Storm Runners

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Go Bag”

In this activity, students will work in small groups to use texts from this unit to evaluate preparedness objects and decide the most important items they recommend for Chase’s go bag.

Chase has a go bag, which helps him survive. Let’s evaluate what he has and make added recommendations. What items were most important in the hurricane? If they could have 2 additional items, what would you recommend? In which scenes did or would each item be useful?

• Re-read key scenes from the novel.
• Make a list of all items Chase and his friends use from his go bag.
• Discuss and rank each item according to importance.
• Review other resources from this unit about suggestions for hurricane preparedness.
• List other items you think would have been helpful to the three friends in the book.
• Discuss how each would have helped.
• Decide on the most important two added items.
• Prepare to present as if you were presenting to Chase and trying to convince him to add these items to his bag.
• Create a visual of the two items you are recommending. This visual might be a PowerPoint, video, drawing, or other visual rendering.

Present your recommendations.

Display your visuals. Share your ideas and process in the class discussion.

Teaching Suggestion: Freewriting or a Think-Pair-Share at the beginning of this activity could help with brainstorming. Bringing in physical items that might go into the bag would provide students with visuals to help them more fully understand what each tool does. This activity offers the chance to focus on audience, tone, and persuasive techniques. Reviewing any previous lessons on these skills would help students further master them. If these are new skills, viewing a couple of commercials and discussing audience and persuasive techniques might be a quick way to help students access prior knowledge and apply it in their presentations. One way to begin or end the activity would be to list all item ideas on the board, a poster, etc. Students have two (or whatever number you choose) votes for the most important. They could vote with a check mark, sticky note, magnet, etc. Each student places their vote by the item they vote for, creating a visual for the class.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced students, explaining the criteria they used and weighing each criterion would add more critical thinking skills to the activity. If students are unfamiliar with this process, discussing a few examples might help. You might discuss criteria students would use to decide which high school/college to attend, what to do Saturday afternoon, what to buy with $20, etc. Afterward, reflecting on their thinking (clarity, support, etc.) can solidify the skills practiced.

Paired Text Extension:

Ready.gov offers a chance for more research.

Teaching Suggestion: Students could review this resource and then discuss or journal how they might revise their go-bag items or explain how this added research further supports their choices. They also might evaluate each source they used more thoroughly to decide how trustworthy it is and why.