Grade 4
UNIT 2 REPLACEMENT NOTES
We are providing replacement notes to be used for Making
Meaning Grade 4, Unit 2, Week 1, because the book Digging
Up Tyrannosaurus Rex is unavailable. If you have Digging Up
Tyrannosaurus Rex in your classroom or library, we encourage
you to use it to teach the Week 1 lessons as they appear in the
Teacher’s Manual. Otherwise, use the following notes to help
you teach the lessons using the alternative book, Shattering
Earthquakes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury.
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
MM2-RLES4-WEB
Week 1
Week 1
REPLACEMENT
NOTES
U N I T 2 : R E C O G N I Z I N G
T E X T F E AT U R E S
Expository Nonfiction
Shattering Earthquakes
by Louise and Richard Spilsbury
(Heinemann, 2012)
This book describes the causes and destructive consequences
of earthquakes and explains how these natural disasters affect
landscapes, communities, and people.
Use the notes on the following pages to substitute Shattering
Earthquakes for Digging Up Tyrannosaurus Rex in Unit 2, Week 1.
Follow the lesson plans on pages 36–51 of the Teacher’s Manual
to teach the week, using these notes to help you adapt the Day 1
and Day 2 lessons.
DO AHEAD
•Prior to Day 2, make copies of “Excerpt from Shattering
Earthquakes” from pages 6–7 of this replacement lesson (one for
each student). In Day 2, Step 2, the students will refer to these
pages to explore text features (rather than referring to pages 4–5
of the Student Response Book).
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
Grade Four
Recognizing Text Features
Expository Nonfiction
Materials Substitution
•
Shattering Earthquakes
replaces Digging Up
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Unit 2  Week 1  Day 1 Notes
Notes for Day 1
On Day 1, teach Steps 1, 5, and 6 using the instructions on pages 36 and 39–40
of the Teacher’s Manual. For Steps 2, 3, and 4, use the instructions below instead
of the instructions in the Teacher’s Manual.
Introduce Shattering Earthquakes, Expository
Nonfiction, and the Table of Contents
When you introduce Shattering Earthquakes, show the cover of the
book and read the title aloud. Turn to the title page and read the
authors’ names aloud. Ask:
Q
What do you think you already know about earthquakes?
Q
Do you think the book is fiction (make-believe) or nonfiction (true)?
If necessary, explain that this book is a type of nonfiction called
expository nonfiction. Explain that expository nonfiction texts give
factual, or true, information and are usually about particular topics.
Before you read aloud from Shattering Earthquakes, show the table
of contents on page 3 and tell the students that expository texts
like Shattering Earthquakes often include a table of contents. Explain
that the table of contents, or “Contents” as it is called here, lists the
chapters in the book, with the page numbers on which the chapters
start. Point to the first chapter title, and explain that the first chapter
is titled “What Is an Earthquake?” and it begins on page 4. Explain
that the table of contents also lists other parts of the book that have
useful information, and point to “Case Study,” “Glossary,” “Find Out
More,” and “Index.” Explain that the students will learn more about
these parts of the book later.
Teacher Note
Keywords (in bold type)
are defined in the glossary
on page 30 of the book;
you may wish to define
these for your students.
2 Making Meaning®
Read Aloud
Tell the students that today you will read the first four chapters
of Shattering Earthquakes. Read pages 4–13 aloud, showing
the photographs and reading the accompanying captions, and
stopping as described on the next page.
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
Unit 2  Week 1  Day 1 Notes
Recognizing Text Features
Expository Nonfiction
Suggested Vocabulary
natural disaster: event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that
causes great damage (p. 5)
United Kingdom: also called Britain or Great Britain (p. 11; refer to the
map on p. 11)
ELL Vocabulary
English Language Learners may benefit from discussing additional
vocabulary, including:
earthquake: sudden shaking of the ground (title)
wobble: move from side to side (p. 4)
jerks: makes a quick, sudden movement (p. 4)
transform: change (p. 5)
collapse: fall (p. 12)
quicksand: loose, wet sand that sucks in anything resting on it (p. 13)
Stop after:
p. 5
“Cars, buildings, and whole lakes can disappear into
these cracks.”
