Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-65 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of something you learned how to do from a video, such as a recipe, a game move or a bike repair. Would a page of written steps have been better or worse? Give one reason each way."

   Take four or five answers and sort them on the board into two columns, "the video did this better" and "the page would do this better." Students usually find that video wins at showing motion and the page wins at letting you go back, skim and copy exact amounts. Name the two columns: advantages (what a medium does well) and disadvantages (what it does poorly or leaves out). Tell students that RI.8.7 asks them to do this on purpose, for one topic presented in several mediums, and to decide which medium fits which job.

2. Direct Instruction15 minutes

   Teach the terms and leave them on the board:

   • Medium: the form a presentation takes. The standard names four: print text (words on paper, such as a book or letter), digital text (words on a screen, which can include links, search and updates), video (moving pictures with sound) and multimedia (several forms combined, such as text, pictures, audio, maps and things the user can click).
   • Advantage: something a medium does well for this topic and this audience.
   • Disadvantage: something it does poorly, leaves out, gets wrong or makes harder.
   • Evaluate: judge with reasons. An evaluation names the purpose (what the presentation is for) and the audience (who it is for), and weighs the advantages against the disadvantages.
   • Reenactment: a scene acted out to show what may have happened. Storyboard: the plan for a video, shot by shot: what viewers see, hear and read on screen.

   Questions to ask of any medium

   Question	What to look for
   Accuracy	Does it keep the facts straight and mark what is guessed or acted out?
   Detail	Does it give exact words, numbers and small details, or only the big picture?
   Showing	Can it show size, place, motion and sound, or must the audience imagine them?
   Control	Can the audience slow down, go back and skim, or does the medium set the pace?
   Access	What does the audience need: a screen, an internet connection, sound, good eyesight or hearing?
   Focus	Does it keep attention on the topic, or pull the audience toward other things?

   Introduce the topic. In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius, a volcano on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, erupted and buried the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pliny the Younger, then a teenager, watched from the naval town of Misenum, across the bay. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, commanded the Roman fleet there and was a famous scientific writer. More than twenty-five years later, the historian Tacitus asked the younger Pliny how his uncle had died, and Pliny answered in two letters. Pliny saw the cloud himself; what happened to his uncle near the volcano he learned from people who were with him. Passage 1 comes from the first letter, in an English translation revised in the 1800s. Words to know: fleet (a group of warships), desired him to observe (asked him to look at), a rising ground (a small hill), likening (comparing), occasioned (caused), impelled (pushed), impregnated (filled), cinders (small bits of burned rock), pumice-stones (light volcanic rock full of air bubbles), obstructed (blocked), defence (British spelling of defense) and alleviated (made less bad). Read Passage 1 aloud. Then read Passage 2, a storyboard for a short online video about the same eruption, invented for this page.

   1He was at that time with the fleet under his command at Misenum. On the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of a very unusual size and shape. He had just taken a turn in the sun and, after bathing himself in cold water, and making a light luncheon, gone back to his books: he immediately arose and went out upon a rising ground from whence he might get a better sight of this very uncommon appearance. A cloud, from which mountain was uncertain, at this distance (but it was found afterwards to come from Mount Vesuvius), was ascending, the appearance of which I cannot give you a more exact description of than by likening it to that of a pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall trunk, which spread itself out at the top into a sort of branches; occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air that impelled it, the force of which decreased as it advanced upwards, or the cloud itself being pressed back again by its own weight, expanded in the manner I have mentioned; it appeared sometimes bright and sometimes dark and spotted, according as it was either more or less impregnated with earth and cinders.

   [...]

   2He was now so close to the mountain that the cinders, which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the ships, together with pumice-stones, and black pieces of burning rock: they were in danger too not only of being aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also from the vast fragments which rolled down from the mountain, and obstructed all the shore.

   [...]

   3They went out then, having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins; and this was their whole defence against the storm of stones that fell round them. It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed than in the thickest night; which however was in some degree alleviated by torches and other lights of various kinds.

   1Shot 1 (0:00-0:20). Picture: a drone flies over the blue Bay of Naples toward Mount Vesuvius on a sunny day. Sound: low, slow drums. On-screen text: "Bay of Naples, Italy. Almost 2,000 years ago..."

