8th Grade, Unit 9: Literature and Writing
Introduction, Overview, Assessment, Aims, and Calendar
Table of Contents
 Literature class and writing class unit introductions and overviews
 Unit Assessments, Summative Assessment
 Aims for literature class and writing class
 Unit calendars for literature and writing class
8th Grade Literature Unit 9 Overview –
A key focus of the Common Core State Standards is research—both short and extended research projects. This unit is an extended research
project. Scholars will read Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson as their primary text. Scholars will generate and answer
questions on a topic related to this and other texts, annotate purposefully in service of their questions, analyze an author’s claim, determine the
validity/usefulness of a text, and develop a research proposal. The aims and focus standards guide you in working through a hierarchy of
knowledge: from comprehension and application to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The practice of annotation will reflect this hierarchy of
reading. Scholars will generate guiding questions about the author’s purpose and the overarching themes of the book and its chapters and annotate
based on those guiding questions. They will move from marginal notes on ideas to notes on the intersections between ideas and the presentation
of those ideas, ultimately analyzing how the author uses structure, tone, and style to develop central themes and motifs. Scholars will first practice
identifying key ideas and supporting details, relevant and irrelevant information, and fact and opinion in informational texts. They will then move
from an understanding of the ideas in the texts to an exploration of the ways in which their understanding is affected by the presentation of the
ideas.
Chew on This is a highly rhetorical text, and should be approached as such from Day 1. A quick preview of this book’s cover, layout, blurbs,
visuals, author biographies, Table of Contents, and index reveals a clear purpose, tone, and audience. The ability to distinguish between relevant
and irrelevant information and facts and opinions in this text is inextricably intertwined with the ability to dissect rhetoric. While scholars will
explore rhetoric in more detail in 9th grade, today's 8th graders engage with a complex web of rhetoric by the minute. The basic assumptions of
the primary text--that 8th graders can critically engage with media, that they can counter cultural hegemony when equipped with the information
to make educated choices, should be embedded in your lessons, as should the implication of standards RI.8.6, RI.8.8, RI.8.9, which focus on
author’s point of view, arguments, claims, evidence, and persuasive advocacy, thereby acknowledging that “informational” nonfiction is
persuasive nonfiction.
Articles from the bundle are interspersed with Chew on This. These articles are largely an ideological extension of Chew on This. Though the
bundle articles do not offer alternative views, they do address some of the complexities of changing America’s food culture. They are perhaps
most useful in offering less dense (i.e., lower reading level) side notes about how food reform is playing out in America. If you can find articles of
an appropriate reading level that offer alternative viewpoints, arguing that the fast food industry has stimulated the economy and created jobs or
that advertising regulation has not changed consumer behavior, for example, these would be useful in targeting standard RI.8.9. Likewise, having
scholars evaluate the claims in the packet the NRA created for schools reading Chew on This would be an interesting way to hit standards RI.8.8
and RI.8.9.
In this unit, scholars come to understand that rhetoric includes appeals to an audience’s reason, emotion, and ethics, and that these appeals are
made through tone, structure, and style, which they have studied in previous units. Gradually, they move from identifying to evaluating the
rhetorical techniques informational authors use to engage and persuade the reader, including visuals, facts, statistics, and patterns of writing. If the
dissection of rhetoric builds on the skills scholars use in their everyday lives, the dissection of patterns of writing builds on scholars’ previous
studies of fiction, narrative nonfiction, and biography, in particular the use of narratives, true and not, to instruct, engage, and persuade. In this
unit, scholars come to understand how these modes of presentation are used to shape information. The better they understand the effect that
presentation has upon them as readers, the better they can evaluate the validity of the information presented, and ultimately manipulate modes of
presentation in their own research-based writing in Unit 10.
The understanding that all information comes from a source and thus all information must be weighed against other information will be crucial as
students begin their research proposals at the end of this unit. In creating their own research-based texts in Unit 10, scholars will move from
investigating rhetorical techniques in the work of published informational authors to manipulating them in their own writing.
This unit aims to make scholars more informed choosers, not just in the realm of research, but in everyday life. Its progression supports a
transition from passive consumption to active shaping of information, a transition essential to the survival of the individual in our postmodern
media-saturated world.
8th Grade Bundles:
https://afnet.achievementfirst.org/Curriculum/Shared%20Documents/Forms/All%20Docs.aspx?RootFolder=%2fCurriculum%2fShared%20Docum
ents%2fMiddle%20School%2fLiterature%2fBook%5fLists%5fText%5fSamples%2fText%5fPairings%2fBooklists%2eBundle%5fsheets&FolderCTID=
&View=%7bFCB1F1C3%2d568F%2d4FB8%2dA34B%2dE57753D4E174%7d
RI.8.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas, provide an
objective summary of the text.
RI.8.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or
viewpoints.
RI.8.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient;
recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.
RI.8.9 Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or
interpretation
Use their experience and their knowledge of language and logic, as well as culture, to think analytically, address problems creatively, and advocate
persuasively.
Essential Questions:
TEXT:
Can individuals change society by making smarter choices?
SKILL:
How do we critically engage with information?
Enduring Understandings:
Text:
1. Because informational nonfiction authors manipulate research to persuade the reader, all information must be approached critically.2. Critically engaging
with information involves evaluating a source’s biases, assessing the validity of the information, and dissecting its presentation.
3. Research involves evaluating a variety of sources representing different perspectives to draw informed conclusions.
Skill:
1. Informational nonfiction authors use rhetoric to present information in ways that appeal to readers’ reason, ethics, and emotions.
2. Informational nonfiction writers incorporate the techniques of fiction writers, narrative nonfiction writers, biographers, and marketers to educate, engage,
and persuade their readers. Dissecting these rhetorical techniques enables a reader to better evaluate the validity of the information presented.
3. Developing a research proposal involves selecting, reading, and evaluating a variety of reliable sources that reflect different perspectives on a subject.
Unit Goals
Readers will:





