LEARN NC

a black and white image of a painting of George Washington

Where English and history meet: A collaboration guide

By Karen Cobb Carroll, Ph.D., NBCT

3 The Johnstown Flood: Cause and effect

Learning outcomes

At the close of this lesson, students will:

  • understand the social divides present in the late 19th century
  • connect causes and effects through effective rhetorical techniques
  • assess an example of laissez-faire government in the late 19th century

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

160 minutes

Materials/Resources

textbook Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. Ninth Edition. Kirszner, Laurie G., and Mandell, Stephen R. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.

Technology resources

Students and teachers need access to computers and the internet to conduct research (computer lab).

Pre-activities

Students should read in Patterns for College Writing pages 303–314 (how to write a cause and effect essay).

Activities

  1. Teacher should review the methods for constructing a cause and effect essay as covered in the pre-activity material.
  2. Teacher should introduce the Johnstown Flood of 1889 by reminding students that the Hurricane Katrina disaster was not the first natural disaster in America.
  3. Students will conduct research to investigate the Johnstown Flood. See suggested websites for possibilities. Students should work in pairs in a computer lab to answer the following:
    1. Where is Johnstown?
    2. Describe the geography of Johnstown. Why is it important?
    3. When did the Flood occur? Why is this unusual?
    4. What was the role of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club in the Flood?
    5. What were the causes of the Flood of 1889?
    6. What were the effects of the Flood? Why were these effects so severe?
    7. In what ways did the Flood affect the lower social class? The upper social classes (members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club)? Why were these effects so different?
    8. Why was the government not involved in this situation?
    9. Could this Flood happen today? Why/why not?

Assessment

Students will write an essay addressing the following prompt. “Using appropriate rhetorical techniques and strategies, analyze the causes and
effects of the Johnstown Flood. Consider political, geographic, social, and
economic elements.”

The essay will be graded using the general AP rubric below.

Generic AP rubric (adapted from College Board)

9 (100 percent)
8 (95 percent)
Superior papers specific in their references, cogent in their definitions, and free of summary that is not relevant to the question. These essays need not be without flaws, but they demonstrate the writer’s ability to discuss with insight and understanding and to control a wide range of the elements of effective composition. At all times they stay focused on the prompt, providing specific support for the comparison/contrast.
7 (90 percent)
6 (85 percent)
These papers are less thorough, less perceptive or less specific than 9–8 papers. They are well-written but with less maturity and control. While they demonstrate the writer’s ability to compare/contrast, they reveal a more limited understanding and less stylistic maturity than do the papers in the 9–8 range.
5 (80 percent)
Safe and “plastic,” superficiality characterizes these essays. Discussion of meaning may be formulaic, mechanical, or inadequately related to the chosen details. Typically, these essays reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing. They usually demonstrate inconsistent control over the elements of composition and are not as well conceived, organized, or developed as the upper-half papers. However, the writing is sufficient to convey the writer’s ideas, stays mostly focused on the prompt, and contains at least some effort to produce analysis, direct or indirect.
4 (75 percent)
3 (70 percent)
Discussion is likely to be unpersuasive, perfunctory, underdeveloped or misguided. The meaning they deduce may be inaccurate or insubstantial and not clearly related to the question. Part of the question may be omitted altogether. The writing may convey the writer’s ideas, but it reveals weak control over such elements as diction, organization, syntax or grammar. Typically, these essays contain significant misinterpretations of the question or the ideas they discuss; they may also contain little, if any, supporting evidence, and practice paraphrase and plot summary at the expense of analysis.
2 (65 percent)
1 (60 percent)
These essays compound the weakness of essays in the 4–3 range and are frequently unacceptably brief. They are poorly written on several counts, including many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. Although the writer may have made some effort to answer the question, the views presented have little clarity or coherence.