   2Shot 2 (0:20-1:05). Picture: a computer animation shows a gray column shooting out of the mountain and spreading at the top like an umbrella. A scale bar beside it climbs to 30 kilometers, next to a tiny airliner flying at 11 kilometers. Narrator: "Scientists estimate that the column rose about 30 kilometers. Across the bay, a teenager named Pliny watched it. He wrote that it looked like a pine tree."

   3Shot 3 (1:05-1:55). Picture: a reenactment. Actors in Roman costume stand on a wooden ship while gray stones rain onto the deck. A small label in one corner reads "Reenactment." Sound: stones clattering, waves, shouting. An actor playing a sailor yells, "The gods are angry! Turn back!" An actor playing Pliny's uncle answers, "Fortune favors the brave."

   4Shot 4 (1:55-2:45). Picture: an animated map of the bay. A red dot marks the volcano. Arrows show the wind carrying ash to the southeast, over Pompeii and Stabiae, while Misenum stays clear. A line from Misenum to the volcano is labeled "about 30 km." Narrator: "The wind decided who would be buried."

   5Shot 5 (2:45-3:35). Picture: Dr. Elena Russo speaks on camera at the edge of the crater. Caption: "Dr. Elena Russo, volcanologist." She says: "We still call this kind of eruption Plinian, after Pliny, because his letters describe it so clearly. Every time we study a new eruption, we are reading over his shoulder."

   6Shot 6 (3:35-4:00). Picture: modern Naples at night, with the dark shape of Vesuvius behind the city lights. On-screen text: "Vesuvius last erupted in 1944. Millions of people live around the bay today." The video ends with three small pictures under the words "Watch next."

   7Below the video, the description box lists one source, "Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16 and 6.20," and says that captions are available in English and Italian.

   • Print: an advantage

     Pliny cannot describe the cloud "more exact" than "by likening it to that of a pine tree," and he guesses at its cause: "occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air that impelled it" (Passage 1, paragraph 1). What does the print medium do well here?

     Result: Print keeps the eyewitness's exact words, including his doubt. "I imagine" tells the reader that the cause is Pliny's guess, not a fact, and a reader can reread the long sentence as slowly as needed and quote it exactly in a report. The advantage is precision: nothing stands between the reader and the witness except the translator.

   • Print: a disadvantage

     Pliny writes that "the cinders, which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the ships, together with pumice-stones, and black pieces of burning rock" (Passage 1, paragraph 2). What is harder for a reader of the print version?

     Result: The reader has to build the scene alone. The sentence gives no picture of pumice, no sense of how big the stones were or how fast they fell, and no sound. A reader who has never seen a volcano, or who does not know the word "pumice," may miss how dangerous the moment was. The disadvantage is that print depends on the reader's vocabulary and imagination.

   • Video: an advantage

     In Shot 2 of Passage 2, "A scale bar beside it climbs to 30 kilometers, next to a tiny airliner flying at 11 kilometers." What can the video do here that the letter cannot?

     Result: The video shows size at a glance. Pliny says only that the cloud "shot up to a great height"; the animation puts a number on it and compares it with something viewers know, an airliner, which looks tiny beside the column. For an audience that needs to grasp how big the eruption was, this is a clear advantage of video.

   • Video: a disadvantage

     In Shot 3, "An actor playing a sailor yells, 'The gods are angry! Turn back!' An actor playing Pliny's uncle answers, 'Fortune favors the brave.'" A small label reads "Reenactment." What problem does this create?

     Result: The uncle's words come from Pliny's letter, in a part not printed here. The letter says only that the pilot advised him to turn back; the sailor's shouted line about angry gods is invented. On screen, both lines sound equally real, and the small corner label is easy to miss. A viewer cannot tell which words come from the source and which were added for drama. The disadvantage is that video can blend fact and invention without marking the difference.

   • Weighing both for a purpose

     A student is writing a report on what eyewitnesses said about the eruption. Another is making a presentation to show fifth graders how big the eruption was. Which of the two mediums in Passages 1 and 2 fits each purpose better?

