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BEFORE READING
Prereading Strategies
OBJECTIVES
Target Skill Recognize and make
comparisons.
Target Skill Monitor understanding
on an ongoing basis.
GENRE STUDY
Expository Nonfiction
Volcanoes: Nature's Incredible
Fireworks is expository nonfiction.
Explain that expository nonfiction
is organized by topic and provides
information about real-life events,
objects, ideas, or themes.
PREVIEW AND PREDICT
Have students preview the
selection title, along with the
photographs, maps, and diagrams,
and discuss the topics or ideas
they think this selection will cover.
Encourage students to use
lesson vocabulary as they talk
about what they expect to learn.
Strategy Response Log
Predict Have students write their
predictions in their strategy
response logs. Students will
check their predictions in the
Strategy Response Log activity
on p. 389.
SET PURPOSE
Read the first page of the selection
aloud to students. Have them consider their preview discussion and tell what they hope to find out as they read.
Remind students to look for and
make comparisons as they read.
STRATEGY RECALL
Students have now used these before-reading strategies:
  • preview the selection to be aware of its genre, features, and possible content;
  • activate prior knowledge about that content and what to expect of that genre;
  • make predictions;
  • set a purpose for reading.
Remind students to be aware of and flexibly use the during-reading strategies they have learned:
  • link prior knowledge to new information;
  • summarize text they have read so far;
  • ask clarifying questions;
  • answer questions they or others pose;
  • check their predictions and either refine them or make new predictions;
  • recognize the text structure the author is using, and use that knowledge to make predictions and increase comprehension;
  • visualize what the author is describing;
  • monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies.
After reading, students will use these strategies:
  • summarize or retell the text;
  • answer questions they or others pose;
  • reflect to make new information become part of their prior knowledge.
Audio CD AudioText
Volcanoes: Nature's Incredible Fireworks

"Volcanoes: Nature's Incredible Fireworks"
by David L. Harrison

Student Edition
Unit 3, pp. 384–393

Expository nonfiction gives facts and information. Look for facts about volcanoes as you read.

Earth is constantly moving. Volcanoes quietly erupt each day somewhere and prove there is activity inside our planet.
Earth is like a giant ball with four layers. We live on top, on the miles-deep crust. But the crust is really many huge pieces that almost fit together. Where the pieces don't exactly meet is where most volcanoes and even earthquakes happen.
The pieces that form Earth's crust are called plates. They rest on the layer beneath, called the mantle. In the mantle it is so hot that rocks can melt into sticky magma. When a big volcano erupts, magma can shoot up as red-hot lava—nature's incredible fireworks. Buried deeper still is Earth's core. The outer core is so hot that iron melts into liquid. At the very center is Earth's solid inner core.
Volcanoes erupt when fiery hot magma finds a weak spot and bubbles up. They can occur on the ocean floor. Some erupt up a chimney-like cone. Then lava cools back into rock, and they erupt again. This can happen over and over for thousands of years, until mountains are created. (The islands of Hawaii are really volcanoes.)
Or a volcano can erupt in an old volcanic mountain that looks peaceful and quiet. Mount St. Helens in the United States suddenly exploded in 1980 with tremendous force.
Most volcanoes don't make the news. They have been occurring for millions of years. Yet a very big one happened almost 2,000 years ago in Italy. Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried two cities and all their people and animals.
When magma rubs against the bottom of a plate, rocks can move and the earth trembles. Plates bump into each other so often around the Pacific Ocean that the vast area is called the Ring of Fire. Some of Earth's most serious eruptions and earthquakes have happened there.
Scientists study volcanoes so they can learn more about these powerful natural giants. They also want to be able to predict the next big blow-up.

Text copyright © 2002 by David L. Harrison, from Volcanoes: Nature's Incredible Fireworks by David L. Harrison. Published by Boyds Mill Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission.

Copyright © Pearson Education.

 
   
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ELL
Activate Prior Knowledge Have students discuss what they already know about volcanoes.
Consider having students read the selection summary in English or in students' home languages. See the Multilingual Summaries in the ELL Teaching Guide, pp. 103–105.