Next Generation Assessment Practice

English Language Arts / Literacy

Student Edition
Grade 5
Informative/Explanatory

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English Language Arts / Literacy

Name ______________________________________________________________ Date _______________________

PART 1: Close Reading

Your Task

You will examine three sources about volcanoes. Then you will answer three
questions about what you have learned. In Part 2, you will write a research
report about volcano formation and the different ways they erupt.

Steps to Follow

In order to plan and write your report, you will do all of the following:
1. Examine three sources.
2. Make notes about the information from the sources.
3. Answer three questions about the sources.

Directions for Beginning

You will have 45 minutes to complete Part 1. You will now examine three
sources. Take notes because you may want to refer to them while writing your
report. You can re-examine any of the sources as often as you like. Answer the
questions in the spaces provided.

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English Language Arts / Literacy

PART 1 Instructions

It Rained Cement
When I moved to Quito, Ecuador, in the 1990s, the
last thing I expected to see was an erupting volcano.
I had read a lot about Quito. But I hadnt come across
anything about Guagua Pichincha, an active volcano a
few miles west of the city. I didnt even know it existed
. . . until 1999, when it was about to erupt.
Guagua Pichincha had not erupted for hundreds
of years. But now magma was making its way to the
surface, and the pressure was causing earthquakes.
In the city, we did not feel the earthquakes very often.
But geologists were able to detect them. Some of the
tremors shook nonstop for six hours. Guagua Pichincha
was about to erupt.
On the morning of September 3, 1999, I saw a huge
plume of ash shoot from the volcano. The mushroomshaped cloud rose to a height of more than three miles.
As the ash settled, it covered the city in a thin layer. Even
cities miles away from Quito were blanketed in ash.
What had set off this eruption?
The answer was water. As the magma came closer to
the surface, it heated rainwater in the ground. The water
boiled. As the water turned into steam, the steam caused

so much pressure that weak spots in the surface finally

gave way and exploded.
One way to understand this type of eruption is to
think of shaking a bottle of soda and then popping off the
lid. Expanding gas in the soda creates so much pressure
that it explodes out of the bottle, taking the soda with it.
(The gas in a soda expands for a different reason.)
The ash from Guagua Pichincha shot out with so
much force that it traveled for miles before it settled.
The finer ash hung in the air.
Volcanic ash is different from the ash left over from
a wood fire. Volcanic ash is made up of tiny bits of lava.
The eruption blasts the bits into the air while they are
still hot, and they cool as separate particles, forming a
fine dust.
This dust can clog the works of an engine or any
other machine that needs air. Cars, buses, and even
airplanes could not run in Quito for days.
Worse, the air could carry ash into a persons lungs,
permanently damaging them. Schools were closed.
People who had to leave home wore masks that protected
their lungs.
Continued

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English Language Arts / Literacy

A Cleansing Rain
One day, dark rain clouds rolled toward Quito.
I thought, What a relief to have the air finally clean!
I was looking forward to the time when I could walk
outside without wearing a bulky mask over my nose and
mouth.
I had an appointment in 10 minutes. I had to walk,
of course, since no cars or buses were running. As the
clouds neared the city, I strapped on my mask.
When the rain started to fall, the water looked normal
until I looked down. The water wasnt clear. It was gray.
My clothes had little drops of wet ash on them. The rain
was cleaning the air as I hoped. But it was dropping the
ash as a watery mess.
I walked faster. The rain fell harder. Before I knew
it, I was wet from head to toe. The surprising part was
that when I finally found shelter, the thin, ashy rainwater
started to harden. I could move my clothes and my hair
into any form and they would stay. It was as if the sky
had rained cement!
Minor eruptions of steam and ash continued for
months. I never thought I would get used to the sight of
a volcano erupting, but it became commonplace for the
people of Quito.

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PART 1 Instructions

By the year 2000, Guagua Pichincha finally rested

again. I will never forget the huge clouds of ash rising
from the mountains behind us. And I will always
remember to stay out of the rain after a volcano erupts.
Inside the Volcano
Guagua Pichincha is a kind of volcano called a
composite cone. Its a mountain built up by two kinds
of eruptions. One spews volcanic ash and cinders.
The other kind sends thick lava flowing over the ash
and cinders. Each time the volcano has one of these
major eruptions, it grows taller, with more layers of
cinders or fluid lava or both. The eruption in 1999
was less violent than either of those types. Mostly,
it ejected volcanic ash into the air.
The volcano now stands 4,784 meters (15,695
feet) above sea level. Thats taller than 12 Empire
State Buildings stacked on top of one another and
about only half as tall as Mount Everest, the worlds
highest mountain.

"It Rained Cement" by Megan Clements.

Copyright 2010 by Highlights for Children,
Inc., Columbus, Ohio.

