Isaac's Storm

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. The United States is no stranger to extreme weather. What historic weather events can you recall, either from hearing about them or from personal experience? What statistics can you remember about the individual events—the duration, the financial damage incurred, or the casualties? What was the national response to each event?

Teaching Suggestion: If students are struggling to recall extreme weather events, it might be helpful to have a pre-generated list from the last 15-20 years to jumpstart their exploration of this topic.

• This resource from the National Centers for Environmental Information allows users to search their database for billion-dollar disaster events in the United States based on the type of event and within a specified time frame (starting in 1980).
• This resource from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides information on the worst hurricane, tornado, thunderstorm, firestorm, and blizzard in the United States to date.

2. The Greek term hubris is defined as excessive pride or overconfidence in an individual that usually results in their downfall. One of the themes in Isaac’s Storm is American Hubris at the Turn of the Century. Recall your knowledge of life in America at the turn of the 20th century. What advances—technological, industrial, political, and cultural—might have caused America to believe it was invincible?

Teaching Suggestion: It might be helpful to have a list of historical events that occurred near the turn of the century for students to reference. For example, you might include the defeat of the Apache leader Geronimo. What about this event might have caused overconfidence in some Americans?

• This article from the Library of Congress provides examples of American advancement around the turn of the century.
• This article from the Harvard Business Review focuses on America’s “golden age of invention” during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes inventions that changed America and the world, which could have contributed to the idea of American exceptionalism.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Recall a time, either from personal experience, history, or fiction, when someone made a disastrous decision that impacted many people. What was the situation? What were the consequences? How did these consequences affect society and the person who made the decision?

Teaching Suggestion: It might be helpful to have an example in each category to share with students before they attempt this prompt.

• This 9-minute video briefly describes eight of the most disastrous decisions in history, including the Titanic, Chernobyl, and the Trojan Horse.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced learners, consider assigning an in-depth multimedia research presentation based on one of the decisions detailed in the video or another source. Advanced learners can then share their findings with the class.