     Result: For the report, the print letter is stronger: it gives exact words to quote and marks what Pliny guessed. The video's reenactment would be a weak source, because its dialogue is partly invented. For the fifth graders, the video is stronger: its scale bar and animation show size quickly. Its invented dialogue is a real disadvantage, but it matters less for this purpose. The better medium depends on the purpose and the audience.

   Name it, show it, weigh it. Show Diagram 1 and model three moves with the examples: name the advantage or disadvantage; point to the words, shot or feature that shows it; weigh it for a purpose and an audience. Stress that Diagram 1 is one reasonable judgment and that students may rate differently if they give reasons. Give students a frame: "For [purpose and audience], has the advantage of ___, as shown by ___. Its disadvantage is ___. Overall, it is a strong / mixed / weak choice because ___."

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read Passage 3 aloud: a plan for an interactive museum website about the same eruption, invented for this page. Interactive means the visitor clicks, scrolls, zooms or drags to control what appears. Words to know: panel (one section of the screen), carbonized (turned to charcoal by heat), 3D model (a picture of an object that can be turned to see it from every side), layer (information that can be shown or hidden on a map) and reconstruction (a picture or model of how something probably looked, made by experts).

   1Opening screen. A photograph of the ruins of Pompeii fills the screen, with Vesuvius behind them. The title fades in: "Under the Ash: Hour by Hour." A button says "Start the timeline." A note at the bottom says that the feature works best on a computer or tablet with the sound turned on.

   2The timeline. Visitors scroll down through ten panels, one for each stage of the eruption. Each panel has a clock showing the hour, two or three sentences of text and one picture. Panel 1 shows the cloud rising at about one in the afternoon, the hour Pliny gives. Its picture is a drawing of the cloud as seen from Misenum, labeled "Artist's reconstruction."

   3Listen. On four panels, a speaker button plays an actor reading a short part of Pliny's letters, about 30 seconds each. The words appear on the screen as the actor reads them. A fifth recording, in which a scientist explains how pumice forms, has no written version.

   4Look closer. Panel 6 shows a photograph of a real loaf of bread that was found carbonized (turned to charcoal) in Pompeii. Visitors can zoom in until they see the lines baked into its crust. On Panel 7, a 3D model of a Pompeii house turns when a visitor drags it with a finger or a mouse. Its label says "Digital reconstruction, based on the excavated house."

   5Map layers. A map of the bay has buttons for three layers: towns, wind direction and ash depth. Turning on the ash layer colors the land southeast of the volcano dark gray. The map has no scale showing distances.

   6Check yourself. The last panel is a five-question quiz that tells visitors right away whether each answer is correct. A "Sources" link opens a list of eight books and articles. On a phone, each panel takes several seconds to load, and every panel has a "Share" button and a "More videos" strip along the side.

   Pairs fill in a copy of Diagram 2, the medium evaluation card, for Passage 3. The purpose and audience are given: a museum wants to help seventh and eighth graders understand what happened in Pompeii during the eruption. Pairs answer the three questions below, then share. Teacher notes:

   1. The recordings. What does the "Listen" feature do well, and for whom does it fail? Teacher note: hearing Pliny's words read aloud, with "The words appear on the screen as the actor reads them," helps students who find old translations hard to read and still keeps the exact words. But the fifth recording "has no written version," so a visitor who is deaf or hard of hearing, or who has the sound off, loses that information.
   2. The bread. Why might the museum put a photograph of a real loaf of bread on Panel 6? Teacher note: an everyday object that a visitor can zoom in on, down to "the lines baked into its crust," makes the ordinary life of the town real in a way a sentence cannot. This is an advantage of multimedia: real objects, shown up close.
   3. The map. What is missing from the map, and why does it matter? Teacher note: "The map has no scale showing distances." The ash layer shows where ash fell, but visitors cannot tell how far Pompeii is from the volcano, which is part of what the museum wants them to understand.
4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Passage 4 on their own: a digital article about the eruption, invented for this page, as it would appear on a history website. Words marked "(link)" are hyperlinks: words a reader can click to open another page. Other words to know: encyclopedia (a large reference work with articles on many subjects), archaeologists (scientists who study past people from the things they left behind) and convinced (sure). They answer the quiz with Passages 1-4 open, filling in a fresh Diagram 2 card for Passage 4 first if they wish.

