Skill: write-like-james @ a538c92 · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script @ a538c92

Topic 24 "Volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides" — your read (28 September 2026, night)

Three things that change the land fast, each in a pair of lessons: what it is, then what it does to the land. A volcano is an opening in the ground where melted rock from deep inside Earth comes out (the melted rock is lava — rock, not fire); lava covers a field and cools into solid rock in one day. An earthquake is a sudden shaking of the ground; a road cracks in about twenty seconds, one side left a step higher. A landslide is a mass of rock or soil suddenly sliding down a slope; a hillside slides in less than a minute, leaving a bare hollow above and a heap below. Read by the author as you, then a non-author review (41 findings: the block and every fix applied, 13 of 18 suggestions applied), then a cold read of every changed item (32 of 32 keys agreed; five notes, none a dispute). Reply by number.

The four that unblock the bank

1. Do the ten question types stand, with the typed hard tier?

Your night ruling is applied: hard is typed — the event's name read off a drawn slope and sorted against the other two events (text), and "lava" from a described scene (text). Easy and medium are four-option MCQs and are the bulk. Every atom is tested alone and in a pair. Every exemplar is a fresh scene: the reviewer found six sitting on the lessons' own places or on quiz items with a noun changed, and all six now have new places and, for the drawn one, a new drawing. The ten types, coverage, the design-move inventory

Approve all / strike these / edit these

2. Do the three "how fast" numbers stand?

The topic's point is FAST, and each before / after strip carries a time on its chip: lava covers a field in one day; an earthquake shakes for about twenty seconds; a landslide takes less than a minute. Each is typical, none is a record (Kilauea's 2018 flows crossed roads in hours to a day; a large quake's strong shaking runs about twenty seconds; a soil slide on a steep hillside is over in under a minute).

The one hedge on offer: a thick lava flow's inside stays hot for weeks; "one day" is the top turning solid. The reviewer and I both call it a fair grade-3 simplification.

Recommendation: keep the three numbers as written.

Keep / soften each to "about" / cut the numbers and say "fast"

3. Does L03 keep its one forward-reference line?

After the rule, L03 says: "What makes the ground shake? You will find out in a later grade." The cause (rock slipping, waves through the crust) is Grade 4's atom. You had Topic 3 name gravity as "later in the course" rather than leave a question hanging; this line does the same. The reviewer agrees it should stay.

Recommendation: keep.

Keep / cut both sentences

4. Two register wordings, for the knowledge-graph repo.

EAR3-009's example says "a hillside letting go after days of heavy rain", and EAR3-012's behaviour says "when a landslide lets go". A hill has no hands — the class of verb you banned on 25 Sep. The lessons say "slides down" and "when a landslide happens". Proposed: "a hillside sliding down after days of heavy rain"; "when a landslide happens". Both are yours to change there. The four register notes

Change both / leave / say the words

The lessons

5. L01 What a volcano is — Mount Saint Helens and Pikes Peak: both tall, both snowy for part of the year, one a volcano. Deep inside Earth some rock is so hot that it has melted; in some places there is an opening in the ground, and the melted rock comes up and out — the melted rock that comes out is lava, rock so hot that it glows, not fire. Then the frame, four times: Pikes Peak (no opening: not a volcano) → Kilauea (melted rock out of the opening: a volcano) → Mount Saint Helens (quiet today, but melted rock has come out: a volcano) → Old Faithful (an opening, but hot water: not a volcano). Two coins, volcano and lava; "crater" is said as "the opening at the top". Quiz: drawn and described cases yes / no, Desmond's "lava is fire" (no), two typed terms. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where

6. L02 Volcanoes change the land fast — Sienna's road in Hawaii is under dark rock this morning. The land below a volcano: a field, three trees, a road. Melted rock comes out of the opening — "when that happens, we say the volcano erupts" — and lava pours out; it is a liquid, so it flows downhill, over the grass, the trees and the road; it is so hot that they burn; out in the air it cools and turns into solid rock. The field and the road are gone under new rock, in one day. Two predictions in the same frame (a parking lot; a forest). Quiz: what covers a drawn field, why the lava is now hard rock, Marcus's "hundreds of years" (no). Article · quiz Fine / say where

