Learning Plan & Activities
The following learning plan contains a series of learning activities to use throughout the
unit building toward the final performance task. Within the learning plan, there are callout boxes that provide suggestions for students who need extra support. These
suggestions are based on student need and might be helpful for ELLs, SWDs, as well as
other students who need support with particular aspects of the content and skills taught.
Suggested Activities
Lesson 1: Introduction to the unit where students will be writing an Explanatory
Letter raising awareness among the public about the Use of Child Labor in Consumer
Products like Hershey’s S. tudents will be writing to Hershey’s to raise their voices
against the use of child labor in the supply chain.
The Mentor Text read will be an example of the kind of concepts to be included in
their own letters.
Reading a Mentor Text
 Letter on Smoking: 17 going on 18- Read and identify important concepts
to be included in a letter raising awareness on an issue-
statement of issue
-
include valid facts and statistics
-
include strong opinions derived from facts
-
include anecdotes
Students annotate hard copies of the text to identify each of the bullet points. For
example: Statement of issue
Paragraph 2 – “You’ve started to smoke, and she wants me to persuade you to stop.”
Valid facts and statistics
Paragraph 4 – “There are the babies … and the damage you could do to them in utero
…”
Strong opinions
Paragraph 3
“There’s the guy you might fall in love with someday who thinks kissing a smoker is
as seductive as licking the bottom of a dirty ashtray.”
Include Anecdotes
Paragraph 7/10
Incident about author’s father-in-law or Janet Sackman
Additional Support Strategies: Introduction of Vocabulary in Context:
Despondent, in utero, laryngitis, anti-smoking advocacy group, oncology
Pictures of diseased lung mentioned in the text
Lesson 2and 3- Sample given for students choosing Hershey’s only
Students understand the process of chocolate production and where children stand
in the supply chain through Video Clips (CNN Freedom Project)/documentary
viewed (The Dark Side of Chocolate)
The students view the Documentary The Dark Side of Labor which is paused at
strategic points for students to take notes to the questions below:
Students take notes after the video clips are viewed to understand the following
questions:
The role played by children in the production of chocolate
The impact of child labor on children.
Some of the facts gathered will include:
Cote d’Ivoire or Ivory Coast is the main destination for trafficked and migrant cocoa
workers
The overwhelming majority of children moved to cocoa farms without their natural
parents or guardians
Children as young as 7 experience the worst forms of child labor including verbal,
and physical harassment
Children perform dangerous work like carrying heavy loads, spraying pesticides and
using machetes, among other dangerous activities
Anecdotes of children and social workers and government agents
Additional Support Strategies:
Chocolate Activity Book provides visuals and explains the stages of the cocoa production to help
build background knowledge
Fair Trade Chocolate Activity Book
https://files.nyu.edu/fm812/public/documents/ChocolateBookK2.pdf
Domain specific vocabulary is explained in context
Child trafficking, supply chain, debt bondage, ethical cocoa sourcing
Lesson 4
Students will listen to the poem Cocoa Beans by Frieda Dennis Cooper and identify
lines which resonate with them and give reasons.
My poem "Cocoa Beans" is dedicated to the children of Cote d`Ivoire, West
Africa, and those around the world who are misused as slave labor. It's
important for me to be aware of the global landscape and issues that affect
us as a global humanity. As an artist, I want to help audiences see beyond a
person's face and feel his story. This is my contribution to the effort,
exposing injustice and speaking out for the small voice.
Little chocolate hands in a vast chocolate land, a world of lovers inexcusably
oblivious, can't taste baby's blood mixed in. Little chocolate hands lead to
small chocolate faces, eyes filled with the hope of more than just $1 a day.
Wishes of a comfy bed and enough food to stop the pangs they've come to
know all too well. Industry fed by high demand and little chocolate hands,
hands full of precious cocoa beans in baskets on their heads however they
can. A world of lovers sinfully unaware can't taste baby's blood mixed in.
The finest confections delight connoisseurs and the lay alike. Perhaps, if we
all knew about those chocolate hands, there wouldn't be a need for those
chocolate hands to work like they do. Five-, six-, seven-year-old hands slave
to make my candy bar I can't live without. We love to taste and indulge
while little chocolate hands rub little bellies that bulge from too little food
they can't do without. Hypocrites are we who shed a tear, tell a friend, fast
on Valentine's Day. Then, just like a predator lures its prey with a deceiving
smile, take hold of little chocolate hands saying, `It's going to be all right,'
and lead them to the fields for just one more harvest.
Additional Support Strategies: Introduction of Vocabulary in Context:
Oblivious , Confections, Connoisseurs, hypocrites, predators
Students pick a line and draw a picture as they visualize the lines.
Lesson 4
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TASK 1
Students write 4 paragraphs explaining the role children play in the production of
consumer products and the impact child labor has on them.
The information will be used in the final task where students write a letter to
raise awareness of child labor in the industry.
