Information for Teachers
The Fire
Learning Objection: As a result of participating in the instructional activities on The Fire page, students will gain knowledge about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and gain skill in comparing and contrasting perspectives on historic events.
Anticipation Guide for The Fire: For each of this unit’s student pages, you may choose to have students complete an Anticipation Guide and conduct a follow-up whole-class discussion prior to beginning work on the student page activities.
Video Clip from City of the Century (PBS, The American Experience): The Great Fire is described in a 10-minute clip beginning at approximately 1:15 to 1:25 (Part 1).
Student Activities for The Fire
First, students are asked to read an excerpt from Jim Murphy’s Orbis Pictus Award winning book, The Great Fire. You may want to read this aloud instead.
The second activity involved analysis of a map depicting the spread of the fire. This activity may be done independently or in teams of 2 or 3. A follow-up whole-class discussion is optional. The students are asked to download and print copies of the Map Analysis Worksheet from the National Archives website. It may be more efficient for you to download and print the worksheet and make copies for your class.
The third activity for The Fire page is titled “Hilda’s Memory of the Great Fire.” This is based on the memories of Hilda Polacheck recorded for the National Writers Project during the late 1930’s. You may need to explain the concept of “oral history” before students read this text. Also, you may want to limit students’ independent reading to the first half of the text because that is the part that deals with the Great Chicago Fire. Students are asked to download, print, and complete the Written Word Analysis worksheet from the National Archives website. Again, it may be more efficient for you to download the worksheet and make copies for the class. A follow-up whole-class discussion of the text and worksheet is optional.
Students then read another memory of the Great Fire written by Justin in a letter to a friend shortly after the Fire. Students are asked to download, print, and complete an I Chart to support a comparison and contrast between Hilda’s and Justin’s stories. Once again, you may want to make copies of the I Chart for the class. A follow-up whole-class discussion should focus on the idea of differing perspectives/memories of historical events.
The next activity supports students’ understanding of differing writing styles to fit differing purposes. This comparison of an encyclopedia entry or textbook explanation of the Great Chicago Fire may be done as a whole class or in small groups. (This activity is based on an idea presented by Stephanie Harvey, whose book is a valuable resource for classroom inquiry in grades 3 through 8.) Nonfiction Matters
The first major writing task of the unit asks students to write a short explanation of the Great Chicago Fire that would be appropriate for 2nd and 3rd grade students and that combines personal stories and factual information. In preparation for writing, you may read aloud excerpts from Jim Murphy’s The Great Fire and/or have students read the story of Claire Innes from the National Geographic. A follow-up analysis of how the writer(s) combine personal and factual information may by helpful. In addition, you may conduct a whole-class brainstorming session for what questions a second or third grade student may have.
Assessment: Assessment for most of these activities should be informal. The focus should be on the students’ ability to articulate the effects of differing perspectives. Assessment of the essay should be based on an adaptation of Spandel’s 6 trait rubric for informational writing. The adaptations should focus on the criteria outlined above. That is, the essays should make use of both personal stories (e.g., Hilda or Claire) and factual information drawn from an encyclopedia or other reference text. Secondly, consideration of the age of the text’s audience (i.e., 2nd or 3rd grade students) should be evident.