7. L03 What an earthquake is — Hazel's kitchen floor shakes, the pictures rattle, a cup wobbles off the table; twenty seconds later, still. The floor did not shake on its own: the ground under the house shook, and the house with it. A sudden shaking of the ground is an earthquake; it lasts seconds, about twenty in a big one, then stops. The frame: a truck rattles a window but the ground stays still (not one) → Hazel's kitchen → Miles on a park bench, no house near (one) → a windy day, the trees shake, the ground stays still (not one). Earthquakes happen in California, Alaska, Oklahoma and many other states. The article's teaching figure is a short looping animation. Quiz: cases yes / no, Lorenzo's "only far away" and Paloma's "a strong wind" (both no). Article · quiz Fine / say where

8. L04 Earthquakes change the land fast — Camila's street: a crack right across the road this morning, one side a step higher. A road before; the ground shakes hard for about twenty seconds and cracks in places; one crack runs across the road, about a hand wide; one side ends up a step higher; the shaking stops, the crack stays. The ground does not open up and swallow houses — most cracks are a hand wide. Predictions: a flat field; a steep rocky hill whose loose rocks slide down (the seam to L05, without its word). Quiz: the what on a Nevada field, why the road cracked (reasons only), Fletcher's "swallows houses" and Wendell's "closes up by itself" (both no). Article · quiz Fine / say where

9. L05 What a landslide is — Elliot and his dad below a hillside after three days of rain: a rumble, and the whole side of the hill slides down onto the path, trees and all. Ground that goes downhill is a slope; most days its soil and rock stay where they are. The frame, in your Forces order: a flat field in rain (no slope: not one) → Elliot's hillside (a mass of soil, rock and trees slides down: a landslide) → a dry rocky slope in Alaska that the ground shook (no rain, still one) → the same hillside on a day a little mud washes down and the hill stays (not one). Heavy rain can start a landslide; so can the ground shaking. Quiz: cases yes / no, Emmett's "only when it rains" (no), Rosalie's no-rain claim (yes), a few kicked pebbles (no). Article · quiz Fine / say where

10. L06 Landslides change the land fast — Javier's valley road is blocked by a heap of soil, rocks and broken trees; above it the hillside has a bare hollow. A hillside before; days of rain; a mass of soil and rock slides down in less than a minute. Where the soil was, a bare hollow; where it went, a heap on the valley floor; the road is under it. Two changes from one event. Predictions: a stream (the water spreads into a pond behind the heap); a railway line. Quiz: what lies on a drawn road, the top of the slope, why the soil is on the road, Tobin's "grew there slowly" (no), which event left a drawn hillside like this. Article · quiz Fine / say where

Applied without asking

Hard bank items typed; every attached question stands alone on its own drawing or scene, the six lesson gates and the summary's three on fresh after-pictures ("What happened here?"); no option bundles a verdict with a reason (thirteen bare yes / no claims, the correction in the why); every stem a positive question; scene changes spoken with "let's" and "and now", never an order; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names none of the lessons' places; three questions on the summary; colour, with seven photographs (a real volcano, real lava, a cracked road with a vertical step, a landslide's hollow — USGS public-domain first) and six cartoons for David, and no drawn people; the verdict mark on every example card carries its question; only L03's teaching figure animates, no prediction item does; lava is melted rock in Topic 21's words and never fire; the ground is the soil and rock under everything, and an earthquake is the ground moving; nothing "lets go", "leaks" or "lifts"; the earthquake's duration is one sentence everywhere ("it lasts seconds, about twenty in a big one"); "erupts" is coined in L02 where it is first needed, so L01 coins two words; "geyser" is not said; the misconceptions this age holds are met by name (lava is fire; land only changes slowly; earthquakes only far away; an earthquake is a wind; the ground swallows houses; a landslide needs rain; a volcano must be erupting to be one).

Also on the site

Topic intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the blueprint's decisions · the type sheet

After you answer

1 → a bank of about fifty from the approved types (each type's bank instances vary the place, the day and the drawing; no bank item sits on a lesson's scene), a second cold read, the hand-over folder for David. 2 and 3 → a one-line edit each if you change them. 4 → the knowledge-graph repo. Register notes for EAR3-007, 008 and 010–012 wait in ATOM_PROPOSALS_G3T24.md for your word.