generate and answer questions on a topic related to the class text,
annotate purposefully in service of their questions,
analyze an author’s claim, and
determine the validity/usefulness of a text.
Develop a research proposal
Grade 8, Writing Unit 9 Overview –
In writing class, this unit serves a dual purpose:
1. To write a culminating literary analysis essay on complete book
2. To write a research proposal in preparation for their final research paper
As the year comes to a close, the literary essay and research paper serve as their culminating writing experiences in middle school, asking students to
synthesize skills honed over the course of the year. Though the unit has a dual purpose, time is not split in half. The vast majority of instructional time
should focus on the final literary essay. Students should vet their research topic during this time so they are set up for success in unit ten, but it is
imperative to note that the research proposal is not the major focus in this unit. To ensure that the research proposal receives the appropriate amount
of attention necessary, we recommend coordinating with your reading teacher. Students are exploring informational non-fiction in reading class and
reading teachers are primed to brainstorm and explore potential topics related to the theme of unit nine. If you do not plan closely with your coteacher, it will be essential to meet in order to create a plan for completion of the research proposal.
In writing class, the underlying outcome of this unit is that scholars will be able to write a literary essay about issues that came up in the historical
fiction novel read during Unit 6. Please note, if you and your students already wrote a literary essay for unit six, feel free to select a different text.
However, it is essential that the text is a book that the students completed. It is important that students are asked to write about a book as a whole
and not a short story, as it is developmentally appropriate that students are asked to navigate an entire novel and synthesize ideas about a book as a
whole.
In their literary essays, students will include:
 a clear and focused thesis statement that is not only defensible and accurately stated but is complex enough to support sub-arguments and
also drive every idea in the paper,
 body paragraphs that incorporate topic sentences that are assertions and present sub-arguments that are directly relevant to the thesis,
 paraphrased and direct text evidence that is directly relevant to the sub-argument,
 an analysis and interpretation of the meaning of text evidence,
 transitions words, phrases, and clauses that create cohesion among claims, interpretations, and evidence chunks, and
 a logical conclusion that follows from and supports the thesis.
As students begin the transition towards high school, it is recommended that they are given the appropriate amount of academic independence in this
unit. This will be the fourth unit focused on literary response this year and students were exposed to the skills enough that most scholars should be
able to flow through the writing process with limited support. To this end, you might wish to reach out to your students’ future 9th grade composition
teacher to find potential areas for alignment. Aligning the process or expectations will simulate future conditions and go a long way to easing their
transition into high school.
There are sixteen aims in this unit and pace must be maintained to ensure ample time is left for unit ten.
Italicized standards need to be spiraled into every unit.
Writing Standards
W.8.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.8.1a Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence
logically.
W.8.1b Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the
topic or text.
W.8.1c Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
W.8.1d Establish and maintain a formal style
W.8.1e Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
W.8.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W.8.5 With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
W.8.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as
well as to interact and collaborate with others.
W.8.9a Apply grade 8 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character
types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new”).
W.8.10 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.
Language Standards
L.8.2b Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission.
L.7.1c Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers.
L.3.1f Use subject verb and pronoun antecedent agreement.
L.8.2c Spell correctly grade appropriate words.
Essential Questions:
 What is the purpose of writing literary analysis?
 How do we explore new ideas while writing (write to learn) but still keep a clear focus?
 What constitutes a high-quality thesis statement?
 How do I use the writing techniques I am learning to help me better comprehend, think about, and analyze the literature texts?
Enduring Understandings:


Literary analysis allows us to have a say in creating meaning out of a text. This writing mode values our opinions about literature.
While scholars are learning to write and hone their craft, they also need to understand that writers develop new ideas while writing, i.e. they
write to learn.
 A superb thesis statement provides the reader with the author and title, as well as with your opinion/claim about the text at hand.
 What we notice as interesting about a literary work could be the seed for a literary analysis essay, and with multiple re-reads of that work, we
will be able to judge the best evidence for each point.
Unit Goals
Writers will be able to write a literary essay about the protagonist in the historical fiction novel read during Unit 6. In their literary essays, they will
include:
 a clear and focused thesis statement that is not only defensible and accurately stated but is complex enough to support sub-arguments and
also drives every idea in the paper ,
 body paragraphs that incorporate topic sentences that are assertions and present sub-arguments that are directly relevant to the thesis,
 paraphrased and direct text evidence that is directly relevant to the sub-argument,
 an analysis and interpretation of the meaning of text evidence,
 transitions words, phases, and clauses that create cohesion among claims, interpretations, and evidence chunks, and
 a logical conclusion that follows from and supports the thesis.
*Research Proposal – During this unit, students should submit a research proposal based on their reading in literature class to their writing teacher.
The writing teacher should approve all topics before the start of the next unit.
Literature Class Primary Aims
Reading Aims
Students will be able to:
1. Make predictions and formulate questions about the author’s purpose by
previewing the text.
2. Annotate text to emphasize key ideas and supporting details.
3. Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information in informational
text.
4. Distinguish between fact and opinion to determine an author’s position.
5. Identify rhetoric as the techniques an author uses to engage and persuade
the reader.
6. Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic use different
evidence to inform about that topic.
7. Evaluate informational nonfiction writers’ use of visuals, facts, statistics, and
anecdotes as evidence for their arguments.
8. Compare and contrast the organization of information about a similar topic
from a variety of sources.
9. Identify and analyze how an author uses narration, description, and
exemplification patterns to develop a central argument.
10. Identify and evaluate conflicting information in two nonfiction texts
through comparison.
11. Analyze key ideas across multiple texts and formulate judgments about
which text(s) presents the most useful information.
12. Use rhetorical techniques to persuade readers of a viewpoint.
Secondary Skills to be Spiraled into Literature Lessons
Secondary Skills for Research Unit, grade 8
1.) Secondary Skills:
--Review how to use an index to locate information in an informational
text.
--Make predictions about a nonfiction book’s purpose, tone, and
audience based on cover, layout, blurbs, visuals, author biographies,
Table of Contents, chapters, and Index.
3.) Secondary Skills:
--Nonfiction narratives and narrative elements such as description are
often used to engage, instruct, and persuade.
4.) Secondary Skills:
--The techniques a nonfiction author uses to persuade his or her
readers are used in advertising, too.
--Determine the meaning of words with content-specific definitions
through context and/or use of a glossary.* (marketing/branding terms)
5.) Secondary Skills:
--Determine an author’s underlying opinion in informational text and
the ways in which (s)he attempts to shape readers’ thinking.
--Distinguish between fact and opinion in informational texts.
7.) Secondary Skills:
--Identify anecdotes as a narrative pattern of writing.
8.) Secondary skills:
--Recognize that a biography is the story of an individual’s life, written
by someone else, and thus a type of narration.
--Analyze how a nonfiction author uses a biography to convey his or her
opinion about society.
9
Writing Class Aims
1. Develop an idea, topic, or basic claim about the protagonist of the historical fiction novel read during unit
6.
2. Annotate the text looking for sections or specific parts that will help develop their claims.
3. Locate specific and relevant evidence that supports their idea and will help develop their thesis.
4. Revise their earlier idea by writing a clear and focused thesis statement that is not only defensible and
accurately stated but is complex enough to support sub-arguments
5. Select the best evidence that supports their thesis.
6. Plan the body paragraphs by listing sub-arguments and evidence.
7. Narrow the scope of the essay by eliminating sub-arguments and evidence that are not driven by the
thesis.
8. Draft the essay and incorporate analysis and interpretation of the meaning of text evidence.
9. Revise in order to ensure that indirectly cited evidence is paraphrased.
10. Revise in order to ensure that direct quotes are incorporated into other ideas and sentences.
11. Revise in order to ensure that every idea presented can be linked back to the thesis statement.
12. Revise in order to ensure that transition words, phases, and clauses that create cohesion among claims,
interpretations, and evidence chunks.
13. Craft a logical conclusion that follows from and supports the thesis.
14. Revise for clarity and meaning.
15. Edit for capitalization, usage, punctuation, and spelling.
16. Compare this literary essay to literary paragraphs written during Unit 1. Post both versions on bulletin
boards throughout the school. Archive originals in student portfolios.
Language Standards (to be infused into unit as aims)
 L.8.2b Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission.
 L.7.1c Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling
modifiers.
 L.3.1f Use subject verb and pronoun antecedent agreement.
 L.8.2c Spell correctly grade appropriate words.
10
Literature Aims Calendar
Note: Lesson types are listed next to each day. Primary Aims are listed first. Secondary skills are listed beneath the primary aims in parentheses.
Finally, suggested procedures and text selections are listed.
Week 1
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
 Distinguish between
 Make predictions
 Annotate text to
 Distinguish between
 Identify rhetoric as
fact
and
opinion
to
and formulate
emphasize key ideas
relevant and
the techniques an
determine
an
author’s
questions about the
and supporting
irrelevant
author uses to
position.
author’s purpose by
details.
information in
engage and
Secondary Skills:
previewing the text. Model Text: Chew on This,
informational text.
persuade the
 (The techniques a
Secondary Skills:
Secondary
Skill:
Introduction
reader.
nonfiction author uses
 (Review how to use an
Secondary Skills:
Independent Text: Bundle:
to persuade his or her
(Nonfiction narratives
index to locate

