Vignette 6.3. You Are What You Eat
Close Reading of an Informational Text
Integrated ELA/Literacy and ELD Instruction in Grade Seven (cont.)Learning Targets: The students will analyze a short text about agribusiness to determine
what it says explicitly as well as what can be inferred, and they will engage in collaborative
conversations about the text, building on classmates’ ideas.CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy: RI.7.1 - Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text; RI.7.3- Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how
ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events); RI.7.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word
choice on meaning and tone; SL.7.1 - Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7
topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CA ELD Standards (Expanding): ELD.PI.7.1 – Contribute to class, group, and partner
discussions; ELD.PI.7.6a – Explain ideas, phenomena, processes, and text relationships
based on close reading of a variety of grade-level texts... with moderate support;
ELD.PI.7.6c – Use knowledge of morphology, context, reference materials, and visual cues
to determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words on familiar and new
topics.Lesson Excerpts
Mrs. Massimo builds her students’ background knowledge by reading a short passage
aloud as students follow along in their own copies of the text. The passage is related to what
students will read and contains many of the words they will encounter (e.g., agribusiness,
fertilizer, chemicals, yield). By reading aloud Mrs. Massimo is intentionally modeling prosody
and pronunciation of words that may be unfamiliar. She also models the use of comprehension
strategies, asking herself clarifying questions as she reads and stopping every so often to
summarize what she has read.
Mrs. Massimo then asks students to read a passage independently and to consider some
text-dependent questions as they do. She asks them to jot down their responses in their
reading journals as well as note any questions they have about the reading or any unfamiliar
vocabulary. (Previously, Mrs. Massimo met separately with the two English learners at the
Emerging level to ensure that they understand the meaning of the questions, and to preview
the content knowledge embedded in the text they will read.) The questions she asks students
to think about as they read the text on their own for the first time are the following:- What is this text primarily about?
- What are some key events or details that help us understand what the text is about?
- What are some important words needed to discuss the main ideas?
Excerpt from the text (Chapter 3, “From Farm to Factory”)
It may seem that I’ve given corn too much credit. After all, corn is just a
plant. How could a plant take over our food chain and push out almost every other
species? Well, it had some help—from the U.S. Government.
602 | Chapter 6 Grade 7