There will be a class discussion which should result in the following bullet points of
Paragraph 2 and 3
Paragraph 1
Write a powerful introduction with a setting or an anecdote (incident), quote
from poem with an explanation or question. Include the name of
documentary/video clip
Paragraph 2
Explain the role of children in the supply chain
 Where cocoa comes from
 Use on farms
 Trafficking -Include statistics
Paragraph 3
The impact on children
 Feelings of children
 Injuries
 Separation from families
 Exposure to pesticides/fertilizers
 The government’s stand
Paragraph 4
A strong conclusion
Additional Support Strategies: Sentence starters are provided : Example- Welcome to the life
of Abdul age 7…… , Where does the Hershey bar begin its life?... Can you imagine…? Some of
the statistics are shocking….
Lesson 5
Students will listen to an audio interview on NPR to understand the industry point
of view.
Students are provided background information on the Harkin Engel Protocol. It was
signed in 2001 by cocoa industry members to identify and eliminate cocoa grown
using forced labor. A child labor free certification process was supposed to cover 50
percent of cocoa growing regions in West Africa by 2005 and hundred percent by
2010.
Students will write down the main arguments stated by each of the sides. - The
chocolate industry and Senator Eliot Engel who tabled the Harkin Engel Protocol.
Additional Support Strategies: The audio is paused at more frequent intervals to enable
students to take notes.
Lesson 6 (for students who choose Hershey’s)
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TASK 2
Students read the article “Reverse Trick or Treaters Deliver Fair Trade
Chocolate” and Hershey Report 2011 (Raising the Bar: Desired Outcomes for a
Fair Hershey)
Identify some of the suggested courses of action to raise awareness of the issue
of child labor with specific examples, important details to support the course
of action and relevant quotations from the article. The information will be
used in the final task where students write a letter to raise awareness of child
labor in the industry.
Some possible courses of action are:
Reverse Trick or Treating
Buying Fair Trade Chocolate
UTZ Certified Programs
Providing consumers with information
Support Raising the Bar Campaign
Valentine Day’s Activities
Additional Support Strategies: Domain Specific Vocabulary is explained in Context
Fair Trade Certified Chocolate, Raising the Bar Campaign, transparency , Global Exchange Group,
INTERPOL, UTZ CERTIFIED, International Labor Rights, Trafficking
Page 28 and 29 of Chocolate Activity Book shows symbol which will be found on Fair
Trade Certified Chocolate
Lesson 6
The students and teacher read and understand the task.
SUMMATIVE ASSESSSMENT TASK
The use of child labor to create everyday products is an international problem
without an easy or clear-cut solution. As part of this unit, you’ve engaged with and
analyzed several sources-texts, audio and multi-media – about the problems of and
solutions for child labor in two different companies- Nike and Hershey’s.
Assignment:
Select one of the two companies we’ve studied and write a letter to either the public
or the company to 1) raise awareness on the issue of child labor in that company
and 2) suggest a course of action your chosen audience can take to deal with the
issue of child labor in that company. Your explanation of the problem and suggested
course of action should be grounded in the ideas and evidence from at least three of
the sources in this unit.
When writing the letter be sure to
 Begin your letter with an appropriate salutation to your selected audience.
 Introduce the topic clearly, keeping your audience in mind.
 Develop the audience’s awareness on the issue of child labor with specific
examples (e.g. relevant facts, concrete details, and/or quotations) from at
least 3 sources. Your examples should show:
o The role of children in the production of common consumer products
o The impact of the labor on the children
 Suggest a course of action that follows from your understanding of the texts
and is supported by the examples you provided. Be sure to make clear the
connection between your suggested course of action and the evidence and
examples you cited
 Use appropriate and varied transitions to connect your ideas
 Demonstrate a command of standard English conventions
The concepts of the mentor text are reviewed . Students will also refer to the
Formative assessment tasks as they write their letter.
The following framework will help guide the students as they write their letters:
1. STATE THE ISSUE – BEGIN WITH SETTING, ANECDOTE OR QUESTIONS
(From Assessment Task 1 or 2)
2. THE ROLE OF CHILDREN AND IMPACT ON THEM (FROM Assessment Task
1)
3. Suggest COURSES OF ACTION (From Assessment Task 2)
4. Write a strong conclusion – question to make reader think or a call to action.
5. WRITE A CATCHY TITLE
In paragraph 2 and 3
 INCLUDE MINIMUM TWO FACTS AND STATE THE SOURCE or
 INCLUDE QUOTATIONS AND STATE THE SOURCE
 INCLUDE STRONG OPINIONS (lines from poem should help)
SHARE ANECDOTES
Alternately, student can upload all your letters to a blog created or optionally send a
petition to Hershey’s
Additional Support Strategies: Letter Writing format is reviewed.
Students see sample petition text available on stopchildlabor.org
Choices of salutations are provided when writing a letter to the public Dear reader, Dear
chocoholic, Dear candy craver, Dear Chocolate lover, Dear fellow
chocolate/CANDY lover, Dear concerned citizen, Dear fair friend