(Determine an author’s
“Fast Food and Obesity in
readers are used in
and narrative elements
information in an
underlying opinion in
Children and Adolescents”
such as description are
advertising, too.)
informational text.)

(Make predictions about
a nonfiction book’s
purpose, tone, and
audience based on
cover, layout, blurbs,
visuals, author
biographies, Table of
Contents, chapters, and
Index.)
Model Text: Chew on This,
whole book
often used to engage,
instruct, and persuade.)

Model Text: Chew
on This, “The
Pioneers”
(Determine the meaning
of words with contentspecific definitions
through context and/or
use of a glossary.*
(marketing/branding
terms)

Procedures:

Have students create a
3-column chart of the
parallels between
advertising/persuasive
nonfiction techniques
(appeals to reason,
emotion, ethics;
informational text and
the ways in which (s)he
attempts to shape
readers’ thinking.)

(Distinguish between
fact and opinion in
informational texts.)

Model Text:
“McJobs,” Chew on
This
11
education vs.
brainwashing)


Week 2
Day 6
 Analyze how two or
more authors
writing about the
same topic use
different evidence
to inform about that
topic.
 Model Text: “The
Secret of the Fries,”
Chew on This
Day 7
 Evaluate
informational
nonfiction writers’
use of visuals, facts,
statistics, and
anecdotes as
evidence for their
arguments.

Secondary Skill:
(Identify anecdotes as a
narrative pattern of
writing.)

Model Text: Stop
the Pop, Chew on
This
Independent Text:
Bundle article:
“Activists Push for

Day 8
 Compare and
contrast the
organization of
information about a
similar topic from a
variety of sources.

Secondary Skills:

(Recognize that a
biography is the story of
an individual’s life,
written by someone
else, and thus a type of
narration.)

(Analyze how a
nonfiction author uses a
biography to convey his
or her opinion about
Model Text: “The
Youngster
Business,” Chew on
This
Independent Text:
Bundle article:
“Scientist Reacts to
San Francisco’s
Happy Meal Ban.”
Day 9
 Identify and analyze
how an author uses
narration,
description, and
exemplification
patterns to develop
a central argument.
 Model Text: Big,
Chew on This
Day 10
 Identify and
evaluate conflicting
information in two
nonfiction texts
through
comparison.
 Model Text: Your
Way, Chew on This
 Independent Text:
bundle: “MELS, an
NYC School Where
Food Policy Is Part
of the Curriculum”
12
Healthier School
Lunches”
Week 3
Day 11
Analyze key ideas across
multiple texts and
formulate judgments about
which text(s) presents the
most useful
information.Model Text:
Afterword, Chew on This
 Independent Text:
NRA’s packet for
schools reading
Chew on This
Day 12
Use rhetorical techniques
to persuade readers of a
viewpoint.


society.)

