Student assessment of food advertising and nutrition literacy

Student Unit Assessment: Making Healthy Choices

Pre-assessment design

For a week before the unit, students will keep a 'food diary' of everything they eat, and after composing the diary, they will find out the calorie counts of the food, and basic information on the foods consumed such as vitamin and mineral content, fiber, protein, and sugar values. Students will be asked to select an advertisement from the popular media for a food product that is consumed in their household. They must be able to answer the questions as to 1. How many calories per serving does it contain? 2. What is a standard serving? 3. How is the product healthy (or unhealthy) and 4. How accurate are the claims of the advertisement?

Objectives, results, and learning outcomes to measure that are aligned to content area standards

Students will be able to critically assess advertisements and news article's overt and covert messages regarding their food choices. They will be able to distinguish between real information in the news and information that is biased, such as advertisements. They will improve their language skills, and 'real world' reading and writing skills, as well as learn to make more informed healthy choices in their diet.

Objective test: Traditional assessment formats

Students will be presented with a news article and first be asked objective standards about its content. The article can be found at the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/business/media/20drill.html?scp=7&sq=children%20advertising&st=cse

Q1: In the experiment described in the article, who ate more goldfish crackers, the children who saw the advertisements for the food or the children who saw the advertisements for other things?

Q2: The food industry has said in the past that:

A. It markets food to children in the hopes that children will eat more.

B. Its advertisements don't make a difference in terms of how much children eat, only what brands they eat.

C. Its ads have no effect on children.

Q3: Do the results of the experiment support or not support individuals who wish to limit food advertising directed at children?

An essay with criteria for scoring

Essay topic: Do you think the advertising of unhealthy food to children should be banned? If so, why, and how would you define 'children' and 'unhealthy food?' If not, why?

Students should be able to weigh pros and cons of both positions, and construct a persuasive argument for their point-of-view.

Rubric and analytic scoring matrix

The final presentation will be judged on creativity, quality and depth of the research, and the child's use of figurative and persuasive language. Students will receive two grades, one for the creativity of the assignment design (such as visual cleverness and use of language) and the other for the accuracy of nutritional information and use of logical and ethical ways of persuading the audience to choose the food product.

Information that will be sent to parents about the assessments before and after the unit

Parents will receive a note from the teacher explaining why students need to keep an accurate food log the week before the unit commences. They will be asked to critically discuss various food advertisements with their children over the course of the unit. Parents will be encouraged to take an active part in the learning process, and to discuss family dietary choices with their children. At the end of the unity, they will be sent information about how to use the information the class has accumulated in their everyday lives.