Students piece together the story of the Titanic.
What to do
1. Write the following names randomly on the board or give students the first part of the activity page: Atlantic, Benjamin Guggenheim, Blue Riband, Captain Smith, Robert Ballard, Southampton, The Californian, Wallace Hartley, White Star Line.
Ask students to tell you how many names there are. Answer: nine. Explain that a tenth name is missing. It’s the name that links all the others together. If students don’t know the answer, let them discuss in small groups or give them clues. Answer: The Titanic.
2. What do the students know about the Titanic? Do they know how the nine names are connected to the story? Explain that they are going to piece together the story of what happened to the ship.
3. Either cut out the different paragraphs that tell the story or make copies of the activity sheet. Divide students into small groups and distribute the paragraphs if you have cut them out, or give each student pair a copy of the activity sheet. Students put the paragraphs into the correct order. Check answers.
4. Students then look for one of the names on the board in each paragraph. Check through the names, asking students to tell you how each one is connected to the story. Finally, ask students to write four questions based on the story to ask other students. Invite students to read out questions and encourage others to answer them.
5. Have the students seen any of the Titanic films or read any books about the disaster? Why do they think the story of the Titanic still fascinates people so much? Find out how many students have travelled by ship. Ask them to compare travelling by sea with other forms of transport, keeping safety in mind.
Answer key:
1 h
2 f
3 c
4 b
5 g
6 e
7 a
8 i
9 d
Teaching material
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Titanic
h. It took 2 years and
2 months to build the R.M.S. Titanic. It was the largest moving object
ever built and the most luxurious liner of her time. The ship, which
set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April
10, 1912, was supposed to be unsinkable because of its 16 watertight
compartments.
f. She made stops at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading across the Atlantic for America. The captain of the Titanic was Edward J. Smith. After a 25-year career with the White Star Line company, he was about to retire after the voyage.
c. On the evening of Sunday, April 14, while the passengers were having dinner, messages were received in the wireless room warning of ice. At the time, the Titanic was travelling at high speed, hoping to win the Blue Riband prize for the fastest Atlantic crossing.
b. At around 11:30pm, a large black object was seen in the path of the Titanic. The ship tried to avoid the iceberg but it was too late. The iceberg punctured five of the ship's water-tight compartments and nothing could be done. Captain Smith ordered immediate evacuation.
g. According to British trade regulations of the time, vessels of over 10,000 tons were only required to have 16 lifeboats. The Titanic only had lifeboats for about half of the people on board. One of the first people to escape in a lifeboat was the managing director of White Star Line, the owners of the ship.
e. While many people fought for a place on the lifeboats, others stayed on the ship to help save the women and children. They included three American millionaires: John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Isidor Straus. The Titanic took 2 hours and 40 minutes to sink.
a. The Titanic had sent distress calls indicating the ship's position. One ship, The Californian, was close to the scene and could have saved many lives, but the radio operator was off duty and asleep. It wasn't until 4:00am that survivors in the lifeboats saw the Carpathia steamship coming to the rescue.
i. Of the 2,228 passengers and crew on the Titanic, 1,513 drowned including the members of the ship's band, led by Wallace Hartley, who continued playing while the ship was sinking. The investigations that followed led to many reforms. Ships had to include lifeboat space for every person and radio watch had to be maintained.
d. Although the Titanic sank in 1912,
its wreck wasn't found until September 1985 when a joint French-United
States expedition, led by the American oceanographer Robert Ballard,
used robot submersibles to travel 2.5 miles under the sea and photograph
the wreck.