Lesson Plan - Survival on a Sea of Ice

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Learning Objective

Students will understand the historical significance of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to Antarctica and the recent discovery of his lost ship.

Text Structure

Sequence, Description

Content-Area Connections

World History

Standards Correlations

CCSS: RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.4, RI.4.5, RI.4.6, RI.4.7, RI.4.8, RI.4.10, L.4.4, SL.4.1

NCSS: Time, Continuity, and Change

TEKS: Social Studies 4.21

1. Preparing to Read

Watch a Video: The Search for a Sunken Ship

Discuss: Why did the Endurance22 team set out to find Ernest Shackleton’s ship?

The Search for a Sunken Ship
Watch a video to learn about the search for the wreckage of the Endurance.

Preview Words to Know

Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.

  • expedition
  • uninhabited


Set a Purpose for Reading

Note the “As You Read” question. Have students identify challenges Shackleton and his crew faced.

2. Close-Reading Questions

1. The article says that earlier this year, the story of Shackleton’s expedition “got a new chapter.” What does this mean?
This means that something new happened. Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was found on the ocean floor.
(RI.4.4 DETERMINE MEANING)

2. Why did Shackleton and his crew leave the Endurance before reaching land?
Shackleton and his crew had to leave the Endurance after the ship got stuck in sea ice. The force of the ice caused the ship’s floorboards to snap and water to rush in.
(RI.4.5 CAUSE/EFFECT)

3. Why does the author write that “the goal of the trip had changed”?
The author is expressing that Shackleton and his crew were no longer focused on conducting the first expedition across Antarctica. After they were forced to leave their ship, their focus was on survival.
(RI.4.1 TEXT EVIDENCE)

3. Skill Building

FEATURED SKILL: Reading a Map

Use the Skill Builder “Shackleton’s Expedition” to have students analyze a map of the journey and practice skills like using a compass rose and scale of miles. 

(RI.4.7 USING VISUALS)

Differentiate & Extend

Multilingual Learners

Explain that coldest is a superlative adjective. Earth’s coldest place is colder than all other places. Have students find another superlative adjective with the -est ending on pp. 2-3 (greatest).

 

Striving Readers

This article includes proper nouns that striving readers may find challenging. Go to the issue’s Presentation View online, and use the Read Aloud function to model fluent reading of these words.

 

Bonus Skill Builder

Use the Skill Builder “What Would You Take?” to have students imagine themselves in Shackleton’s shoes and think about the supplies they would need.

Text-to-Speech