 P. M.. At 11:15 it had got to Van Ness, and Bothin's house, which was at the corner of Van Ness and Jackson, was fully on fire, but although it was entirely consumed, the fire did not cross to the west side of Van Ness. The wind during all the day and evening was steady from the northwest,--not a very strong wind, but it helped protect the west side of Van Ness.

   Teacher model for the pair work: The soldiers set fire to the houses on the east side of Van Ness, and then, "at about this time," the dynamiting and backfiring begin; the text gives the order of these steps, and their purpose ("to meet the flames"), but not a cause of one by the other. Stetson states a cause and judges it: the backfiring "caused the whole of the blocks between those streets to be on fire at once," which he calls "a great mistake." He saw the fire and the heat; the claim that the west side would otherwise have been safe is his judgment about what might have happened. The explosions breaking his windows is a cause he felt in his own house, and he counts the result: "fifty-four sheets of glass."

   Ask pairs to compare paragraphs 1 and 3. In paragraph 1 Stetson expects the width of the avenue and the wind to stop the fire; paragraph 3 reports that later that night the fire did not cross. Does paragraph 3 prove his explanation? It says the wind "helped protect" the west side, a stated cause, but T2 cannot show what would have happened with a different wind.

   Practice analysis for Activity 2. The passage below was written for this page and contains deliberate errors. Pairs will test it against T1 and T2.

   Stetson's account shows a clear chain of causes on the morning of April 18. The earthquake threw down his bookcase, and because the bookcase fell, the chandelier shook so violently. The falling masonry from St. Luke's Church caused the white dust in the street. Because the water supply stopped, the earthquake broke the water-mains.

   The earthquake then started the ten or twelve fires that Stetson saw downtown, as T1 explains. Because the wind was light from the northwest, the smoke rose in great columns.

   In the afternoon, soldiers set fire to the houses on the east side of Van Ness Avenue, and then they began dynamiting, so setting the houses on fire caused the dynamiting. Finally, the dynamite explosions broke the windows in Stetson's house.

4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes

   Students read two excerpts from Frank J. Loesch's account of the Chicago fire of October 1871. Loesch was a young bookkeeper for the Western Union Telegraph Company at the time and later a Chicago lawyer; he published this account in 1925, 54 years after the fire. Students mark each event and circle each causal signal, then take the quiz, which uses T3 and T5 along with T1.

   1The summer of 1871 was an intensely hot one. No rain had fallen in the Lake region for about three months prior to October 8th. Great forest fires with large loss of life were taking place in the then heavily pine-forested regions of Central and Northern Michigan and Wisconsin. I recall our excitement on Saturday and Sunday, October 7th and 8th, on reading in the morning papers stories of the destruction of forests and villages, with the loss of many lives, about Sturgeon Bay and other places in Wisconsin and Michigan.

   2As is generally known, the residential portion of Chicago was almost wholly constructed of wood. Brick and limestone structures were largely confined to the South Side business district.

   [...]

   3The sidewalks, except in the South Side business district, where limestone flags predominated, were entirely of pine or hemlock planking and many of the streets were raised on wooden supports from four to ten feet above the natural surface to meet the street grades which had by that much been raised above the natural surface. It can be seen what added fuel to a general fire was made by such construction of sidewalks and street pavements. The raised portions of the streets were sustained by heavy stone retaining walls on each side.

   [...]

   4Before midnight of Saturday, October seventh, our household of about thirty boarders was aroused by cries of “Fire!” The sky was red from a southwesterly blaze. A number of the young men, including myself, started for the scene of it and were stopped on the east side of the Madison Street bridge. From there we saw the destruction of the then Union Railroad Station, a frame structure, located on the East Side of Canal Street, opposite Monroe Street. South of Adams Street to Van Buren Street were located planing mills and lumber yards. The fire was fierce and spectacular with such material to feed upon, but there was no wind and the fire exhausted itself without crossing the South Branch of the river. That was the night before the beginning of the great fire. It brought directly home to us all the fire hazard the city was exposed to and little else was talked of on that Sunday. Everything was as dry as tinder from the long drouth and great summer heat.

   [...]

   5As churchgoers were coming out of their places of worship on Sunday evening, fire bells were ringing furiously and a rapidly increasing red glare towards the Southwest Side indicated that another fire had broken out. A strong hot wind had been blowing from the southwest during the day and it seemed to have gained in strength at this time.

   [...]

   6Some time after leaving Monroe and Franklin Streets there was a loud explosion. I learned from the crowd making its way to the tunnel that it was the explosion of the gas works. Gas lights had gone out everywhere and the escaping gas had doubtless hastened the action of the fire in many buildings. At any rate the tunnel was dark.

