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Lesson 5

We will begin to integrate our newfound understanding of the food system and some of its major challenges and issues by selecting one compelling issue and developing an evidence-based claim statement about its importance. To prepare for this Section Diagnostic task, we will watch a video and identify supporting evidence for the claims made in the article. We will practice forming claims using the claims made in the article as a guide, then develop a claim to be explained in the Section Diagnostic.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of the claims made in the article “10 Things You Need to Know about the Global Food System,” and to develop ideas about some of the major challenges facing the global food system?

  • Can I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis of some of the major challenges facing the global food system?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “10 Things You Need to Know about the Global Food System,” Evan Fraser and Elizabeth Fraser, Guardian News & Media Ltd., 2019
  • Digital Access
    • “Feeding Nine Billion Video 1: Introducing Solutions to the Global Food Crisis,” Evan Fraser, Feeding 9 Billion, February 21, 2014

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: View – Write

We will rewatch the video “Feeding Nine Billion Video 1: Introducing Solutions To The Global Food Crisis.”

As a class or in small groups, rewatch the video “Feeding Nine Billion Video 1: Introducing Solutions to the Global Food Crisis” that was assigned as homework. This video accompanies “10 Things You Need to Know about the Global Food System,” which we read and annotated in Lesson 4.

As you watch the video again, continue to use the Video Note-Taking Tool to track the different details, quotes, or examples that you find that connect to the following question: What are some of the major challenges facing the global food system?

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will review the article “10 Things You Need To Know About The Global Food System,” focusing on how the authors form claims in the text and evaluate those claims.

Step 1

In pairs, review the text "10 Things You Need to Know about the Global Food System" that you read and annotated in Lesson 4, including your notes on the article.

As a pair, choose one of the 10 major issues that the author highlights:

  • there is enough food for everyone

  • price volatility

  • food waste

  • food used as fuel

  • land ownership

  • corporate influence

  • agricultural policy

  • environmental impact

  • climate change

  • increased food demand

Step 2

Identify and examine the claims that the author makes for your chosen issue and consider the following questions:

  1. What do you know about the author? How might this inform your understanding of the author’s perspective?

  2. What issue is the claim addressing?

  3. Who is the audience? What occasion has the author created the claim for?

  4. What is the author’s position on the issue?

  5. Does the author acknowledge other positions on the issue and respond to them through counterclaims?

  6. What aspects of the claim make it seem convincing to you? What aspects make you doubt or not accept the claim?

Activity 3: Discuss – Write

We will continue to evaluate the claims made in the article by Fraser and Fraser, and identify evidence that supports each claim.

With your partner, identify and list evidence that could be used to support your chosen claim from the 10 listed in the article. You should focus mainly on evidence presented in the accompanying video, but might also choose to pull evidence from other sources and texts you have read or watched as a class so far.

Activity 4: Write

Using what we have learned from the video and the examples of claims presented, we will practice forming our own claims using the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

Using the claims we analyzed from the text as a model as well as the evidence you listed that supports those claims, form your own claim in response to one of the following questions:

  1. What makes the global food system inequitable?

  2. What are some of the major challenges facing the global food system? How can we make the system fairer?

  3. What is the role of food policy in tackling some of the challenges presented in the article and video?

  4. What are the relationships between the major challenges facing the global food system, the environment, and climate?

To form your claim, use the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool to identify and analyze key details from the article or the video related to your question. Draft a claim statement that presents a conclusion you have drawn based on your analysis of those details and in response to the question you have selected.

Activity 5: Read – Write – Discuss

We will review the task for the Section Diagnostic and the section 1 diagnostic checklist of expectations and goals.

Step 1

Access, read, and discuss the Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist. Note, annotate, or highlight key words in the questions and task that tell you what you will need to do when you complete the Section Diagnostic Task.

Discuss the type of writing you will be asked to do—explanatory writing—and what it means to explain a topic like the elements and relationships of the food system or a challenge it faces.

Read through the list of expectations for the task. Note in particular that you will need to support your explanations with evidence from at least two sources from the unit.

Individually, read through pages 1-3 of the Integrating Quotations Reference Guide and then respond to the following questions in a whole-class discussion.

  1. What are the two ways in which you can cite evidence in a sentence?

  2. Why is citing evidence important? How does it support your credibility as a writer?

  3. What is included in the parentheses after you cite your evidence? What is that information linked to?

Step 2

Now look through the rest of the reference guide. While completing your homework, you will want to think strategically about how you want to present your evidence through either quoting or paraphrasing. It will be important to cite all your evidence with parenthetical citations no matter how you include the evidence. Use the Integrating Quotations Reference Guide for support.

Go back to the list of what you have learned and the texts from which you have gained understanding that you made in Activity 1. Consider which of the sources (texts, videos) you might use in responding to the Section Diagnostic task and questions.

Activity 6: Read – Write

For homework, we will prepare for the Section Diagnostic. We will review the Food system’s major challenges presented in the unit so far, as well as what we have learned about forming claims.

For homework, review your notes from the materials you have read in this section, noticing what issues are most striking to you or what issues repeat throughout the readings. Think about the following questions to help guide your review:

  1. What major issues concerning the current state of the food system do these materials highlight?

  2. Which issues appear in multiple texts? Why do you believe this is the case?

  3. What kinds of factors do you think are contributing to these issues?

  4. What issue do you believe to be most pressing to your school community? Why?

  5. Which claim was the most compelling to you? Why?

From your responses to these questions, form a claim about one challenge facing the global food system that you find to be most pressing.

Identify evidence from at least two sources that you can use to support your claim and address the three major expectations of the task:

  • Explain your understanding of the global food system and its major elements.

  • Present your position about the most pressing challenge facing the global food system.

  • Explain how and why that challenge is significant and pressing.