A. Engage the Learner - W.8.7 (5 minutes)

• Repeated routine: As students arrive, invite them to complete Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 1. Refer to the Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 1 (answers for teacher reference).

• Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as previous lessons.

A. Introduce GMO Research Project (10 minutes)

• Remind students that in Unit 1, they read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and analyzed topics about where our food comes from. One of the topics that was mentioned in the text was GMOs and the conflicting perspectives on their use. Explain that, in order to more fully understand GMOs and how they increase and decrease our access to healthy food, students will conduct research over the next few lessons to further explore the topic.

• Remind students that research is the exploration, investigation, and analysis of a topic. Like Michael Pollan’s research on the “omnivore’s dilemma,” students will act as detectives on a mission to find information about GMOs and to better understand the topic. Pollan’s original research question was: “Where does our food come from and what exactly are we eating?” The purpose of his gathering information about industrial farming, pesticides, and other topics was to answer his central research question.

• Display the following central research question, and tell students that they will conduct research to answer this question:

  • “How do GMOs influence our access to healthy food?”

• Explain that students will read a text about GMOs in this lesson and practice gathering relevant information from the text that addresses their central research question. They will use the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher in the next lessons as they work with a partner to conduct internet research.

• Distribute and display the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher. For ELLs and students who require additional support, the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMO note-catcher ▲ can be used to help guide students’ thinking with prefilled information. Orient students to the note-catcher. Model how to begin completing the note-catcher by writing the central research question—“How do GMOs influence our access to healthy food?”—in the space provided.

• Explain that when writers research a question, they may have to refine their questions to narrow or broaden their focus and that the influence of GMOs on our access to healthy food is a broad topic that requires a narrower focus in order to conduct research. Point out that the central research question has been refined, so students will answer the question by identifying how GMOs increase our access to healthy food in the first chart in their note-catcher, and how GMOs decrease our access to healthy food in the second chart.

• Focus students’ attention on the additional related focus questions at the top of the note-catcher, and read them aloud. Explain that researchers often have to generate additional related focus questions to guide their research and gather information from sources that are relevant to their topic. Tell students that as they conduct research, they will generate their own additional related focus questions, but they will use these four questions to begin their research.

• Also, point out the section below where they will record their search terms. Tell students that in the next lesson, they will conduct internet research and use the search terms to guide their research, as well as assess the credibility of sources, but for now they will leave these sections blank.

• Draw students’ attention to the first chart, “GMOs Increase Our Access to Healthy Food.” Read the headings of each cell. Tell students that they will record their research findings on how GMOs increase our access to healthy food in this chart. They will gather relevant evidence, explain how the evidence shows that GMOs increase our access to healthy food, cite their sources, and assess the credibility of each source. Have students locate the second chart, “GMOs Decrease Our Access to Healthy Food,” and briefly review the cell headings. Point out that the evidence students find may support the increasing or decreasing of our access to healthy food, and remind students to record their evidence in the correct chart in their note-catcher.

• Display and distribute the Researcher’s Toolbox. Explain that this handout will help them conduct research on their topic and that it serves as a “how to” guide to gathering information and citing evidence and sources. Tell students that they will go through each of these research skills in the upcoming lessons, and some skills may be more familiar than others.

• Ask a volunteer to read aloud the “Quote Accurately” section. Remind students that they quoted evidence from texts in Module 1, and they will continue to follow this format as they read the following text in this lesson.

B. Read “To GMO or NOT to GMO?” and Track Access to Healthy Food – W.8.8 (25 minutes)

• Review the learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can cite evidence that supports the influence GMOs have on our access to healthy food.”

• Distribute and display “To GMO or NOT to GMO?”

• Read aloud the full article, and instruct students to follow along. Stop as needed to check for general comprehension, and ensure that all students have a basic understanding of the article.

• Remind students of their central research question— “How do GMOs influence our access to healthy food?”—and that they are looking for information on how GMOs increase or decrease access to healthy food. Use the mini lesson from “Gather Information: Paraphrase and Quote” in the Research Mini Lessons (for teacher reference) to guide students in understanding how to quote and paraphrase information in a text.

• Model skimming and scanning the first two paragraphs of the source for information. Ask:

Is there a single sentence in that section of text that helps to address the central research question? (“GMO crops may produce more food for human consumption. Jaffe says, ‘GE crops are not the primary solution to food security in developing countries—but they could be helpful.’”)

• Invite students to refer to “Quote Accurately” on the Researcher’s Toolbox handout, and model recording the quote on the displayed Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher in the evidence section under “GMOs Increase Our Access to Healthy Food.”

• Draw students’ attention to the next two paragraphs. Invite students to turn to a partner and use the information in these two paragraphs to orally respond to the research question in their own words. Select a couple of students to share with the whole group. Explain that this is paraphrasing the information, and model recording a paraphrase [Although GMOs make crops resistant to pests, they can also harm other species that are not pests.] on the displayed note-catcher in the evidence section under “GMOs Decrease Our Access to Healthy Food.”

• Instruct students to work in pairs to finish searching for relevant information in the rest of the text that addresses the research question and record their evidence in the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher. Circulate as students gather their evidence, and support students who may struggle with identifying evidence that answers the research question. Refer to the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher (example for teacher reference).