Use “Think, Pair, Share” to have the students first think about and
then discuss:
Q
What did you learn in the part of the book you just heard? [pause]
Turn to your partner.
Without sharing as a class, reread the last two sentences on page 5
and continue reading aloud to the next stopping point. Follow this
procedure at the following stops:
p. 8
“They usually occur within a few days, getting weaker
over time.”
p. 10 “Another area that suffers from many earthquakes is a zone
that runs from Italy and Greece, through central Asia and
the Himalayas.”
p. 12 “They make things that were weakened by the first
earthquake fall down.”
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
Grade Four 3
Recognizing Text Features
Expository Nonfiction
Unit 2  Week 1  Day 1 Notes
Discuss the Reading
Ask:
Q
What is one thing you or your partner learned from this reading?
Turn to page 4 and review that the author says “The worst
earthquakes in the world cause terrible destruction.” Ask:
Q
Materials Substitutions
•
Shattering Earthquakes
(pages 10–11) replaces
Digging Up Tyrannosaurus
Rex (pages 4–5)
•
Copy of “Excerpt from
Shattering Earthquakes”
for each student (see “Do
Ahead”) replaces Student
Response Book pages 4–5
What evidence does the author provide in the text to support
that statement?
Notes for Day 2
On Day 2, teach Steps 1, 4, and 5 using the instructions on pages 41 and 43 of
the Teacher’s Manual. For Steps 2 and 3, use the instructions below instead of
the instructions in the Teacher’s Manual.
Explore Expository Text Features
Show the table of contents on page 3 of Shattering Earthquakes and
review that expository nonfiction texts often include features such
as a table of contents that help the reader locate information in the
text or understand the topic better. Explain that today the students
will explore some of these text features.
Show pages 10–11 of the book and read the chapter title aloud.
Then read aloud the main text, followed by the information in the
text features. When you finish, draw the students’ attention to the
map on page 10 and read aloud the caption and the map key. Ask:
Q
How might this map help a reader better understand what this
page is about?
Distribute a copy of “Excerpt from Shattering Earthquakes” to each
student. Explain that this is a copy of the chapter from Shattering
Earthquakes you just read. Use “Think, Pair, Share” to discuss:
Q
4 Making Meaning®
Besides maps, what other features do you notice on these two
pages that might help a reader better understand the topic?
[pause] Turn to your partner.
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
Unit 2  Week 1  Day 2 Notes
If partners have difficulty recognizing text features, point out a
feature (for example, the photograph, captions, map key, words in
bold type, or the text box with the quotation), and then ask:
Q
Recognizing Text Features
Expository Nonfiction
Teacher Note
You might explain that words
in bold type are keywords,
or important words, that are
What information does this feature give you?
vital for understanding the
topic. Keywords are often
Q
How does that help you understand the body (or main part)
of the text?
defined in the glossary.
Have the students individually record the features on Student
Response Book page 3, “Think, Pair, Write About Text Features.”
Share Features as a Whole Class
When the students finish their lists, ask volunteers to share the
features they identified. List the features on a sheet of paper titled
“Expository Text Features.” Be sure to include the following features:
chapter titles, headings, maps and map keys, photographs, captions,
bold words (keywords), and text boxes.
Page through Shattering Earthquakes, showing the students other
pages and features. Point out these features and add them to
the chart: table of contents (page 3), glossary (page 30), and index
(page 32).
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
Grade Four 5
Excerpt
from Shattering Earthquakes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury (pages 10–11)
Excerpt from Shattering Earthquakes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury. Copyright © 2013 by Heinemann Library, an
imprint of Capstone Global Library, LLC Chicago, Illinois. All rights reserved.
continues
6 Making Meaning®
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
Unit 2  Week 1  Day 2
Excerpt (continued)
from Shattering Earthquakes
Excerpt from Shattering Earthquakes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury. Copyright © 2013 by Heinemann Library, an
imprint of Capstone Global Library, LLC Chicago, Illinois. All rights reserved.
Unit 2  Week 1  Day 2
Replacement Notes © Developmental Studies Center
Making Meaning® 7