Amanda+Chiotti

//11-12th grade// //4 week lesson, 5 days per week, 1 hour periods.//
 * Unit Plan** //Childhood Obesity and The Importance of Living a Healthy Lifestyle:// This unit explores the impacts of being overweight and obese on individuals while addressing service learning through persuasive writing and speaking within the school and community.

Link to my teaching website: Miss. Chiotti's Classroom
 * Introduction**: My first teaching concentration is in physical education, therefore most of my passion is put into teaching students how to enjoy exercise and learn to recognize good and bad food. A great way to incorporate this type of teaching into an English classroom is through service learning. Students can then have the opportunity to educate the community with persuasive speaking done in many different forms addressing current issues relating to the obesity epidemic. This unit is a great way to attempt to make the students understand how crucial it is to be healthy and active, but also to let them educate the school and community using persuasive speaking.

Physical activity is one of the most important components of good health and disease prevention for individuals. The benefits of physical activity extend well beyond maintaining a healthy weight. Regular physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of many conditions that impact physical and mental well-being, including coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon cancer, breast cancer, and depression.With that message from the surgeon general himself, how can any individual go on with their lives non-active? It’s been proven over and over again that being active physically can prevent future major complications, yet obesity still lingers.
 * Why this topic?**

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 * Overview**: This unit aims at addressing the obesity epidemic to students in 11-12th grade, educating students on the importance of living healthy active lifestyles, and the consequences that could result if not. The first week will involve introducing them to the obesity epidemic, giving them different book choices that all relate to healthy lifestyles among teens. Each will pick a book and for three class periods, there will be reading time and group talks. The second week shifts to a major cause of obesity: fast food. Students will watch a film that exposes the fast food industry and then use their knowledge about eating healthier to create healthy items to choose at local fast food places. The last two weeks of this unit are focused on persuasive writing and speaking. Students will write a persuasive paper on one of the given topics. Then they will collaborate with the other students in the class to make a presentation to the intended audience.




 * Objectives**:
 * Students will develop an understanding of the obesity epidemic
 * Students will develop and understanding on how to track their food intake and physical activity daily and how to interpret the data.
 * Students will develop an understanding of the fast food impact on obesity
 * Students will develop and understanding of persuasive writing and speaking
 * Students will use their understanding of persuasive writing and speaking to present to the school or community on modes of change available to promote healthier lifestyles


 * Michigan English Language Arts Standards**:
 * 1) Grade 11: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 3.4
 * 2) Grade 12: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 3.4


 * Writing Assignments:**


 * 1) Daily Food intake and Physical Activity Log done for 5 days. Students will use the MyPyramid Tracker website to track the calories they consume everyday for 5 days. On the same website, they will enter the physical activities they participated in everyday. As you assign this, be sure to make it clear no one else will see these logs besides the teacher. If they have any thoughts that the information would be shared, students will likely not be honest in the entries they put in their logs. Students will turn print their logs after 5 days of recording.
 * 2) Create a healthy menu at a local fast food restaurant using a spreadsheet. Students will compare the calorie count of food on menus of local fast food restaurants. They will use that information to determine a healthy menu to use the next time they eat fast food. This will help them make healthier food choices when eating fast food, something we all do so frequently.
 * 3) Persuasive writing and speaking assignment: Students will be given a list of prompts with additional resources (or they can create their own) to create a presentation on promoting healthier lifestyles within the school and community. Students will work in groups of 3-5 to give the presentations, but each will create their own individual presentations first. The goal of this assignment is to integrate the importance of healthy lifestyles with learning how to create successful persuasive writing to specific audiences. The writing portion of this assignment will involve students writing a 3-5 page paper persuading the intented audience the change they propose. After the paper is finished, students will work together to prepare a presentation to the intended audience. Before making the presentation, as a group they will create a letter asking for permission to present their materials in front of the intended audience.