   1Updated March 3, 2026. 4-minute read. Text size: A / A+ / A++. Button: "Listen to this article" (read aloud by a computer voice).

   2In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius, a volcano on the Bay of Naples in Italy, erupted and buried the Roman towns of Pompeii (link) and Herculaneum (link) under ash and stone. We know how the eruption looked partly because of two letters by Pliny the Younger (link), who watched it from the town of Misenum, across the bay.

   3Pliny wrote the letters more than twenty-five years later, for the historian Tacitus (link), who had asked how Pliny's uncle died. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, commanded the Roman fleet at Misenum and wrote a huge encyclopedia called Natural History (link). He sailed toward the volcano to help people escape, and he died on the shore at Stabiae.

   4The letters give the date as August 24. In 2018, however, archaeologists working at Pompeii found words written in charcoal on a wall, with a date in the middle of October (link to the news report). Because charcoal writing fades fast, some experts now think the eruption came in the fall of 79 CE. Others are not convinced. (This paragraph was added on March 3, 2026.)

   5Related articles: "Ten Volcanoes You Can Visit" (link). "The Five Best Disaster Movies" (link). Advertisement: "Book your Naples tour today!"

   6Comments (212). One reader asks: "My teacher said the whole town was frozen in one second. Is that true?" A site editor replies: "Not quite. Pliny's letters describe events that went on into the next day. See our timeline (link)."

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Name one advantage of video that print text cannot match, and one advantage of print that video cannot match, using Passages 1 and 2. (2) Finish the sentence: "The best medium for a topic depends on ___ because ___."

   Teacher note on the sources and the facts. Passages 1 and 5 are an old English translation of Latin letters, so the wording is formal and some spellings are British ("defence," "recognise," "wilfully"). The letters describe fear and, elsewhere, the uncle's death; the excerpts printed here leave out the death scene, but Passage 5 describes a panicking crowd, so prepare students who may find disaster accounts upsetting. Passages 2, 3, 4 and 6 are invented for this page: the video, the website, the article, the podcast and Dr. Elena Russo do not exist. The facts they report are real: the eruption of 79 CE, Pliny's letters to Tacitus, the name "Plinian" for this type of eruption, carbonized bread from Pompeii, the 1944 eruption, and the charcoal writing found at Pompeii in 2018, which led some archaeologists to argue for a date in the fall of 79 CE instead of August 24. The column height of about 30 kilometers is an estimate by volcanologists. In Passage 5, Pliny refers to "the final endless night," a belief of his time that the world would end in darkness.

   For homework: students read Passage 5, from Pliny's second letter, in which he describes his own escape from Misenum with his mother the next morning, and Passage 6, a plan for a podcast episode about the same scene, invented for this page. Words to know: high-road (main road), lamenting (crying out in sorrow), augmented (added to), wilfully (on purpose), forerunner (a sign of something coming), immersed (sunk into), dissipated by degrees (cleared little by little), lurid (pale and strange-looking), eclipse (when the Moon blocks the Sun), transcript (a written copy of what was said) and sound designer (the person who adds sound effects and music).

   1The ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no great quantity. I looked back; a dense dark mist seemed to be following us, spreading itself over the country like a cloud. "Let us turn out of the high-road," I said, "while we can still see, for fear that, should we fall in the road, we should be pressed to death in the dark, by the crowds that are following us."

   2We had scarcely sat down when night came upon us, not such as we have when the sky is cloudy, or when there is no moon, but that of a room when it is shut up, and all the lights put out. You might hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the shouts of men; some calling for their children, others for their parents, others for their husbands, and seeking to recognise each other by the voices that replied; one lamenting his own fate, another that of his family; some wishing to die, from the very fear of dying; some lifting their hands to the gods; but the greater part convinced that there were now no gods at all, and that the final endless night of which we have heard had come upon the world. Among these there were some who augmented the real terrors by others imaginary or wilfully invented. I remember some who declared that one part of Misenum had fallen, that another was on fire; it was false, but they found people to believe them.

