Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

• RI.8.1 – Opening A: Students complete an entrance ticket by citing evidence from the text.
• RI.8.8 – Work Time B: Students complete sections of the Delineate an Argument graphic organizer as they review and evaluate the argument and claims in section 5 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
• SL.8.3 – Closing and Assessment A: Students watch “Farmers Markets” and evaluate the speaker’s argument and claims in a discussion with peers.
• The Think-Pair-Share and Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face protocols are used in this lesson. Protocols are an important feature of the curriculum because they are one of the best ways we know to engage students in discussion, inquiry, critical thinking, and sophisticated communication. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning.
• In this lesson, students practice becoming effective learners while collaborating with partners as they learn how to delineate and evaluate arguments and analyze their validity. This will help students strengthen their reading and analysis skills and will make them better able to formulate their own opinions and arguments.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

• In this lesson, students read excerpts from chapters 10 and 11 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Provide time for students to read and review the entire chapters with peers or individually.
• Invite students to research more about industrial organic farming to better understand details of farm operations, history, products, and impact. Students can share what they learn in small groups or with the class.
• Invite students to find additional texts and resources from conflicting viewpoints that center around the same topic as this lesson’s excerpts from The Omnivore’s Dilemma (industrial organic farming). Support students to identify where irrelevant evidence is presented or in identifying false statements and fallacious reasoning that may exist.
• Find additional interviews, speeches, or videos on industrial organic farming, and allow students to evaluate the speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric. Help students identify any fallacious reasoning and point out any exaggerated or distorted evidence.
• Students can research any industrial organic farms that operate in your state or area. Encourage students to learn more about their operations, practices, and production.
• As appropriate for students, use the Delineate an Argument graphic organizer in Work Time B and Closing and Assessment A with less or more scaffolding.
• In Closing and Assessment A, students view “Farmers Markets” from Nourish: Short Films: 54 Bite-Sized Videos about the Story of Your Food. Alternatively, the video can be accessed online at http://eled.org/0234. Then they discuss the argument presented and the supporting points and evidence. Invite students to fill out the optional Delineate an Argument: “Farmers Markets” graphic organizer in addition to their discussion. Similarly, provide time for students to view an additional video of their choice from this site, and fill out a corresponding graphic organizer.

How It Builds on Previous Work

• This lesson applies work students completed previously in delineating arguments and analyzing soundness and relevancy of evidence. In this lesson, students work on these same skills with increased independence, leading up to working completely independently later in the module.

Support All Students

• Presenting learning targets in writing, orally, and, if possible, accompanied by symbols, will help students to understand the language within them. ▲
• Note that section 5 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma addresses the concept of organic food. Pollan explains that organic food is grown without pesticides or fertilizer chemicals but is grown in far-away farms and sold by chain stores like Whole Foods, rather than grown and sold locally like organic used to imply. He raises the question of whether organic food is worth the extra cost and implies that it may be because we do not know the long-term effects of pesticides and fertilizers in our food, especially for children. He also discusses free-range chickens and the reality that these chickens are actually raised confined and do not go outside—they may be fed to grow so quickly that they cannot even walk. Some students or their families may find these topics to be new, challenging, or upsetting depending on their own eating habits, knowledge, access, or other factors. These topics may also be challenging for students who live in food deserts where they may not have access to organic food. Allow for time to process and respond to these topics during individual, small group, or whole-class discussion, and reach out to families as needed. Use thoughtful, strategic pairings, and discuss what types of food are available or affordable in students’ own neighborhoods and communities.
• In Work Time A, provide choice in how students read the excerpt: some students may prefer to read independently and silently, while others (especially ELLs) may wish to read aloud in groups with peers and/or with support. Still others may wish to read silently for a few pages and then process with a group. This format of choice could potentially be built into the reading time within each lesson. ▲
• As in previous lessons, in Work Time A, present additional options for recording gist rather than just the sticky note, such as using a separate notebook, using a graphic organizer, using highlighters and annotating, or using a voice recorder. Give students options for expressing their understanding of gist (oral, written, drawing). Also, build in different options for expressing comprehension of the text (written reflection, voice recording, discussion with partners/groups). ▲
• Students may need additional support with recording their answers on their graphic organizer in Work Time B. Sit those students in a group together to grow their independence with identifying the arguments and evidence with support when necessary. ▲
• When grouping students in partners to review the Delineate an Argument graphic organizer in Work Time B, group ELLs with partners who have more advanced or native language proficiency. The partners with greater language proficiency can serve as a model, initiating discussions and providing implicit sentence frames, for example. Use the same grouping in future lessons if this grouping was successful. This will support students in building trust and becoming more comfortable and confident with their peers. ▲
• Provide students with a link to the video used in Closing and Assessment A through sites such as Google Classroom or similar means so they can review the content multiple times at their own pace instead of in the large group setting.
• If watching the videos in Closing and Assessment A presents complications, read the transcript from videos aloud (from the blog posts associated with each video).

Assessment Guidance

• Check gist statements to ensure students are recording quick notes about what the text is mostly about.
• Monitor and collect students’ Delineate an Argument graphic organizers during Work Time B to ensure students are on the right track for capturing accurate main claims, supporting points, and related evidence on an increasingly independent and accurate level.

Down the Road

• In the next lesson, students will go back to examining the structure of specific paragraphs in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, analyzing how the structure of supporting paragraphs contributes to developing key ideas in the text. Students will again discuss the author’s point of view and examine how the author responds to or acknowledges conflicting evidence and viewpoints.
• Student will have one more lesson where they can practice delineating an argument and analyzing evidence prior to their mid-unit assessment.