 * Reading:**
 * Prevalence of Obesity Article

One of the following:
 * Healthy Eating for Weight Management (Nutrition and Fitness for Teens)
 * Teenage Fitness: Get Fit, Look Good, and Feel Great
 * [|Body Pride: An Action Plan For Teens Seeking Self-Esteem and Building Better Bodies]
 * [|The Best You Can Be: A Teen's Guide To Fitness and Nutrition (Science of Health Youth and Well Being)]

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 * Anticapatory Set:**

**Week 1**
__Day 1:__ Present on Childhood Obesity, familiarize them with the website used for the log assignment.
 * Assignment Given-Physical Activity Log and Food Intake Assignment
 * //Homework:// read Prevalence of Obesity Article

__Day 2:__ Present Power Point on Defining Overweight and Obesity for Teens and Adults


 * Discuss Article assigned on prevalence of obesity.
 * Power Point Presentation/Discussion



__Day 3:__ Reading Workshop (Day 1 of 3) Healthy Eating for Weight Management (Nutrition and Fitness for Teens) Teenage Fitness: Get Fit, Look Good, and Feel Great [|Body Pride: An Action Plan For Teens Seeking Self-Esteem and Building Better Bodies] [|The Best You Can Be: A Teen's Guide To Fitness and Nutrition (Science of Health Youth and Well Being)]
 * Description: Introduce book options:
 * Allow 30 minutes of reading time then 10-15 minutes of group discussion about what they've read so far.
 * //Homework:// Read 20 pages and prepare 2 book talk questions each

__Day 4:__ Reading Workshop/Book Talks (Day 2 of 3)
 * Description: Reading for 30 minutes, book talks for 20 minutes, time for questions at the end.
 * //Homework:// Finish reading your book

__Day 5:__ Reading Workshop/Book Talks (Day 3 of 3)

Week 2
__Day 1:__ Drive-Thru Nutrition (Day 1 of 3)


 * Materials: Film-Fast Food Nation
 * Description: The teacher will begin this 3 day lesson with a basic understanding of the dangers of a diet high in calories and fat. Provide the FDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 and How to understand and Use the Nutritional Facts Label. Then the students will begin to watch __Fast Food Nation.__
 * //Assignment Due:// Physical Activity Log and Food Intake Assignment

__Day 2:__Drive-Thru Nutrition (Day 2 of 3)


 * Materials: Finish Fast Food Nation and begin to brainstorm popular fast-food restaurants common to your students (this will be used in the next lesson).

__Day 3:__ Drive-Thru Nutrition (Day 3 of 3)


 * Materials: student access to the internet and access to Excel or AppleWorks and Microsoft word or a type of word processing program. The National Center for Educational Statistic’s Create a Graph spreadsheet tool (free and online).


 * Description: Students will use online resources and a spreadsheet form to compare the fat and calorie content of various food items at 12 popular fast-food restaurants. Then they will create a day’s worth of healthful menus using food from those restaurants.

__Day 4:__ Introduction to Persuasive Writing

__Day 5:__ Persuasive Speaking



Week 3
__Day 1:__ Discuss paper options


 * //Homework:// Persuasive Paper assigned

__Day 2:__ Writing Workshop/Mini Lesson

__Day 3:__ Writing Workshop

__Day 4:__ Writing Workshop/Mini Lesson

__Day 5:__ Group Workshop(letter to intended audience for permission to present)
 * //Homework Due//: Persuasive Paper

Week 4
__Day 1:__ Group Workshop (Presentation Preparation)
 * Options for presentation:
 * Prezi,
 * Power Point
 * Video/Podcast

__Day 2:__ Group Workshop (Presentation Preparation)

__Day 3:__ Group Workshop (Presentation Preparation)

__Day 4:__ Mock Presentations and Feedback

__Day 5:__ Mock Presentations and Feedback

Additional Resources:



Center for Disease Control and Prevention

American Heart Association

Choose My Plate: Balancing Calories