Day 13
Model Text: Meat,
Chew on This
Day 14
Day 15
Model Text: Whole
book, Chew on This
Independent Texts:
Student-selected
research articles
13
Writing Aims Calendar
DAY 1
Develop an idea, topic, or
basic claim about a recent
literary text.
DAY 6
Narrow the scope of the
essay by eliminating subarguments and evidence that
are not driven by the thesis.
L.7.1c Place phrases and clauses
within a sentence, recognizing
and correcting misplaced and
dangling modifiers.
DAY 2
Locate specific and relevant
evidence that supports their
idea and will help develop
their thesis.
DAY 3
Revise their earlier idea by
writing a clear and focused
thesis statement that is not
only defensible and
accurately stated but is
complex enough to support
sub-arguments.
DAY 4
-Select the best evidence that
supports their thesis.
-Plan the body paragraphs by
listing sub-arguments and
evidence.
DAY 5
DAY 7
Draft the essay and
incorporate analysis and
interpretation of the meaning
of text evidence.
DAY 8
Draft the essay and
incorporate analysis and
interpretation of the meaning
of text evidence.
DAY 9
-Revise in order to ensure
that indirectly cited evidence
is paraphrased.
-Revise in order to ensure
that direct quotes are
incorporated into other ideas
and sentences.
DAY 10
-Revise in order to ensure
that every idea presented can
be linked back to the thesis
statement.
-Revise in order to ensure
that transition words, phases,
and clauses that create
cohesion among claims,
interpretations, and evidence
chunks.
L.8.2c Spell correctly grade
appropriate words
L.3.1f Ensure subject-verb and
pronoun-antecedent agreement
L.8.2b Use an ellipsis to indicate
an omission
14
DAY 11
DAY 12
Craft a logical conclusion that
follows from and supports the
thesis.
Flex Day
DAY 13
Edit for capitalization, usage,
punctuation, and spelling.
*Develop a research proposal
L.3.1f Ensure subject-verb and
pronoun-antecedent agreement
DAY 14
Flex Day
DAY 15
Compare this literary essay to
literary paragraphs written
during Unit 1. Post both
versions on bulletin boards
throughout the school.
Archive originals in student
portfolios.
15
L.8.2b Use an ellipsis to indicate an
omission
Simple  Complex Aims to Support Development of the Standard
 Identify when an author uses an ellipsis to indicate an omission.
 Analyze the times an author chooses to use an ellipsis to indicate an omission.
 Strategically incorporate ellipses into their own writing to indicate omissions.
L.7.1c Place phrases and clauses within
a sentence, recognizing and correcting
misplaced and dangling modifiers.
Simple  Complex Aims to Support Development of the Standard
 Identify phrases and clauses within longer sentences.
 Identify misplaced modifiers, i.e. “After our conversation lessons, we could understand the Spanish spoken by
our visitors from Madrid easily.”
 Identify dangling modifiers i.e. “Raised in Nova Scotia, it is natural to miss the smell of the sea.”
 Correct misplaced modifiers in order to eliminate confusion, i.e. “We could easily understand the Spanish spoken
by our visitors from Madrid.”
 Correct dangling modifiers by adding the missing subject, i.e. “Since I was raised in Nova Scotia, it is natural to
miss the smell of the sea.”
 Evaluate own writing for dangling and misplaced modifiers,
 Correct own writing for dangling and misplaced modifiers.
http://www.writingcentre.uottawa
.ca/hypergrammar/msplmod.html
L.3.1f Ensure subject-verb and
pronoun-antecedent agreement
http://www.proprofs.com/mwiki/i
ndex.php?title=SAT_Writing_Cram
Simple  Complex Aims to Support Development of the Standard
 Identify the subject and the verb in a sentence.
 Ensure subject-verb agreement when using either…or / neither... nor in writing.
 Check writing for subject-verb agreement.
 Analyze published texts to see how authors ensure that subjects and verbs agree.
 Find examples of subjects and verbs that agree in their own writing.
 Construct sentences where the subject and verb agree.
 Revise writing to ensure that subjects and verbs agree.
 Identify the pronoun (substitute for noun) and its antecedent (original noun)
 Look for pronouns and figure out what to connect them to.
 Ensure personal pronoun-antecedent agreement in writing.
 Ensure possessive pronoun-antecedent agreement in writing.
 Ensure pronoun-antecedent agreement in comparisons (i.e. “I am happier than her) by inserting is at the end of
the comparison (i.e. “I am happier than her is.” Or, “I am happier than she is.”
 Ensure indefinite pronoun-antecedent agreement (i.e. everyone, someone, somebody…) in writing.
 Ensure pronoun-antecedent agreement in: plurality, case, and gender in writing.
 Check writing for pronoun-antecedent agreement.
16

