Lesson Plan: Out of the Burning Darkness

Essential Questions

• How responsible is a company for its workers’ safety?
• How has the idea of childhood changed over time?

Literature Connection

• Fiction: Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate and view the article. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the title and the subtitle on page 9 and look at the image on pages 8-9. The subtitle mentions a “terrible accident” in a coal mine. Based on the title of the story and the image, what do you think the accident was? The image shows a boy with a flaming lamp on his head and a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it, and the title mentions “burning darkness,” so a reasonable guess would be that the accident was a fire. 
• Look at the photographs in the sidebar “Children of the Coal Mines.” Read their captions. When do you think these photos were taken? What can you infer about the  lives of the children in the photographs? Sample answer: The photos seem to be from a long time ago. For one thing, they’re in black and white. For another, they show kids working in coal mines, which isn’t something you hear about today. You can infer that the children’s lives are tough, because they’re doing difficult work that seems more suited to an adult. Maybe they’re doing this work because their families really need money.
• Look at the sidebar on page 12 and read its title, “What Is Coal?” What do you already know about coal? What would you like to know? Answers will vary.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (fossil fuel, toiled, evacuate, oxygen, tragically) aloud and discuss the definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading  (5 minutes)

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading: By explaining to students that they will find text evidence in “Out of the Burning Darkness” that shows the dangers of working in the Cherry Mine.
• Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.
• Point out the activity at the end of the story, and tell students they will complete it after reading. Tell them to keep the Think About It! question at the bottom of the page in mind as they read.
• Tell students that as they finish each section, they should think about how the text features on the page (e.g., photos, captions, and section headings) relate to what they’ve just read.

Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• What is the author describing in the article’s first paragraph? Why do you think she chooses to start the article this way? (author’s craft) In the first paragraph, the author is describing the fire in the coal mine as Albert experienced it. She probably starts off with this scene to grab readers’ attention; it’s the most dramatic part of the story.
• Which details from the article best show that coal mining in the early 1900s was a dangerous and difficult job? (text evidence) Miners had to crowd into small metal cages to enter and exit the mine. They faced the risk of cave-ins, underground gases, and fires. They blasted through rock, cut coal with heavy tools, shoveled coal into cars, and used mules to pull coal cars. They also worked as breaker boys, picking out small pieces of rock from the coal, and as trappers, opening and shutting doors.
• Based on the sidebar on page 12, what is coal? Where does it come from? Why is it called a “fossil fuel”? (text features) Coal is a hard rock found underground that gives off energy when burned. It’s made of dead plants that have been crushed by layers of water, rock, and mud for millions of years. It’s called a “fossil fuel” because it’s made of fossils (in this case, dead plants) and is a source of energy.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• What could have been done differently during the Cherry Mine fire that would have saved lives? (drawing conclusions) The mine company leaders made two decisions that led to devastating loss of life. One of them was waiting too long to evacuate the mine. When the fire first broke out, workers rushed to the shaft to escape to the surface, but the mine bosses sent them back to work. The other decision was sealing off the air shaft to put out the fire. Without fresh air, anyone still inside the mine was left to die.
• Today, the Cherry Mine disaster has been largely forgotten. Why do you think it might be important to remember tragedies from the past? What can be done so that we don’t forget? (critical thinking) Sample answer: It’s important to remember tragedies from the past so that we don’t repeat them. By remembering what caused the Cherry Mine disaster (lack of protection for workers), we can avoid similar accidents in the future. We can try to remember events like the Cherry Mine accident by staying curious about the past: reading books and articles, watching documentaries, listening to podcasts, etc.

• Have students work in pairs to complete the text evidence activity at the end of the story. As a class, discuss students’ answers and the Think About It! question.
• Use our Central Idea and Details Skill Builder, available in a higher and lower level version. (Click here to see all your Skill Builders.)
• Writing prompt: Imagine that you’re writing the screenplay for a movie about the Cherry Mine disaster. Write the scene in which workers are trying to escape the mine and their bosses are telling them to go back to work. Describe the setting in which the scene takes place, and write the dialogue and acting instructions for the characters.