English Language Arts / Literacy

What sequence of four events happened below the earth that

caused the volcano to erupt after hundreds of years? Use concrete
details to support your answer.

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PART 1 Instructions

English Language Arts / Literacy

PART 1 Instructions

The Earth Breathed Fire

On a stormy night in December 1943, Masao
Mimatsu felt a jolt. His house shook. An earthquake! He
looked through the swirling snow to Mount Usu, less
than two miles away. Mount Usu was a volcano, but it
had been quiet for 33 years. Was it going to erupt again?
Masao was a postmaster in the village of Sobetsu in
northern Japan. He had lived his whole life at the foot of
Mount Usu. As a boy, he had often climbed the mountain.
In the summer of 1910, when he was 23 years old, Mount
Usu had erupted. It had blasted smoke, ash, and rocks
into the sky. Seeing that eruption, Masao developed an
interest in volcanoes, which became a lifelong hobby.
In 1943, Japan was fighting in World War II, a
terrible conflict that caused suffering for people all over
the world. Masao knew that the people living near Mount
Usu were enduring great hardships due to the war. An
eruption would make it even harder to survive.
Earthquakes continued through New Years Day.
There were no scientists to monitor the volcano. They
were all busy with the war. Masao was also busy, making
sure the mail was delivered, but he found time to observe

the volcano every day. He kept a diary of all earthquake

activity. On January 1, 1944, he wrote, Two earthquakes
strong enough to knock things off of shelves.

Masao Climbs a Volcano

Masao climbed Mount Usu to check for volcanic
activity. The volcano remained quiet, but a mile to the
east there were ominous signs. In the farming village of
Fukaba, huge cracks appeared across roads. Water pipes
broke. Railroad tracks were twisted by the shifting earth.
The most troubling change was the ground itself. It was
slowly rising, like the surface of an inflating balloon.
All winter the earthquakes continued. In spring, the
farmers of Fukaba returned to their fields, despite the
rumbling in the earth below. On the morning of June 23,
1944, a farmer spotted white smoke coming out of the
ground. Suddenly he heard an enormous explosion. He
raced back to the village as the earth erupted, blasting
ash and large rocks into the sky. By midday, the green
fields and forests were covered with almost a foot of
volcanic ash for a mile in all directions.

Continued
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English Language Arts / Literacy

Masao rushed to the site. The explosions had created

a crater 150 feet across and 100 feet deep. A new volcano
had been born. The crater was in the same place that I
sat and ate my lunch yesterday, he wrote.
During the next four months, earthquakes and
eruptions continued to rock the land. Ash clinging to
the plants caused the crops to die, Masao reported. The
local farmers are in despair.

The Villagers Flee

The people of Fukaba fled their homes. Soon, their
houses were pounded to fragments by rocks blasted like
cannonballs out of the new volcano. Masao wrote that
the volcano looked like a monster breathing out fire.
But the danger did not stop him. As the volcano pushed
skyward, he climbed up its jagged slopes to make
observations, and he kept a careful record of its growth.
Molten rock, called lava, started forcing its way
out of the crater. This lava hardened into a black dome,
shrouded in white smoke. For the next eight months the
lava dome continued to push upward until the volcano
stood 1,300 feet high.
As the volcano grew, the war continued, causing

PART 1 Instructions

great hardship for the people. Finally, on August 15,

1945, after years of war, the emperor of Japan made a
radio address to his people: Japan had surrendered. The
war was over. Six weeks later, Masao recorded that the
new volcano was quiet at last. He noted that signs of
joy could be seen on the faces of the totally exhausted
people.
Masao named the volcano Showa Shinzan. Showa
honors the emperor of Japan at that time. Shinzan means
new mountain in Japanese.

Masao Saves the Mountain

Many people wanted to dig mines into the volcano
to get sulfur and other minerals that had come to the
surface during the eruptions.
To save the mountain, Masao sold some of his own
property and used the money to buy Showa Shinzan from
the Fukaba farmers. He protected Showa Shinzan for the
rest of his life. Today it is protected by the government
of Japan.
Masao was a postmaster, not a scientist. But his
careful notes, photographs, and sketches were an
important contribution to the understanding of volcanoes.

Continued
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English Language Arts / Literacy

In 1958, his report on Showa Shinzan was presented at

an international conference on volcanoes, and he was
recognized for his contribution.
Showa Shinzan has not erupted for more than fifty
years. You can visit it. It is a rusty-red, rocky mountain
standing where farmers once grew wheat. The volcano

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PART 1 Instructions

is quiet, but steam and smoke still escape from its jagged
sides. At its base is a statue of postmaster Masao Mimatsu
looking up at the volcano whose birth he recorded.
"The Earth Breathed Fire" by Tony Helies.
Copyright 2004 by Highlights for
Children, Inc., Columbus, Ohio.