Find examples where pronouns and antecedents agree.
A Scenario to Support Application of these Aims:
After analyzing student writing, you realize that your students really struggle with subject/verb agreement. Although
they can identify them on handouts and conjugate them in isolation, they are often unable to match the correct verb
person to its corresponding noun while they are writing. Additionally, when revising or editing they tend to overlook
correcting these mistakes. Thus, you review the list of aims above and decide to spend time in your next unit
focusing on teaching students to:
 Identify the subject and the verb in a sentence.
 Analyze published texts to see how authors ensure that subjects and verbs agree.
 Construct sentences where the subject and verb agree.
 Revise writing to ensure that subjects and verbs agree.
L.8.2c Spell correctly grade
appropriate words
Simple  Complex Aims to Support Development of the Standard
 Create a “No excuses” spelling list that each 8th grade class commits to spelling correctly.
 Build a “No excuses” spelling list each IA cycle. Add words from literature, writing, and discussion.
17
8th Grade Unit 9 Assessment:
Retooling School Lunch:
It's lunch hour on a luminous spring day at Berkeley High School's open campus--the perfect time to stroll to Extreme Pizza on nearby Shattuck Avenue, grab a
Coke, order some pizza heaped with sausage and sit in the California sun. But in Berkeley High's lunchroom, lines of students are waiting patiently for--get this-cafeteria food. The longest line--now get this--is for salad. "This is only my second time eating school lunch," says junior Fennis Brown, 17. "I've always been put
off by cafeteria food. But when I saw a friend eating it, I thought, That looks like it could come from any good restaurant. And it's cheaper and easier than eating off
campus." Such words herald a small battle won in the big food fight erupting over U.S. lunchrooms. With childhood-obesity rates zooming--more than a three-fold
increase in 30 years--schools are under pressure from parents, health officials and legislators to serve something more wholesome than greasy burgers and Tater
Tots. Across the U.S., administrators are banning deep-fat fryers from cafeteria kitchens. Sodamakers agreed last month to stop selling their sugary, fizzy products
in schools.
But bans are easy compared with changing how kids eat. How do you eliminate junk yet create meals that stay within tight budgets and satisfy fickle tastes? To
find out, TIME went behind the lunchroom counter in two communities: Berkeley, Calif., where a well-funded program is converting students like Brown; and
Shawnee, Okla., where financial and cultural pressures mean that change will come more slowly.
The Cafeteria Crusader When Ann Cooper, Berkeley schools' director of nutrition services, sees the long lines in Berkeley High's cafeteria, she races behind a
counter, grabs a pair of tongs and starts mixing made-to-order, all-organic salads. Only after the rush does she let herself gloat. "Yes!" she shouts, pounding her
palm with her fist. "We had to have four people making salads, and there was no one waiting for pizza! This happened organically. I couldn't take their pizza away
from them, but now they're doing it themselves."
It didn't really happen organically. Over the past decade, Berkeley has become a paragon of school-lunch reform, thanks to the woman who helped hire Cooper-California cuisine pioneer Alice Waters. "We have to go into the public-school system and educate children when they're very young," says Waters, whose famed
Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, features seasonal meals made from local produce. Waters started educating children 10 years ago, creating the Edible
Schoolyard at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. There, kids spend 90 minutes a week planting and harvesting produce and cooking their own
healthy food.
Even with such initiatives in place, school food was far from the Chez Panisse ideal before Cooper came to town last October. The bread was white, the fruit
canned, the meat highly processed. Now Cooper has inked deals with local suppliers for whole-wheat rolls, fresh produce, even grass-fed beef. Her staff of 53,
accustomed to reheating food from outside vendors for the 4,000 lunches, 1,500 breakfasts and 1,500 snacks served each day, is learning to make meals from
scratch.
It's lunch hour on a luminous spring day at Berkeley High School's open campus--the perfect time to stroll to Extreme Pizza on nearby Shattuck Avenue, grab a
Coke, order some pizza heaped with sausage and sit in the California sun. But in Berkeley High's lunchroom, lines of students are waiting patiently for--get this-cafeteria food. The longest line--now get this--is for salad. "This is only my second time eating school lunch," says junior Fennis Brown, 17. "I've always been put
off by cafeteria food. But when I saw a friend eating it, I thought, That looks like it could come from any good restaurant. And it's cheaper and easier than eating off
campus." Such words herald a small battle won in the big food fight erupting over U.S. lunchrooms. With childhood-obesity rates zooming--more than a three-fold
increase in 30 years--schools are under pressure from parents, health officials and legislators to serve something more wholesome than greasy burgers and Tater
Tots. Across the U.S., administrators are banning deep-fat fryers from cafeteria kitchens. Sodamakers agreed last month to stop selling their sugary, fizzy products
in schools.
