Lesson Plan: Nugget Nation/Mac and Cheese Mania

Essential Questions

• How did we come to eat the things we eat today?
• What role does money play in shaping a culture’s food? 

Literature Connection

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Young Readers Edition by Michael Pollan

Activate Prior Knowledge (5 minutes)

Ask students what their favorite food is and why they love it. Is it the taste? The texture? The memories it brings back? Have students talk in pairs about their favorite foods.

Preview Text Features (15 minutes)

Guide students to locate the articles. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the headline and subhead of the first article. Look at the photo of the man in the article. What do you think this man has to do with the history of chicken nuggets in America? Students may guess that he helped make chicken nuggets popular in America. They might guess (correctly) that he invented chicken nuggets.
• Look at the second article. Why do you think the title uses the term mania? What does this term suggest about the popularity of mac and cheese in the U.S.? The term mania suggests an obsession or a craze. It suggests that people became crazy about mac and cheese. 

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (panicked, crisis, exotic, enslaved, Great Depression) aloud and discuss their definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan: 

• Set a purpose for reading by telling students they will explore similarities and differences between the histories of chicken nuggets and mac and cheese.
• Point out the “Compare and Contrast” questions at the end of the second article. Remind students that after reading, they will be able to answer the questions.

Guide students to read the articles. Once they understand them well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (20 minutes)

• Why did Robert Baker want to create a new food item made from chicken? (problem and solution) Baker worked with farmers and chicken companies. He wanted to help them sell their products. But chickens were hard to prepare for cooking. He came up with the idea of bite-sized chunks of chicken so that chicken would be easier to cook and eat.
• How did Thomas Jefferson help make mac and cheese popular in the U.S.? (sequence of events) Thomas Jefferson discovered mac and cheese in France. It was a fancy dish, made for kings and queens. His chef learned to cook the dish and brought it back to the U.S. Though the dish didn’t become popular with American people until later, Jefferson and his cooks were the first ones to bring it to the U.S. 
• Why does the author describe mac and cheese as “the perfect food for hard times”? (interpreting text) In the 1930s, Americans were living through the Great Depression, a period of economic hardship that left many people struggling to put food on the table. Mac and cheese was a filling and cheap option. It was also easy to cook. It came in a box that cost only 19 cents.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• The first article says that chicken nuggets are no healthier than burgers, but it also says that Americans eat more than 2 billion orders of them a year. Why might this be?  (critical thinking) Answers may vary. Students might say that Americans are more interested in convenience than in health, or that chicken nuggets are delicious, or that people mistakenly think chicken nuggets are a very healthy food. Students might also point out that, in moderation, both burgers and nuggets are OK to eat. 
• The second article notes that you can buy mac and cheese for $1, and you can also order it in a fancy restaurant. What can you infer about the people who like mac and cheese? (inference) You can infer that people who like mac and cheese can be rich or poor; they both like the taste.

• Have students work in pairs or small groups to complete the Compare and Contrast Skill Builder. (Click here to view all of your Skill Builders.)
• Writing prompt: Imagine that it’s 1983, and you write advertisements for a living. You’re hired by McDonald’s to promote their new food item: the chicken nugget. Using information you learned in the article, write (and design) a magazine ad for the new food. Alternatively, you can imagine that you’re hired by Kraft to write an ad for mac and cheese in the 1930s.