   1Here LeRow revived and we parted, he to go north, I to go into the Telegraph Company’s office to learn if I could be of service. Some three or four of my fellow clerks were there, besides the manager. Some one had opened the vault door, into which we put all the books of account that were about, the men having worked on them that day. Unfortunately the chief bookkeeper had been working all day in a private room on the fourth floor, on his September accounts and had left many of the books up there for the night. They were, of course, lost. I saw the manager place a lot of gold coins into a small portable office safe at his desk. It was suggested to him that we move the safe into the large vault but he declined to have it done as being unnecessary. After the fire the stack of vaults in that building was found upright amidst the debris of the rest of the building, the contents of each vault being intact, but the manager’s safe had been melted down and after diligent search amidst the ruins there was found only a little trickle of gold in the shape of a thin vein over some bricks.

   2All salvage work in our office was being done by the light of the flames. The building opposite on Washington Street was ablaze and the roof of our building was burning. The telegraph operators had abandoned their instruments on the upper floors and were running down the stairway as I hurried into La Salle Street and ran north to Randolph Street.

   [...]

   3I stopped for a few moments at the north corner of Randolph and La Salle Streets to look about me. All the buildings south on La Salle Street as far as I could see, south of Washington Street, were ablaze. So were some north of it. My particular attention was, however, called to the Court House and City Hall. The former had for its center building a brown stone structure surmounted by a cupola in which was hung a large bell. The interior of the building was burning and the flames being carried up through the open space had set the bell to ringing. Above all the sounds of the roaring fire, the wind and the excited shouts of a moving mass of people the bell whirled on its frame and over its stanchions, ringing out with a weirdness and a despairing clangorous volume, as though it were possessed of sense and were agonizing in its struggle against destruction. For many years thereafter the memory of its clangor often awoke me at night to recall the scene.

   4The east and west wings of the Court House were constructed of Joliet limestone--the west wing being the City Hall. I watched for some moments, with a fascination which only the growing danger to myself drew me away from, the effect of the fire upon the city hall. The strong southwest wind was driving the heat in sheets of flame from the hundreds of burning buildings to the west of it, upon the southwest corner of the building, with such terrific effect that the limestone was melting and was running down the face of the building with first a slow then an accelerating movement as if it were a thin white paste.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: On an index card, write one pair of events from T1 or T2 that the text links as cause and effect, with the signal word, and one pair where the earlier event simply preceded the later one. Give paragraph numbers for both.

   Teacher note on the sources and their language: The passages are quoted exactly as published, including older spellings ("drouth" for drought), the stray comma in "the line, of fire," and Loesch's use of "melting" for the limestone of the City Hall. Limestone does not melt in a building fire: strong heat cracks and spalls its face and slowly turns the stone into quicklime, a soft white powder that crumbles away, and that may be what Loesch saw. Stetson writes as a property owner tied to the California-Street Railroad, whose power-house he checks in T1; his judgment that the backfiring was a mistake is one resident's view. Loesch wrote more than fifty years after the fire, so his account depends on long memory; and he reports some things he did not see himself. Neither excerpt contains slurs. Remind students that a cause an author states is still that author's claim.

   Homework passage. Stetson's account of April 20, the last day of the fire, used for the homework problems.

   1About noon on the 20th the blocks between Pacific and Filbert were on fire at Jones Street, and the fire was again threatening Van Ness Avenue, but several engines were pumping, from one to another, saltwater from Black Point and had a stream on the west side of Van Ness until it was saved.

   2While the fire was threatening, I went up to my daughter's (Mrs. Oxnard's) and told the servants to get things ready to take out. I would go back home, and if it crossed Van Ness I would return, but if I did not return in fifteen minutes they might consider the danger over. It did not cross. While this pumping was going on, and when the fire had approached the east side of Van Ness Avenue, one of the engines in the line suddenly stopped. This was a critical moment, but the firemen were equal to the emergency, and they uncoupled the engine which was playing on the houses, and remembering that the earthquake had disrupted and choked up the sewer, thereby damming up the outlet, and in fact creating a cistern, they put the suction down the manhole and continued playing on the fire, and saved the buildings on the north side. I tried to get the names of the foreman and men who had the presence of mind and cool judgment, but was unable to do so. This ended the conflagration; but for three nights after there were fires from smouldering timbers and slow-burning debris, sufficient to light up my room so that I could see to read. I was still in fear of a fire breaking out in the unburnt district west of Van Ness Avenue, and as there was no water in the pipes we would be as helpless as ever. This gave much anxiety during the two weeks following the calamity.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to paragraph 1 of T3, how long had the Lake region gone without rain before October 8, 1871?

   AAbout three weeks BAbout three months CAbout six months DSince the spring floods

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 1 of T3 mentions great forest fires in Michigan and Wisconsin. What does T3 show about how they relate to the Chicago fire?