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But bans are easy compared with changing how kids eat. How do you eliminate junk yet create meals that stay within tight budgets and satisfy fickle tastes? To
find out, TIME went behind the lunchroom counter in two communities: Berkeley, Calif., where a well-funded program is converting students like Brown; and
Shawnee, Okla., where financial and cultural pressures mean that change will come more slowly.
The Cafeteria Crusader When Ann Cooper, Berkeley schools' director of nutrition services, sees the long lines in Berkeley High's cafeteria, she races behind a
counter, grabs a pair of tongs and starts mixing made-to-order, all-organic salads. Only after the rush does she let herself gloat. "Yes!" she shouts, pounding her
palm with her fist. "We had to have four people making salads, and there was no one waiting for pizza! This happened organically. I couldn't take their pizza away
from them, but now they're doing it themselves."
It didn't really happen organically. Over the past decade, Berkeley has become a paragon of school-lunch reform, thanks to the woman who helped hire Cooper-California cuisine pioneer Alice Waters. "We have to go into the public-school system and educate children when they're very young," says Waters, whose famed
Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, features seasonal meals made from local produce. Waters started educating children 10 years ago, creating the Edible
Schoolyard at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. There, kids spend 90 minutes a week planting and harvesting produce and cooking their own
healthy food.
Even with such initiatives in place, school food was far from the Chez Panisse ideal before Cooper came to town last October. The bread was white, the fruit
canned, the meat highly processed. Now Cooper has inked deals with local suppliers for whole-wheat rolls, fresh produce, even grass-fed beef. Her staff of 53,
accustomed to reheating food from outside vendors for the 4,000 lunches, 1,500 breakfasts and 1,500 snacks served each day, is learning to make meals from
scratch.
(8-10 MC questions, 2-4 open-ended, align to standards)
1. Which quotation best summarizes “Retooling School Lunch”? (RI.8.2)
a. “With childhood-obesity rates zooming—more than a three-fold increase in 30 years—schools are under pressure from parents,
health officials and legislators to serve something more wholesome than greasy burgers and Tater Tots.”
b. “Over the past decade, Berkeley has become a paragon of school-lunch reform, thanks to the woman who helped hire Cooper—
California cuisine pioneer Alice Waters.
c. “How do you eliminate junk yet create meals that stay within tight budgets and satisfy fickle tastes?”
d. “Fast-food-style marketing tricks, such as silver burger wrappers and plastic salad shakers, cost a little extra, but they boost sales.”
2. Which of the following is NOT a reason why the lunch reform program at Berkeley High School has been more successful than the
programs in Shawnee? (RI.8.2)
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a. Berkeley High School’s program is generously funded by the Chez Panisse Foundation, while Shawnee’s program relies on meager
government funding and wealthier kids who choose to buy school lunch and snacks.
b. The parents of Berkeley High School students are overwhelmingly supportive of the program, while Shawnee parents are critical.
c. Berkeley students were educated about healthy eating from a young age.
d. Deborah Taylor has to turn a profit, whereas Ann Cooper’s district allows her to rack up a $250,000 a year loss.
3. How does the author of “Retooling School Lunch” reveal his or her doubts that Berkeley’s program is exportable? (RI.8.6)
a. (S)he says that Cooper concedes that the support she has is extraordinary.
b. (S)he notes that while raw ingredients can be cheaper than processed food, cafeteria cooks must be taught how to buy, store, and
prepare them.
c. She presents the counter-example of Shawnee’s schools.
d. All of the above
4. All of the following are supporting details of the section titled “The Meal Marketer”, EXCEPT: (RI.8.8)
a. Taylor makes food healthier “by stealth”.
b. Fast food style marketing tricks, such as silver burger wrappers and plastic salad shakers, cost a little extra, but they boost sales.
c. Taylor has inked deals with local suppliers for whole-wheat rolls, fresh produce, even grass-fed beef.
d. Shawnee school cafeterias resemble food courts at a mall.
5. What might a reader infer about the author’s purpose in “Retooling School Lunch” based on the section headings “The Cafeteria
Crusader” and “The Meal Marketer”? (RI.8.2, RI.8.6)
a. The author’s profile of Ann Cooper functions partly as a model of idealism.
b. The author’s profile of Deborah Taylor functions partly as a model of capitalism.
c. In contrasting these two extremes, the author suggests a middle-ground between them.
d. all of the above
6. Which of the following MELS healthy eating initiatives could most easily be adopted in Shawnee schools? (RI.8.9)
a. fieldwork
b. food-awareness curricula across all subjects
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c. a screening of Fresh for students and families
d. all of the above.
7. Which of the following biases does the author of the article about MELS disclose?
a. Her younger brother just started at MELS and is thriving.
b. She feels obligated to temper a positive outlook on successful initiatives with a paragraph on the limitations of policy.
c. She is friends with Damon McCord.
d. She works for GrowNYC.
8. Which of the following is NOT discussed in the article about MELS? (RI.8.8, RI.8.9)
a. the future of food programming at MELS
