What is it all about?
Use a RAFT activity (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) to help students consolidate their knowledge and understanding of the connections between social issues involving food and the impact these might have on their healthy eating choices. Students share their learning and practice their communication skills through a performance.
Curriculum Connections
Grade 11: C3.1
How is it done?
- Have students individually research the news to create a list of current issues that involve food either directly or indirectly (for example, media influence on food choices; genetically modified crops; food scarcity).
- Have students examine the issue using guiding questions such as “How might these issues be related to food choices?”, “Do people’s choices have an effect on these issues?”, and “How might these issues affect someone’s choices?” (The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 to 12: Health and Physical Education (revised), p.143)
- Create a RAFT activity: the following is a common sample template for this.
Role: Student
Audience: Peers
Format: Tableau
Topic: Student's choice
Role: Journalist
Audience: Grade 8 students
Format: Skit
Topic: Student's choice
Role: Doctor
Audience: Parents/guardians/caregivers
Format: Public Service Announcement
Topic: Student's choice
- Have students select a Role they wish to assume, the Audience they feel they can best relate to, and a Topic that is of interest to them.
- The Format for this performance is an Elevator Pitch. The goal is simply to convey a position on a selected topic in an exciting way. The name Elevator Pitch reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, which is approximately thirty seconds to two minutes. (Note: The following sample template reflects that only a single format is utilized.)
Role: Student
Audience: Peers
Format: Elevator pitch
Topic: Genetic Modification of Crops
Role: Journalist
Audience: Grade 8 students
Format: Elevator pitch
Topic: Packaging and Waste Reduction
Role: Doctor
Audience: Parents/guardians/caregivers
Format: Elevator pitch
Topic: Climate Change and the Impact of Food Production
- Have students individually prepare a one-minute performance in which they share their position on the selected topic in a persuasive manner to their chosen audience.
- Have students share their performance with their peers, either in small groups or to the whole class.
What may be needed?
- Time to research issues related to food
- Time and space for students to create their performance pieces
Opportunities for assessment
- Have students complete a self-assessment of their ability to use their critical thinking skills, such as planning, organizing information, analysing, synthesizing, examining opinions, and making connections for the target audience.
- Use the students’ Elevator Pitches to assess their application of communication skills and to provide feedback for further practice.
Ideas for Extension
- Provide students with the choice of performing their elevator pitch to a partner, a small group, or the whole class while assuming the persona of their selected Role.
- Have students answer questions in their selected Role.
- Facilitate a group debriefing session. Have students reflect on what they learned, their and others’ reaction to the work of their peers and what the group as a whole can take away from the activity to support the well-being of both self and others.
Educator notes
Encourage students to reflect on the experience of “putting themselves in someone else’s shoes” (that is, building empathy) and any effects that may have on their ability to empathize, sympathize, and challenge their own assumptions.