   3It now grew rather lighter, which we imagined to be rather the forerunner of an approaching burst of flames (as in truth it was) than the return of day: however, the fire fell at a distance from us: then again we were immersed in thick darkness, and a heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were obliged every now and then to stand up to shake off, otherwise we should have been crushed and buried in the heap.

   [...]

   4At last this dreadful darkness was dissipated by degrees, like a cloud or smoke; the real day returned, and even the sun shone out, though with a lurid light, like when an eclipse is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed, being covered deep with ashes as if with snow.

   1Length: 14 minutes. Format: audio only, free on podcast apps. Listeners can pause, skip back 15 seconds, or play the episode at up to twice the normal speed.

   20:00-1:30. Theme music, then the host introduces herself and the story: "Today, a teenager, his mother, and a cloud that swallowed the sun."

   31:30-7:00. An actor reads Pliny's letter about his escape, cut down to about four minutes. Behind the voice, the sound designer adds a crowd: footsteps, a baby crying, people calling out names. As the darkness falls, the sounds get closer and the music drops away until only the voices are left.

   47:00-7:45. A break for an advertisement for a sleep app.

   57:45-12:30. The host explains that ash from Vesuvius fell on Misenum but did not bury it, and that Pliny and his mother survived. She adds her own guess: "I think Pliny felt guilty for years that he stayed calm while others panicked."

   612:30-14:00. Credits and a question for listeners to answer by recorded message.

   7A written transcript of the episode is posted on the show's website one week after the audio.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which of these is an example of multimedia?

   AA printed pamphlet with four paragraphs of text and a title in large, bold letters BA radio interview with a scientist, broadcast once in the evening and never repeated CA web page that combines text, a clickable map, a photograph and an audio clip DA handwritten letter that has been scanned and posted online as a single image

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A student wants to learn the steps of a science experiment that she will do at home next week, with her notes beside her. What is one advantage of a printed set of steps over a video for her purpose?

   AShe can keep the page beside her, find step 4 at a glance and reread it BIt shows her exactly how each step should look while someone is doing it CIt adds sound, so she can hear the moment when the mixture starts to bubble DIt changes on its own whenever the teacher updates the experiment online

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A teacher shows a five-minute video about how volcanoes form. Which is a disadvantage of video for students who must take notes on it?

   AThe video can show lava moving down the side of a mountain in real time BThe video uses music in the background to hold the viewers' attention CThe video may include a map that shows where the volcanoes are found DThe video sets the pace, so students may miss one fact while writing another

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Pliny writes, "A cloud, from which mountain was uncertain, at this distance (but it was found afterwards to come from Mount Vesuvius), was ascending" (Passage 1, paragraph 1). What advantage of his print account does this sentence show?

   AIt shows the reader a clear picture of the cloud as it rose over the bay BIt keeps what the witness knew at the time apart from what was learned later CIt lets the reader hear the sound the eruption made from across the water DIt gives the exact height of the cloud, so readers can compare it with others

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Pliny writes, "He was at that time with the fleet under his command at Misenum" (Passage 1, paragraph 1). What disadvantage does the print letter have for a reader today who has never seen the Bay of Naples?

   AIt names places but does not show where they are or how far apart they lie BIt gives so many exact numbers that a reader cannot keep track of them all CIts exact words are hard to quote correctly in a report or research paper DIt moves so fast that a reader cannot slow down to follow what is happening

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Shot 4 of Passage 2, "Arrows show the wind carrying ash to the southeast, over Pompeii and Stabiae, while Misenum stays clear." What is the main advantage of presenting this in an animated map?

   AIt gives viewers the exact words of an eyewitness who watched from the shore BIt lets viewers stop and read each label at their own speed, as in a book CIt shows at a glance where the wind took the ash and which towns lay under it DIt proves to viewers that the eruption happened on the date the letters give

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Shot 4 ends with the narrator saying, "The wind decided who would be buried." What is a disadvantage of this line?