• Focus students on the “Answer and Evidence (quote accurately or paraphrase)” section of their note-catcher. Use the model quote and model paraphrase to show students how to write a brief answer that explains why their evidence supports how GMOs increase or decrease our access to healthy food.

• Focus students on the quote they recorded in the evidence section under “GMOs Increase Our Access to Healthy Food.”

• Think-Pair-Share:

“Based on this quoted evidence, how do GMOs increase our access to healthy food?” (Responses will vary, but may include: GMOs increase our access to healthy food because they can produce a lot more food and help prevent starvation.)

• As students share, record responses on the first chart of the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher. Refer to the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher (example for teacher reference) for possible answers.

• Focus students on the paraphrase they recorded in the evidence section under “GMOs Decrease Our Access to Healthy Food.”

“Based on this paraphrased evidence, how do GMOs decrease our access to healthy food?” (Responses will vary, but may include: modifying crops can decrease our access to other foods that are harmed by GMOs.)

• As students share, record responses on the second chart of the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher. Refer to the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher (example for teacher reference) for possible answers.

• Refer to the displayed Researcher’s Toolbox handout, and focus students’ attention on their copies.

• Focus students on “Cite Sources.”

• Use the following mini lesson from “Gather Information: Cite Sources” in the Research Mini Lessons (for teacher reference) to guide students through citing sources:

• Model using the source-citing format outlined in the “Cite Sources” section of the Researcher’s Toolbox handout. Instruct students on the necessity of citing sources for each of their quotes and paraphrases to avoid plagiarism, which is the use of someone else’s work without permission.

• Draw students’ attention to the citation at the bottom of “To GMO or NOT to GMO?” Point out that there are two authors for this text, so the first author’s name is written as “Erdosh, George” and the second author’s name is written after as “Amidon Lusted, Marcia.” Then the title of the text, “To GMO or NOT to GMO?” follows; the publication, Odyssey Magazine, is written next; the date of publication, “1 Feb. 2014” follows; and the page numbers of the article, “pp. 15–19,” are last.

• Explain to students that the additional information at the end of the attribution on this article is because this entire article has been printed for distribution to schools and students. Students don’t need to seek the permission of people to cite their work in their papers because they aren’t printing the entire article, only quotes and other evidence.

• Refer to the displayed Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher, and model how to record the citation in the third column of each row of evidence for this text in both charts on the note-catcher. Have students follow along, recording the citation in their note-catchers.

• Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

In Work Time B, highlight or underline key phrases in individual copies of the informational text in advance of the in-class reading. If time is limited, focus on highlighting vocabulary connected to the central ideas of the text to aid students in understanding the most essential ideas (e.g., GMOs, gene, trait, resistance).

In Work Time B, invite students to participate in a Mini Language Dive with a sentence from the article in small groups to deepen their understanding of evidence from the text that supports an analysis of GMOs’ influence on access to healthy food. The sentence also helps students to address L.8.1a, as it contains both an infinitive and a gerund.

To extend work with the sentence in the Mini Language Dive, invite students to consider the structure of the sentence. This sentence is written in passive voice; the verb’s object (A new kind of tomato) appears at the beginning of the sentence rather than after the verb, to emphasize the result of genetically modifying crops. Additionally, the subject of the sentence has been omitted, which is common in passive-voice constructions. Challenge students to rewrite the sentence in active voice using subject-verb-object word order (Scientists have bred a new kind of tomato to resist rotting and give it a longer shelf life.), and invite them to notice the differences between the two sentences and the different effects created by each one (in passive voice, the object is emphasized; in active voice, the emphasis is on the subject).

Invite students who need heavier support to use the Access to Healthy Food Research: GMOs note-catcher ▲. This resource features prefilled information about sources to guide students’ thinking when considering and gathering evidence to respond to the research question.

To extend work with the sentence in the Mini Language Dive, invite students to consider the structure of the sentence. This sentence is written in passive voice; the verb’s object (A new kind of tomato) appears at the beginning of the sentence, rather than after the verb, to emphasize the result of genetically modifying crops. Additionally, the subject of the sentence has been omitted, which is common in passive-voice constructions. Display the sentence in active voice (Scientists have bred a new kind of tomato to resist rotting and give it a longer shelf life.), and invite them to notice the differences between the two sentences and the different effects created by each one (in passive voice, the object is emphasized; in active voice, the emphasis is on the subject).

A. Whole-Class Share - W.8.7 (5 minutes)

• Explain that now that students have read a research text about GMOs, they will attempt to answer the additional related focus questions that were introduced in Work Time A.

• Display the Additional Focus Questions: GMOs anchor chart. Read aloud each of the questions. Remind students that they are using these questions to guide their research of the topic and that they will generate their own additional related focus questions in the next lesson.

• Think-Pair-Share:

"After reading this article, what answers can we come up with to answer the additional related focused questions about GMOs?" (Answers will vary but may include: Modifying crops prevents potential damage, which increases the amount of food that is harvested for people to eat; Although GMOs make crops resistant to pests, they can also harm other species that are not pests; There is not enough information about how GMOs affect the human body and they may cause food allergies and even cancer; Certain farming practices utilizing GMO crops are unsustainable.)

• Refer students to the evidence they recorded in their note-catchers. As students share, capture their responses on the Additional Focus Questions: GMOs anchor chart. Refer to the Additional Focus Questions: GMOs anchor chart (example for teacher reference).

• Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.