b. school lunch at MELS
c. funding for food-awareness curricula
d. educating parents and family about healthy eating
9. Which rhetorical techniques are used in “Retooling School Lunch” that are not used in the article about MELS?
a. The author of “Retooling School Lunch” uses the techniques of fiction to draw vivid scenes of the cafeterias at Berkeley High
School and Shawnee schools.
b. The author of “Retooling School Lunch” provides context for Ann Cooper’s and Deborah Taylor’s statements.
c. The author of “Retooling School Lunch” contradicts statements made by Ann Cooper and Deborah Taylor.
d. all of the above
10. Which of the follow-up questions below might Leah Douglas have asked Principal Damon McCord?
a. What battles are you waging against the Department of Education, and how are you going about them?
b. Do you think using fast-food marketing tricks to get kids to eat healthier school lunches furthers unhealthy eating habits outside of
school?
c. Is it fair to expect other school nutrition directors to invest so much into their lunch programs when they’re making a quarter of
what you make?
d. Does relying on junk food sales to make school lunch healthier negate the good you’re doing?
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Open-Ended
9. Shawnee schools are offering students healthier lunches without food-awareness education, while MELS is offering food-awareness
education without healthier lunches. If funding and policy limitations make only one of these initiatives possible, which would you
choose and why? Support your answer with evidence from both “Retooling School Lunch” and the article about MELS. (RI.8.9)
10. Compare Ann Cooper’s, Deborah Taylor’s, and Damon McCord’s attitudes toward healthy eating reform in schools. Whose views
seem most realistic? (RI.8.8)
11. Should fast food chain marketing techniques be used to get kids to eat healthy? Why or why not? Support your answer with
evidence from both articles and Chew on This. (RI.8.9)
12. Annotate for the following rhetorical techniques in “Retooling School Lunch” and discuss how the author uses them to engage or
persuade the reader of his or her position:
 techniques of fiction such as scene, dialogue, and imagery
 facts, statistics, and anecdotes
 larger context about the battle waging across the US over school lunchrooms, federal funding, etc.
 structure and organization of information
Use the following rubric to assign points for this question:
4
3
2
1
Student effectively identifies all 4 rhetorical techniques and analyzes how
the author uses each of these techniques to achieve his or her purpose.
Student correctly identifies at least 3 of the 4 rhetorical techniques and
demonstrates an understanding of how they relate to the author’s purpose.
Student demonstrates a partial understanding of the above techniques and
how they relate to the author’s purpose.
Minimal response
Inaccurate or off-topic response
Grammatical mistakes impede meaning.
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On-Demand Writing Assessment
Bring in a novel that you have recently finished reading (as a class or independently). Make a claim about the protagonist. Be sure to
include:
 a clear and focused thesis statement that is not only defensible and accurately stated but is complex enough to support subarguments and also drive every idea in the paper,
 body paragraphs that incorporate topic sentences that are assertions and present sub-arguments that are directly relevant to the
thesis,
 paraphrased and direct text evidence that is directly relevant to the sub-argument,
 an analysis and interpretation of the meaning of text evidence,
 transitions words, phrases, and clauses that create cohesion among claims, interpretations, and evidence chunks, and
 a logical conclusion that follows from and supports the thesis.
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Grammar
1. Read the paragraph below and fill in the blanks with the form of the verb in parentheses that agrees with its subject. (9 pts.)
Fast-food restaurants________________ [to have] become more popular in America in recent years. Groups of
people________________ [to drive] to burger and chicken places each day by the millions. Often, on one strip of road, there
will be five or six places that_________________[to serve] hungry customers. Each and every
restaurant_________________[to be] a member of a larger chain. Prices________________[to be] also controlled by the
parent company. Of all the foods on the menus, hamburgers consistently_________________ [to perform] better than any
other item. This is because American customers__________________ [to consume] hamburgers more than almost any other
food. The nutritional value of these foods______________[to be] not the highest possible, but the food tastes so good that
most people_________________[to be] happy to eat fast-food often. Besides, nobody_____________________[to prefer]
nutrition over convenience all the time.
2. What is confusing about the following sentence? While jogging down the street, a dog bit my neighbor.
Explanation: ________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rewrite the sentence so that it makes sense: _______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What is confusing about the following sentence? The car was parked on the edge of a cliff which was rusty.
Explanation: ________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rewrite the sentence so that it makes sense: _______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. What is the purpose of an ellipsis?
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