   AIt is too long to fit in the shot, so viewers will read only half of it BIt reduces the event to one cause and leaves out others, such as distance CIt uses an eyewitness's exact words, which viewers are likely to misunderstand DIt packs in too many numbers for viewers to remember after the video ends

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Shot 5 of Passage 2, a volcanologist says, "We still call this kind of eruption Plinian, after Pliny, because his letters describe it so clearly." What does this shot add that Passage 1 alone cannot?

   AA present-day expert explains why Pliny's letters still matter to science BPliny's own words about the shape of the cloud, quoted exactly as he wrote them CAn animated map of the bay that shows which way the wind carried the ash DThe sound of stones falling on the deck of a ship as it nears the shore

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Below the video, "the description box lists one source, 'Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16 and 6.20.'" Which statement best evaluates this?

   AA disadvantage, because a video should never name the sources it uses BAn advantage, because every fact in the video comes from Pliny's letters CNo difference, because viewers of online videos do not read description boxes DA disadvantage: facts not from Pliny, like the 1944 eruption, have no source

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Passage 3 labels one picture "Artist's reconstruction" and the 3D house "Digital reconstruction, based on the excavated house." What is the advantage of these labels?

    AThey make the drawing and the 3D model load faster on a phone with a slow connection BThey tell visitors which images are real and which are experts' best guesses CThey let visitors hear Pliny's words read aloud while they look at the pictures DThey show that the drawings were made from photographs taken at the time

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Passage 3 says the feature "works best on a computer or tablet with the sound turned on" and that on a phone "each panel takes several seconds to load." Which evaluation fits these details?

    AThe website reaches every visitor equally well, whatever device they use BThe website works best for visitors who do not have a screen of their own CIt has an access problem: visitors with only a phone or no sound get less DThe slow loading is an advantage, because it gives visitors time to think

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Passage 3 has "ten panels, one for each stage of the eruption," and "Each panel has a clock showing the hour." What does this design do well for the topic?

    AIt shows the order of events and how the eruption unfolded over time BIt gives the full text of both of Pliny's letters, read aloud by an actor CIt lets visitors measure how far each town was from the volcano's crater DIt keeps visitors from clicking away to other pages before they finish

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Passage 4 lists "Related articles: 'Ten Volcanoes You Can Visit' (link). 'The Five Best Disaster Movies' (link). Advertisement: 'Book your Naples tour today!'" What disadvantage of digital text do these show?

    ADigital text cannot include pictures, so readers must imagine the volcano BDigital text cannot hold more than a few short paragraphs on one page CDigital text must be read aloud by a computer voice before readers can follow it DLinks and ads can pull readers away from the topic, toward movies or shopping

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Passage 4 offers "Text size: A / A+ / A++" and a button to "Listen to this article." Whom does this help most, and why?

    AReaders who want to check the sources, because the links open other pages BReaders who have trouble seeing small print or reading long passages CReaders who want to leave comments, because these buttons open the comments DReaders with no internet connection, because the article can then be printed

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Pliny writes that the group "went out then, having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins; and this was their whole defence against the storm of stones that fell round them" (Passage 1, paragraph 3). Explain one advantage print has for presenting this moment and one disadvantage.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Passage 2 ends with Shot 6: modern Naples at night and the words "Vesuvius last erupted in 1944. Millions of people live around the bay today," followed by three small pictures under "Watch next." Evaluate one advantage and one disadvantage of ending the video this way.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Passage 3 ends with a five-question quiz that "tells visitors right away whether each answer is correct," and says every panel has "a 'Share' button and a 'More videos' strip along the side." Evaluate these two features for the museum's purpose of helping students understand what happened in Pompeii.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Passage 4 says, "(This paragraph was added on March 3, 2026.)" Passage 1 gives the date as "the 24th of August." Explain what this shows about an advantage of digital text and a disadvantage of print.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Evaluate the comment section at the end of Passage 4. Give one advantage and one disadvantage, and quote the passage.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    A teacher wants students to understand what everyday life in Pompeii was like just before the eruption. Which medium on this page would you choose: the print letter (Passage 1), the video (Passage 2), the museum website (Passage 3) or the digital article (Passage 4)? Evaluate one advantage and one disadvantage of your choice, and one disadvantage of another medium, using evidence from the passages.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RI.8.7: 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.