English Language Arts / Literacy

What were five signs that the volcano Showa Shinzan was about to
form? Support your answer with descriptive details.

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PART 1 Instructions

English Language Arts / Literacy

PART 1 Instructions

From

Forewarned: Can We Predict Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions?

Chapter 7

Volcanic eruptions have both frightened and

interested people for thousands of years. Knowing
when a volcano will erupt should hopefully save lives.
Scientists who study volcanoes are called volcanologists.
They have learned much about volcanoes. But they admit
freely that they have much more to learn.
Volcanic eruptions vary a lot. Eruptions last much
longer than the shaking of the ground by earthquakes.
Before a volcano erupts, there is a buildup that can last
several months. This gives volcanologists time before an
eruption to study the volcano in detail.
Volcano eruptions are dramatic. Smoke, ash, and
brilliant lava explode into the sky. Of course, they are
also very dangerous. Millions of people live very close to
volcanoes. This is because most volcanic areas are nice
places to live. Volcanic eruptions cause beautifully rich
soil. Some of the world's most productive cropland is on
the sides of volcanoes. Also, as the world is becoming
more populated, more people are moving to the edges of
volcanoes.

If we could accurately forecast eruptions, peoples

lives and property could be saved. But in order to
understand predicting volcanic eruptions, we need to
understand what a volcano is and how and why it erupts.
A volcano is a mountain with a hole in it. The hole
opens to a pool of magma that rises from deep within
Earth. When pressure builds up inside the volcano, it
erupts. The material that shoots out can erupt through
one or more holes. The holes can be just one opening, a
group of openings, or a long crack.
A volcano can erupt different types of material.
These include ash, rock pieces, gases, hot lava, coals,
steam, and water. They can also erupt aerosols, which
are tiny liquid or solid pieces suspended in the air.
A volcanic cone is made by the buildup of the
materials it erupts. The materials cool and collect around
the hole. This can form a cone. The more the volcano
erupts, the higher the cone will grow.
Scientists have discovered at least 1,500 above-sea
volcanoes that have been active in the past 10,000 years.
Continued

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English Language Arts / Literacy

More than 500 of these have erupted at least once during

written history. Of these volcanoes, between 50 and 60
are active during any one year. The above-sea volcanoes
are the ones that are well known. However, the ocean
also contains volcanoes. Some scientists believe there
are more volcanoes under the sea than on the land.
The world's biggest volcano is Hawaii's Mauna Loa,
which rises more than 13,000 feet above sea level and

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PART 1 Instructions

about 29,000 feet above the floor of the ocean. Mt. Etna
on the island of Sicily, Italy, is another huge volcano. Its
height varies, but it was 10,902 feet tall in the late 1990s.
Most of the known active volcanoes are around 100,000
years old, but Mt. Etna is probably closer to 350,000
years old.
From Forewarned: Can We Predict Earthquakes
and Volcanic Eruptions? by Terry Miller Shannon.
Copyright 2012 by Zaner-Bloser, Inc.

English Language Arts / Literacy

What types of materials erupt from a volcano and how do these

materials relate to a volcanic cone? Use facts to support your
answer.

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PART 1 Instructions

English Language Arts / Literacy

PART 2: Writing to Multiple Sources

You will now have 70 minutes to review your notes and sources, plan, draft,
and revise your report. You may use your notes and refer to the sources. You
may also refer to the answers you wrote to questions in Part 1, but you cannot
change those answers. Now read your assignment and the information about
how your report will be scored; then begin your work.

Your Assignment

Write a research report on the topic of volcanoes to be delivered to your

classmates. Describe how volcanoes are formed and the different reasons they
erupt. Use facts, concrete details, and other information related to volcanic
formation and eruption. Be sure to include scientific language in your report, as
well as provide an introduction and a conclusion.

Report Scoring

Your research report will be scored on the following criteria:

1. Focus and organization How well did you introduce your topic? How

well did you use clear transitions? How well did you stay on topic
throughout the report? How well does your conclusion relate to the
information you presented?

2. Elaboration of topic How well did you develop the topic with relevant

facts, definitions, concrete details, or other information and examples?

How well did you clearly express ideas using precise language and
domain-specific vocabulary that was appropriate for your audience and
purpose?
Continued

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English Language Arts / Literacy

Report Scoring (continued)

3. Conventions How well did you follow the rules of usage,

punctuation, capitalization, and spelling?

Now begin work on your research report. Manage your time carefully
so that you can:
plan your report.
write your report.
revise and edit for a final draft.
Spell check is available to you.
Type your response in the space provided on the following page. Write
as much as you need to fulfill the requirements of the task. You are not
limited by the size of the response area on the screen.

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PART 2 Instructions

English Language Arts / Literacy

PART 2 Instructions

Type your response below.

Go to the next
page if you need
more space.

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English Language Arts / Literacy

Continue your response below.

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PART 2 Instructions