Page 100 - SpringBoard_ELD_Grade7_Flipbook

Interpreting the Text using Close Reading
Learning Targets
• Apply understanding of how informational text is structured to comprehend a text. PII.7.1
• Use knowledge of morphology, context, reference materials, and visual cues to determine the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words. PI.7.6c
• Read closely and annotate the text to make inferences and draw conclusions. PI.7.6a
• Evaluate the language resources an author uses to make a claim. PI.7.7
Read and annotate
Read America the Not-So-Beautiful, and annotate the text as you read.
■ Use the My Notes area to write any questions or ideas you have about the story. ■ Underline the topic of the essay.
■ Put an exclamation point next to a surprising statistic.
■ Put a star next to the proposed solution.
■ Circle unknown words or phrases.
America
the Not-So-Beautiful
by Andrew A. Rooney
1 Next to saving stuff I don’t need, the thing I like to do best is throw it away. My idea of a good time is to load up the back of
the car with junk on a Saturday morning and take it to the dump. There’s something satisfying about discarding almost anything.
2 Throwing things out is the American way. We don’t know how to fix anything, and anyone who does know how is too busy to come, so we throw it away and buy a new one. Our economy depends on us doing that. The trouble with throwing things away is, there is no “away” left.
3 Sometime around the year 500 B.C., the Greeks in Athens passed a law prohibiting people from throwing their garbage in the street. This Greek law was the first recognition by civilized people that throwing things away was a problem. Now, as the population explodes and people take up more room on Earth, there’s less room for everything else.
4 The more civilized a country is, the worse the trash problem is. Poor countries don’t have the same problem because they don’t have much to discard. Prosperity in the United States is based on using things up as fast as we can, throwing away what’s left, and buying new ones.
ACTIVITY 3.3
My Notes
Essay
Unit 2 • What Influences My Choices? • Part 3: America the Not-So-Beautiful 77
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