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To start the year and the seventh graders’ first unit in the History portion of their Humanities classes, students analyze children’s stories about food. In groups, they answer questions about food, culture, values, and themes seen within the children’s stories and compare them to their own. 

In their groups, the seventh graders selected one book about food that they read to work with more in depth. They then made a mini-lesson about the book for a younger grade level. They worked together to write discussion questions that were appropriate for younger students and surrounded the various themes seen in the children’s book. The agreed-upon roles for each member of the group were practiced.

First grade focuses on various themes surrounding food and our environment all year long, culminating in their first-grade farmers’ market. Therefore, first grade hosted one of the seventh-grade classes to teach their lessons. The other seventh graders had the opportunity to show leadership in their own building and visit the fifth grade.

Seventh graders are now working on writing their own food narratives about a food tradition in their family or a cherished memory they have about food. They will continue their unit, reading other narratives from historical and contemporary figures, including Frederick Douglass, Rachel Carson, Zitkala-Ša, Isaiah Thomas, Teddy Roosevelt, and Michelle Zauner. They will then have the opportunity to edit, polish, and adapt their own narrative writing, eventually writing a personal narrative about their experience on the seventh-grade class Beach Hike Trip in the spring