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

• Repeated routine: As students arrive, invite them to complete Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4.

• 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 Case Study Research Project – W.8.7 (5 minutes)

• Remind students that they researched how GMOs influence our access to healthy food in previous lessons. In this lesson, they will research another topic that influences our access to healthy food. Students will be assigned one of four case studies, on pesticides, high-fructose corn syrup, food deserts, or organic foods. Tell students that they will work in a small group to read a text about one of these topics and identify the influence on our access to healthy food. They will conduct independent research on their case study in the next lesson, then use their research findings to write an informative essay about their topic.

• Distribute and display the Access to Healthy Food: Independent Research note-catcher. For ELLs and students who require additional support, the Access to Healthy Food: Independent Research note-catcher ▲ can be used to help guide students’ thinking with preselected articles for each topic.

• Read the directions aloud. Explain that this note-catcher is the same as the one that students used to research GMOs, and they will use this to cite evidence from their research that supports how their food topic increases and decreases our access to healthy food.

• Display the Researcher’s Toolbox handout, and instruct students to retrieve their copies. Ask a volunteer to read aloud the “Quote Accurately” section to review how to cite evidence in a text. Also, review how to paraphrase information to prepare students for the jigsaw in Work Time B.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

In Work Time A, invite students who need heavier support to use the Access to Healthy Food: Independent Research note-catcher ▲. This resource includes prefilled information about sources for pesticides to help students navigate the analysis required.

B. Jigsaw Activity – W.8.8 (30 minutes)

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

“I can conduct research to answer a question about factors that influence our access to healthy food.”

• Explain to students that scientists often present their ideas at conferences to give the science community and the public information about their research. Tell students that they will pretend to be scientists at a conference who have been selected to share their research to inform the public about access to healthy food. In the form of a jigsaw, they will read and analyze a text to become emerging experts on the topic, and present their findings to their audience. Remind students that they used the Jigsaw protocol in the previous unit to analyze paragraph structures in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

• Organize students into four groups: Group A, Group B, Group C, and Group D.

• Focus students on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart. Remind students that it says at the top that effective learners are people who develop the mindsets and skills for success in college, career, and life.

• Ask a volunteer to read aloud the habit of character: “I collaborate. This means I can work well with others to accomplish a task or goal.”

• Ask students to Think-Pair-Share to review the following questions:

“What does collaboration look like? What might you see when people are collaborating?” (See Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart [example for teacher reference].)

“What does collaboration sound like? What might you hear when people are collaborating?” (See Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart [example for teacher reference].)

• Explain that this activity requires everyone in the class to collaborate in order to be successful.

• Distribute Research Text: “The Advantages and Disadvantages of Pesticides” to Group A, Research Text: “Food Desert” to Group B, and Research Text: “Organic Food” to Group C. Instruct Group D to read pages 94–96 and 121–122 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, beginning with “There’s more corn in the meal . . .,” and ending with “. . . field of corn and soybeans,” to analyze the subject of high-fructose corn syrup.

• Instruct students to read the text assigned to their group. Students may read independently, in pairs, or take turns reading aloud as a group. Give students several minutes to read.

• Refocus the whole class.

• Focus students’ attention to the top section of the Access to Healthy Food: Independent Research note-catcher. Instruct students to write the central research question they will answer in their research. The research question should mirror the GMO research question from the previous lessons of this unit (i.e., How do(es) _________ influence our access to healthy food?).

• Remind students that the central research question has been refined, so they will answer the question by identifying how their topic increases our access to healthy food in the first chart in their note-catcher, and how it decreases our access to healthy food in the second chart.

• Focus students’ attention on the additional related focused questions and read them aloud.

• Instruct students to fill in the blanks with the name of their case study. Explain to students that these questions are similar to the additional related focus questions they used in their GMO research and that they will begin using these questions to guide their research and generate additional questions as they conduct their research independently.

• Tell students to leave the section for search terms blank for now.

• Instruct each group to work independently, in pairs, or as a whole group to complete the two charts in their note-catcher, citing evidence from the text that supports how their food topic both increases and decreases our access to healthy food. Explain to students that they may not find evidence that supports both increases and decreases of their topic’s influence on our access to healthy food (e.g., food deserts, high-fructose corn syrup).

• 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: Independent Research note-catcher (example for teacher reference).

• Refocus the whole class.

• Instruct each group to select scribes to record two rows from their chart(s) on chart paper to present to the class, and a spokesperson to share the group’s ideas with the class. Give students one minute to assign the scribe and spokesperson roles.

• Instruct students to work in their groups to identify two of the strongest quotes and/or paraphrases from their text that they recorded in their note-catcher, and copy the evidence, explanation of evidence, citation, and explanation of credibility on their chart paper. As students share ideas in the group, the scribes will record their responses on chart paper. Give students at least 5 minutes to complete their chart paper.

• Circulate as students work in their groups to ensure they are on track, and support struggling students.

• Refocus the whole class.

• Display the Access to Healthy Food: Independent Research note-catcher.

• Invite Group A’s spokesperson to display their group’s chart paper and share the evidence they found that supports their research topic. As Group A’s spokesperson shares, instruct students in groups B, C, and D to jot down questions they have about Group A’s topic that they can use as additional related focus questions to guide their research. Repeat this process with Group B, Group C, and Group D. Circulate as each group shares to ensure the students who are listening are jotting down potential additional related focus questions for the group that is sharing.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

At the beginning of Work Time B, in preparation for reading the research texts, help students recall strategies for reading unfamiliar texts. Examples:

Chunk the text into manageable amounts, e.g., sentences or paragraphs.

Circle unfamiliar words.

Use context or a dictionary to define unfamiliar words.

Annotate unfamiliar words with synonyms.

Underline important people, places, and things.

Read aloud.

Read repeatedly.

Silently paraphrase the chunks.

Summarize what you read for someone else, perhaps first in your home language.

In Work Time B, as an alternative to using the Access to Healthy Food: Independent Research note-catcher ▲, distribute additional copies of the Access to Healthy Food: Independent Research note-catcher with the prefilled information for each category on cut strips of paper to create a tactile matching activity. Students can work in groups to glue the appropriate information to each row in the note-catcher based on what they learn from their classmates during the jigsaw activity and then transfer the information to their individual note-catchers, which will add further reinforcement and opportunities for additional processing.

In Work Time B, for ELLs who require heavier support, provide a summary of each research topic in students’ home languages prior to reading the texts. This will orient ELLs to the content they will encounter, helping them to balance the cognitive and linguistic demands of navigating new information. 

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

• Refocus the whole group.

• Turn and Talk:

"What are some potential additional related focus questions Group A can use as they conduct their research on pesticides?" (Responses will vary, but may include: what is the sustainability of pesticides?)

"What are some potential additional related focus questions Group B can use as they conduct their research on food deserts?" (Responses will vary, but may include: what are some ways people in food deserts can access healthy food?)

"What are some potential additional related focus questions Group C can use as they conduct their research on organic foods?" (Answers will vary, but may include: what is the sustainability of organic foods?)

"What are some potential additional related focus questions Group D can use as they conduct their research on high-fructose corn syrup?" (Responses will vary, but may include: what are some ways people can access healthy alternatives to high-fructose corn syrup?)

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