Food Miles: ELA Lesson
Lesson Plan
1 hour 25 minutesGrades6, 7, 8English Language Arts
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Written by Christina Cawdery
About this lesson
In this lesson, students learn about food miles, analyze an article about eating locally, and work in groups to write their own informational article about how to manage food miles.
Step 1 - Inquire: Students play a guessing game related to food miles.
Step 2 - Investigate: Students analyze a text about eating locally, looking for headings, subheadings, and pull quotes.
Step 3 - Inspire: Students work in small groups to write an article addressing the importance of food miles and what action the community can take to manage them.
Preview the lesson plan
Better on a bigger screen? Open it in its own tab.View Lesson Plan
Everything you need to teach it
How to edit these materials (video)Teaching tips
Positives
- This lesson aligns with Hawai‘i’s Nā Hopena A'o HĀ-BREATH Framework.
- Teachers can apply a regional or local focus to the concept of food miles.
- Students are exposed to multiple kinds of media (e.g., video, articles).
- Students apply the concept of food miles to their own community.
- Students are empowered to research and choose a solution to fight climate change.
- Students read informational texts and apply text features in their own writing.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should be adept at researching.
- Students should have a general knowledge of headings, subheadings, and pull quotes. This lesson serves as a review.
- Students should know the appropriate citation format when presenting the assignment.
Differentiation
- Teacher can provide a list of resources for students to use instead of having them research from scratch.
- Teacher can expand the final assessment by having students add photos with captions and/or write a longer article.
- Students can engage with the food miles calculator as an extension. This could involve students bringing food containers or food packaging to class or doing more research at home for their articles.
- Journalism classes can format the articles to create a newspaper.
From the scientist review
This lesson explains the concept of food miles and gives students the opportunity to estimate the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere throughout the food supply chain up until the point of consumption. In order to help Hawaiians respond to the effects of climate change on the food supply value chain, students will also learn about strategic measures to cut emissions from the food sector and disseminate those solutions. After carefully fact-checking all the lesson materials, we determined that this lesson is accurate and has passed our science review.
Want this to fit your class?
Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.
About the teacher writer
Christina Cawdery
Middle School Teacher
Christina Torres Cawdery is a middle-grade English educator at Punahou School in Honolulu, HI. In addition to teaching, Christina is a writer whose work has appeared in places like ASCD, Edutopia, Learning for Justice, NCTE's Council Chronicle, and Education Week. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in English at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
