The Ascend Voice, Summer 2013

Chew on This: ASCEND Students Explore Food Industry

As covered in previous ASCEND Voice editions, healthy and responsible eating have been a hallmark on our campus through the years, from our students' love for the ASCEND garden to their field trip tours of sustainable urban gardens and farmers markets. This past semester, through their "Chew on This" learning expedition, our 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-graders wrote the latest chapter on this theme.

"Students used Eric Schlosser's Chew on This book as a starting point to engage in reading, writing, and discussion of food issues," says 8th-grade teacher Kate Linneman. "They explored the growth of the fast food industry, and the role of fast food in the growing use of factories, machines, and exploitation of both animals and people in food production."

Along with reading the book, students analyzed the advertising strategies that lure consumers into eating high-calorie, low-nutrition foods, including the way certain fast food ads target specific audiences – such as kids their age.

"We started to see how everything in the fast food industry is planned to get more customers and manipulate kids," explains 8th-grader Ivan. "They know how kids are going to react, and they make their ads to take advantage of that."

As the students' perspectives deepened throughout the unit, they took on projects to demonstrate their learning. 6th-graders created public service announcements, 7th-graders made a model McDonald's counter where they served not food but alarming information about the industry, and 8th-graders filmed satirical commercials.

"People need to know everything that's going on," says 8th-grader Jessica, "because it's not what it looks like in the commercials. We need to be educating our peers and other middle school students about what they're really eating and where it comes from."

"We learned," says 7th-grader Yahaira, "that companies sometimes use ammonia to kill the E. coli in meat. That's the same stuff you use to clean your bathroom."

"We also investigated how the some meatpacking companies treat their workers," says 7th-grader Hilda, "paying them low wages in unsafe conditions."

At ASCEND's Spring Expo, students had the opportunity to share these projects with their families, other students, and community members, explaining the impact this expedition had on them while passing along their newfound wisdom and perspective on the food industry. All told, Linneman says, "We really saw some of the ideas coming out in how they talk about fast food, and in their actual eating habits."

"My opinion about fast food and [food production] definitely changed," says 7th-grader Ameyali. "Now I think about how the animals are treated, and how companies treat their workers."

"Everything about fast food and the fast food companies is pretty nasty," says Jessica. "I just don't want to buy it or eat it anymore."

"By the time it gets to your plate," Ivan adds, "it's just not normal food anymore — it's a bunch of chemicals. It's really important for everyone to be educated on that, about what exactly you're eating. If I were thinking up a true tagline to describe fast food in an ad, I'd use: fast food, fast death."

7th- and 8th-graders Hilda, Yahaira, Ameyali, Ivan, and Jessica

Blended Learning Finds Its Footing at ASCEND

Technology-based learning has long been a mainstay on our campus, with students producing their own videos for Expo, creating personal history podcasts, using Google Docs, and more. In that spirit, we have begun piloting Blended Learning at ASCEND.

Blended Learning unites online assessments and lessons with traditional teaching to make instruction both personalized and data-driven, maximize small-group teaching, and boost students' ownership of their learning. While groups of students use online "adaptive software" that adapts to their level of learning and challenges them, teachers are able to work directly with small groups of kids who might be struggling with specific skills.

"Instead of teaching a one size fits all lesson that leaves some students unchallenged and others too challenged," says 1st-grade teacher Jayson Welden, "Blended Learning lets me teach to every students specific needs. At the same time, other students are working independently, and still being pushed rigorously."

Support ASCEND!

As a public school in California — a state near the bottom in per-student spending, nationally — ASCEND must reach out to the wider community for financial support. We hope you will consider a tax-deductible donation supporting initiatives like our technology-based Blended Learning program as we look ahead to the coming school year.

You can visit www.ascendk8.org to donate online, or you can contribute by check to: "OSF/ASCEND," PO Box 27148, Oakland, CA 94602. Thank you!