Page 26 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade6_Flipbook

7 Until our food system becomes more transparent, there is one thing you can do to shrink the carbon footprint of your dinner: Take the meat off your plate. No matter how you slice it, it takes more energy to bring meat, as opposed to plants, to the table. It takes 6 pounds of grain to make a pound of chicken and 10 to 16 pounds to make a pound of beef. That difference translates into big differences in inputs. It requires 2,400 liters of water to make a burger and only 13 liters to grow a tomato. A majority of the water in the American West goes toward the production of pigs, chickens and cattle.
8 The average American eats 273 pounds of meat a year. Give up red meat once a week and you’ll save as much energy as if the only food miles in your diet were the distance to the nearest truck farmer.
9 If you want to make a statement, ride your bike to the farmer’s market. If you want to reduce greenhouse gases, become a vegetarian.
Second Reading: vocabulary in Context
After reading the passage to yourself, listen and follow along as the passage is read again aloud. Again, circle any additional words that you don’t know or that you think are important to understanding the passage.
Check your Understanding
Pair with another student, share your circled words and discuss the meanings. Using these words and the underlined and bolded vocabulary from the passage, discuss how the vocabulary affects your understanding of the entire passage. Choose two or three of the words you have examined that you think are significant to understanding the passage you read. Use the words in one or two sentences that explain why these words contribute to your understanding.
Third Reading: Text-Dependent Questioning
Now read the passage again, this time with the focus of reading to respond to the interpretive questions in the Key Ideas and Details.
Close Reading Workshop 2 • Close Reading of Argumentative Nonfiction Texts 25
© 2014 College Board. All rights reserved.