   AThey spread around the lake and started the fire in Chicago on Sunday BThey broke out after the Chicago fire, as a result of its sparks CThey burned in the same dry weeks; T3 gives no causal link DThey started the Saturday night fire at the railroad station

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which words in paragraph 3 of T3 state that the city's wooden sidewalks and streets made the fire worse?

   A"It can be seen what added fuel to a general fire was made by such construction" B"The raised portions of the streets were sustained by heavy stone retaining walls on each side" C"many of the streets were raised on wooden supports from four to ten feet above the natural surface" D"The sidewalks, except in the South Side business district, where limestone flags predominated"

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to paragraph 4 of T3, why did the Saturday night fire not cross the South Branch of the river?

   AFiremen stopped it at the Madison Street bridge BHeavy rain fell over the city late that night CThe lumber yards had already been emptied that week DThere was no wind, and the fire exhausted itself

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which statement best describes how T3 connects the Saturday night fire to the great fire that began on Sunday?

   AThe Saturday fire caused Sunday's, because its embers flared up again BIt came first and burned itself out; T3 gives no link CThe Sunday fire was the Saturday fire spreading north across the river DT3 says Saturday's fire wore out the firemen, so they could not stop Sunday's

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to paragraph 4 of T3, what did the Saturday night fire cause?

   AIt made the danger of fire the main topic of talk on Sunday BIt brought the strong southwest wind that blew on Sunday CIt led Loesch to move out of his boarding house that night DIt dried out the city's wooden buildings and sidewalks

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 4 of T3, Loesch writes that the Saturday fire "was fierce and spectacular with such material to feed upon." What is "such material"?

   AThe gas works, which exploded on the night of the great fire BThe wooden sidewalks and streets of the North Side CThe planing mills and lumber yards south of Adams Street DThe dry pine forests of Michigan and Wisconsin

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How does Loesch present the link between the escaping gas and the fire in paragraph 6 of T3?

   AAs something he watched happen, building by building, from the street BAs a rumor from the crowd that he reports but rejects CAs the cause that started the great fire on Sunday evening DAs his own inference, marked by "doubtless"

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 6 of T3, how does Loesch know that the loud explosion came from the gas works?

   AHe learned it from the crowd making its way to the tunnel BHe saw the gas works explode from the corner of La Salle Street CHe read it in the newspapers on the morning after the fire DA telegraph operator told him at the Western Union office

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which list gives events in the order T3 presents them?

    AThe Saturday fire, the long drought, the forest-fire news, the gas explosion BThe long drought, the Saturday fire, the Sunday evening fire bells, the gas explosion CThe Sunday evening fire bells, the Saturday fire, the gas explosion, the long drought DThe long drought, the gas explosion, the Saturday fire, the Sunday evening fire bells

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A student writes: "Because churchgoers were coming out of their churches on Sunday evening, the fire bells began to ring." What is wrong with this sentence?

    ANothing is wrong: paragraph 5 of T3 says exactly this about the bells BIt has the wrong day: the churchgoers came out on Saturday evening CIt leaves out the drought, which was the real cause of the bells DIt turns two things that happened together into cause and effect

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to paragraph 1 of T5, why were the books in the fourth-floor room lost?

    AThe vault door could not be opened in time to put them inside BThe manager refused to let anyone carry them down to the vault CThe bookkeeper had left them upstairs, away from the vault DThe telegraph operators took them when they ran down the stairway

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What does paragraph 1 of T5 suggest caused the loss of the manager's gold coins?

    AHe would not move his safe into the vault, which survived BThe clerks put the coins into the vault, and the vault melted CThe chief bookkeeper left the coins upstairs on the fourth floor DThe coins were lost when the gas works exploded near the office

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to paragraph 3 of T5, what set the Court House bell ringing?

    AFiremen ringing it as a general alarm for the whole city BFlames carried up through the open space of the building CThe strong southwest wind blowing hard through the cupola DThe shock from the explosion of the gas works

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    In paragraph 4 of T5, what does Loesch say caused the limestone of the City Hall to "melt"? Trace the chain in at least two links, and quote the signal words.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    In paragraph 6 of T3, trace the chain that runs from the explosion to the dark tunnel. Which link does Loesch state, and which does the reader have to infer?

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    In T1 paragraph 4, Stetson expected the fire "would stop, or be stopped, as fires had been hundreds of times before." In T3 paragraph 4, the Saturday fire in Chicago stopped too. Explain why earlier fires that stopped do not show that a later fire will stop.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose four events from T3, in order, with paragraph numbers. Label each of the three links as a stated cause, a suggested cause or only an order, and give the words that decide each label.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    A classmate says: "The long drought caused the Great Chicago Fire." Using T3, explain what the text supports in this claim and what it does not.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    T5 describes one effect of the fire that lasted for many years. Identify it, quote it, and explain whether T5 states its cause.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RH.9-10.3: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.