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Lesson 2

We will expand our understanding of the concept of evidence and its importance in developing an argument. We will discuss what evidence is and why it is necessary, then independently read a chapter from Full Planet, Empty Plate: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity by Lester R. Brown. After reading, we will work in pairs to complete an Organizing Evidence Tool to assess how effectively the chapter builds and supports claims using relevant and credible evidence.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of “Moving Up the Food Chain,” and topics such as changes in human food consumption and its economic, social, and environmental impacts?

  • Can I evaluate the relevance and credibility of information, ideas, evidence, and reasoning presented by Brown in “Moving Up the Food Chain?”

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “Chapter 3: Moving Up the Food Chain,” excerpt from Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity, Lester R. Brown, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012
    • “History and Overview of the Green Revolution: How Agricultural Practices Changed in the 20th Century,” Amanda Briney, ThoughtCo., 2020

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss – Write

We will share our mentor sentence analyses with partners.

Step 1

Work with a partner to discuss the mentor sentences you identified and recorded in your Mentor Sentence Journal for homework. Use the following questions to guide your discussion:

  1. Why did you select this sentence?

  2. What is unique about the word choice in this sentence?

  3. What is unique about the syntax in this sentence?

  4. What mood does the author create in this sentence? How do you know?

  5. What tone is conveyed by the author in this sentence? How do you know?

  6. How does the sentence contribute to your understanding of the ideas in the text?

Step 2

Return to the original sentence you crafted, emulating the pattern of your selected sentence. Use takeaways from your discussion to make revisions to the sentence to improve the precision of mood and tone. Share with your partner for feedback.

Activity 2: Discuss

As a class, we will discuss what evidence is and why it is important in constructing an argument.

Revisit the definitions of the term argument considered during previous lessons. From there, discuss the characteristics of a successful argument.

Review the definition and process step for supporting evidence found in the Argument Reference Guide:

Supporting Evidence: Identify and analyze evidence that supports the argument’s position and claims. Evidence may come in the form of facts, statistics, or examples. Sometimes, supporting evidence comes in the form of a quotation or an idea from an expert in the field.

Next, review the concepts of credibility and bias, as explained in the reference guide:

Credibility and Bias: To judge the credibility and validity of an argument, study its logic and analyze its language and evidence. Sometimes the perspective presented in the argument indicates a bias that might influence its believability. Many supposed “arguments” are really just attempts at persuasion rather than examples of solid argumentation. In such persuasive pieces, biased explanations, charged language, appeals to emotion, or false or inaccurate information might be presented instead of well-supported and reasoned claims.

When you discuss the importance of evidence that is relevant and credible, consider the following questions:

  1. What are some other contexts in which evidence is used and is important (e.g., science experiments, crime scenes, etc.)?

  2. Why might evidence be necessary when crafting an argument?

  3. What are qualities that might make some types of evidence more believable and effective than others?

As a class, use what you have learned from the reference guide to develop a class definition of the term evidence and write it on the board before proceeding with the next activity. Write down the term and the class definition in your Vocabulary Journal.

Activity 3: Discuss – Listen

We will learn how to analyze a text for argumentative claims and evidence and become familiar with a tool that will assist in this process.

As a class, discuss how evidence is used in an argument to communicate an author’s perspective. Consider the following questions:

  1. What makes a good argument?

  2. What is an argument you have made to a family member or friend?

  3. What evidence did you use in making your argument?

  4. How did you use evidence in making your argument?

Follow along as your teacher introduces or reviews the Organizing Evidence Tool, which is used to plan an argument you write. Discuss how the tool can also be used to analyze an argument you are reading, specifically in thinking about an author’s claims and evidence.

Note that the tool is divided into sections, each with the heading “Supporting Claim,” providing a space to the right in which to write or summarize a claim that supports the overall position of the argument. Under each Supporting Claim section, note that there are spaces provided to “Provide Evidence” and “Analyze the Evidence” in terms of its relationship to the claim and the argument’s position.

Activity 4: Read

We will learn some background context for full planet, empty plate: the new geopolitics of Food scarcity, then read and annotate the chapter independently.

Your teacher will introduce the chapter from Full Planet, Empty Plate: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity by providing some background about its author and the whole book by revisiting some of the topics related to industrial agriculture discussed in Section 1.

Follow along as your teacher models how to use the Organizing Evidence Tool to identify the claims and evidence presented in the first two paragraphs of “Full Planet, Empty Plate.”

Record the claims and evidence on your own Organizing Evidence Tool, then use it to record claims and evidence as you read the next five paragraphs (through para. 7).

Activity 5: Read – Discuss – Write

We will determine the meaning of Unknown words. We will work with partners to cement our understanding of the new words in a variety of vocabulary exercises.

Step 1

Follow your teacher’s directions for using the Vocabulary List or the words you identified during your reading of the excerpt from Full Planet, Empty Plate: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. You might use a Vocabulary in Context Tool for words you can decipher from the text; for others, you might use morphology to decipher the meaning, or a reference resource to check if your meaning is accurate. For some words, your teacher might present you with definitions.

Record the words and definitions in your Vocabulary Journal. For each word, identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource) you used to determine its meaning.

Step 2

Work with a partner or group to respond to the vocabulary exercises, as directed by your teacher.

Activity 6: Discuss – Write

In pairs, we will use the Organizing Evidence Tool to identify examples of claims and evidence from the text.

Step 1

As a class, identify the claims you found in the first seven paragraphs and discuss the evidence that is presented to support each claim.

With a partner, consider the claim that begins Paragraph 8 of the article: “Over time, global patterns of meat consumption have changed.”

As assigned by your teacher, closely read one of the paragraphs, from Paragraph 8 through the end of the article (para. 16). Identify a supporting claim that relates to the opening claim of Paragraph 8, and the evidence presented to explain or support it.

Step 2

As a class, discuss the ideas and information found in Paragraphs 8-16, with each reading team identifying the supporting claim and evidence they found in their assigned paragraph.

Discuss what you have learned about what it means to be “Moving Up the Food Chain” from this chapter of Brown’s book. How would you summarize its main ideas?

Think about the full title of Brown’s book: Full Planet, Empty Plate: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. Discuss what you think might be explained or argued in other chapters of the book, considering the implications of key phrases found in the title:

  • full planet

  • empty plate

  • new geopolitics

  • food scarcity

In particular, discuss what is meant by the term geopolitics. Develop a class definition of this term, and record it in your Vocabulary Journal.

Activity 7: Write

For homework, consider what you have learned from the text and write a paragraph about how viable, effective, safe, and sustainable the practices it presents seem to be.

On your own, think about the claims and information you identified in the chapter from Brown’s book, Full Planet, Empty Plate: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. Use the diagram or map you developed that shows relationships among the characteristics of farming practices and the extent to which they are effective, safe, sustainable, and viable.

In your Learning Log, write a paragraph in which you respond to the following questions:

  1. How viable do you think the changes to the global patterns of meat consumption are?

  2. What effective practices might be needed to respond to these changes?

  3. In what ways might there be concerns about how safe the changes are in relationship to human health and the environment?

  4. How sustainable do you think the changes are, given the evidence Brown presents in Chapter 3 of his book?

  5. Why do you think Brown includes the phrases “empty plate” and “food scarcity” in the title to his book?