Teacher Guidance for Writing Assessment: 7th Grade Argument
Window Four: Argument Writing (80 minutes) / Topic: More Nutritious Lunches?Writing Prompt Overview
During this writing prompt, students will consider the debate on the nutrition of school lunches and what obligations schools have to serve healthier foods. Students will read an excerpt from The Atlantic that discusses the debate in Los Angeles and argue its implications in our own district.
Teacher Directions:
Step One: Read Prompt (5 minutes) Teacher reads the prompt and overview to the students and students individually interpret what the prompt is asking.
Step Two: Discussion Brainstorm (10 minutes) Teachers engage in classroom discussion over questions provided. This is to activate prior knowledge and stimulate thinking about prompt.
Step Three: Read/Annotate (10 to 15 minutes) Students read and annotate individually. Space is provided for notes.
Step Four: Reactions (5 minutes) Students use space provided to record the 5 most important questions, pieces of text, response to text they could use in their writing.
Step Five: (50 minutes) Students write to prompt individually. /
Standards Addressed
WRITING
KCK12R07W1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
KCK12R07W4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (CC.W.7.4, ACT)
KCK12R07W9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research (CC.W.7.9)
KCK12R06W10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline –specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. (CC.W.7.10)
LANGUAGE
KCK12R07L1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (CC.L.7.1, ACT)
KCK12R06L2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. (CC.L.7.2, ACT)
KCK12R07L3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. (CC.7.3, ACT)
Name: ______
Teacher:______ / Writing Assessment: Argument / Q4: More Nutritious Lunches?
Step 1: Prompt
Situation: There is much debate on the nutritional value of school lunches. Some say that school lunches promote unhealthy eating. Others say that students will eat what they want even if schools change the menus.
Task: Write an argument to Nutritional Services for or against requiring schools to serve healthier lunches Be sure to back up your claims with strong evidence and address any counterclaims that may be used against your argument.
Notes for Annotation:
Potentially Difficult Vocabulary
Exotic: unusual
Gusto: doing with enjoyment
Doctrine: A set of beliefs / Step 2: Classroom Discussion/Brainstorm
o What is healthy eating?
o What foods do schools currently serve that are or are not healthy?
o Do schools have an obligation to serve healthier food?
Notes:
Step 3: Passage Read/Annotate – Everyone silently reads and annotates. Comment on at least five things and write in the margins/spaces!
Making School Lunches Healthier Doesn't Mean Kids Will Eat Them by Olga Khazan
Los Angeles Unified, the country’s second-largest school system, is home to more than 650,000 students, and42 percent of themare overweight or obese. In 2011, the district decided healthier school lunches were the best way to help them not be.
But the new menus were the most austere measure yet, cutting kid-friendly favorites like chocolate milk, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and nachos. Instead, little Jayden and Miawould dine onvegetarian curries, tostada salad, and fresh pears. A student rebellion ensued—kids brought Flaming Hot Cheetos to school rather than munch on a garden salad—and L.A. Unified was forced to settle for a middle ground.
Under thenewnew menu, “Hamburgers will be offered daily,” theL.A. Timesreported. “Some of the more exotic dishes are out, including the beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets, and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads. And the Caribbean meatball sauce will be changed to the more familiar teriyaki flavor.”
The L.A. menu went beyond the national guidelines, which already impose strict guidelines on calories, portion sizes, whole grains, and vegetables. Today, for example, a student at Griffith Junior High in East L.A. would have a choice between a veggie burger or a cheese sandwich (on whole wheat bread), as well as potato wedges, chilled apricots, and milk.
But a new study suggests that despite the softened menu standards, students are still preferring carbs and meat and avoiding fruits and vegetables.
Forthe study, published in the April issue ofPreventative Medicine, researchers examined the lunch trays of 2,000 randomly selected middle school students over five consecutive days. Though the students are offered a fruit and a vegetable each day, 32 percent of students did not take the fruit from the line, and almost 40 percent did not take the vegetables. Among those who didtake a fruit or vegetable, 22 percent threw away the fruit and 31 percent tossed the vegetables without eating a single bite.
So in essence, just over half the students both took and ate some fruit, and about 42 percent both took and ate a vegetable.
“We need to do more to get our kids well-prepared for an adulthood of eating vegetables with gusto."
Salads were the most common vegetable to be left untouched, while whole fruits, like apples and oranges, were far less popular than fruit cups or juices. Girls were both more likely to take fruits and vegetables from the line and were less likely to waste them.
The vegetable rejection has other downsides, too: Students in L.A. throw out at least $100,000 worth of food a day, as theL.A. Timesrecently found.
But McCarthy says that it’s better for students to take the produce, try it, and throw the bulk away than to not take it at all.
To help make kids hungry for something other than French fries, McCarthy recommends that schools move recess to occur before lunch, with the idea that exercise increases appetite for water-dense foods. And he said a school garden could go a long way in helping kids feel ownership and familiarity with greens.
Overall, the results are frustrating news for school lunch programs. It’s much easier for administrators to add produce to a menu than it is to convince 7th graders that kale is cool. L.A. Unified is nowworking with districtsin New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami and Orlando to spread the doctrine of healthy lunch food nationally. Let’s hope those areas think about how to get kids to actually eat the food that they spend months puzzling over.
Step 3: Brainstorm
After reading the passage, write down quotations from the passage, questions raised by the passage, OR any other interesting points you want to make as a result of the passage and prompt.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5) / Step 4: Answer the Prompt:
Be sure to be explicit in your claim, provide evidence from personal experience, the brainstorm and the text.
Situation: There is much debate on the nutritional value of school lunches. Some say that school lunches promote unhealthy eating. Others say that students will eat what they want even if schools change the menus.
Task: Write an argument to Nutritional Services for or against requiring schools to serve healthier lunches Be sure to back up your claims with strong evidence and address any counterclaims that may be used against your argument.
Be sure to include:
· A specific claim
· Elaboration on how or why evidence supports claim
· How the evidence limits opposing counterclaims