Running head: CHOOSE MY PLATE ASSIGNMENT

Krysta Jenkins
PPE 310 # 26309
Dr. Miller
March 12, 2016

CHOOSE MY PLATE ASSIGNMENT

MODIFIED MINI-LESSON
3
Introduction
Students spend eight hours a day, five days a week at school consuming two out of three
meals. It is vital that schools provide and model healthy eating habits and meals. School aged
students are at an age where they are growing and developing and a healthy diet will provide the
nutrients necessary to stay strong. School is where students learn, and how to keep your mind
and body healthy to learn needs to be part of that learning. The United States Department of
Agriculture created a Food Tracker tool to use in order to get a better understanding of how
your diet fits into healthy, balanced diet that fits your own personal profile. The tool is an easy
way to get an outline and visual of how your diet compares to the recommended dietary limits.
Parents, teachers, and students can log their meals and snacks and get immediate results on how
to improve their diets.
Summary
The United States Department of Agriculture Food Tracker was used to measure the diet
of a made-up student at Robson Elementary. Food from one day of breakfast and lunch was
taken from the lunch menu at the school and plugged into the Food Tracker. The tracker graphed
how the two meals measured up to the daily needs of a balanced diet. Overall, grains, proteins,
and vegetables were the areas that fell below 75% of the daily need. This leaves a major gap for
what the students to fill in when they get home. The National Standards for school Meals and
Dietary Guidelines for Americans share ideas for schools to improve nutrient that teachers can
implement in the classroom.
National Standards for School Meals

MODIFIED MINI-LESSON
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The National Standards for School Meals is a guide for administrators to develop a wellrounded, healthy lunch and breakfast menu for students. The guidelines follow current dietary
information, and the Department of Agriculture provides many tools for administrators to utilize
in order to collaborate with the schools community to produce menus that most benefit students
health. Overall, Robson has begun to take right steps towards menus that follow national
standards for school meals. As outlined by the USDA, Robson has taken the final rule into
account when planning their lunch and breakfast meals: providing more fruits, vegetables, whole
grains, and low-fat milks (USDA, 2015). Also, the school provides breakfast and lunch menus
for the month that are sent home with students, and the bottom provides some health information
about the food. The USDA states that communication and participation from the community is
important, and the menus going home creates a great line of communication between the school
and home. Two areas I saw that Robson falls short based on the National Standards Policies, was
promoting and informing healthy habits and goals (USDA, 2015). The school does not have
many posters or activities that promote a healthy and active life style. The cafeteria has some
posters, and the students have physical education class twice a week for thirty minutes each. As a
whole, the school does not have states health and physical activity goals. Robson has followed
USDA menu chooses, but still needs to work to inform and stress the importance of healthy lives
in its students.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans aims to produce diets that create a balance
between energy and weight and to take in high nutrient food and drink (Dietary Guidelines,

MODIFIED MINI-LESSON
5
2010). With these two focus points, the Dietary Guidelines set up a path admin and the rest of the
school staff can follow to provide the best health education and meals for the students. The food
and drinks students consume at school will affect the daily nutrition of each student.
Based on the Food Tracker, students at Robson are getting too sodium, not enough
protein, but a good source of fruits, dairy, grains, and vegetables (SuperTracker). Compared to
the Dietary Guidelines, the types of things measured are similar and the importance of these
categories are similar. The grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and proteins are laid out by the
Dietary Guidelines as strong foods that people need to be conscious of making the choice for
more of these foods (Dietary Guidelines, 2010). Robson provides over 50% of the necessary
grains, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products for its students (SuperTracker). As administrators at
Title I schools, Robson has to decide if over 50% is enough to sustain a healthy diet for these
students, because some may not be going home to a well-balanced meal or even a meal at all.
The Dietary Guidelines states that sodium, saturated fats, and added sugars are other dietary
factors that need to be accounted for. The Robson Food Tracker shows that students get too much
sodium intake, but have okay levels of saturated fats and added sugars.
Nutritional Improvements
After comparing Robsons Food Tracker to the National Standards and Dietary
Guidelines, Robson needs some improvements in protein and whole grain intake.
Communication and a school wide nutrition goal would be great ways to help improve the
protein and whole grain intake.
A line of communication from students to parents to teachers to administrators would
help. The school needs an idea of what students are getting at home, and some collaboration

MODIFIED MINI-LESSON
6
from parents and teachers could help administrators make informed menu decisions. Teachers
could send surveys home to parents in order to get ideas about what students eat at home and
what dietary elements students are missing. Based on Food Tracker, Robson already needs for
protein and whole grain on the menu, and now with ideas from parents and teachers
administrators can work with the cafeteria to get more of what students need in their diets.
Also, the communication and need for more protein and whole grain can be used to
devise a school wide nutrition goal. The goal can be geared towards helping students make better
decisions about proteins and whole grains. With the new goal, the cafeteria and the principal
need to work out how to make more proteins and whole grains possible. Breakfasts seem to be
where the most help is needs. Whole grains and a small protein should be added to the
breakfasts.
Students should be aware of the importance and benefits of making healthy food choices.
Posters and small health lessons will help students make better food choices and fight for future
healthier food. Robson does not have much time allotted to educating its student about healthy
life chooses, and posters and small lessons build into the day will help foster that learning.

Reflection
As a teacher, I would use the Food Tracker as a class wide, yearlong bell work lesson.
Students would track their own diets to make informed decisions on how to improve their diets.
Students would use the Food Tracker to graph the dietary benefits of their day and then use the
week to prepare a goal and ways to obtain that goal.

MODIFIED MINI-LESSON
7
The first week, students would learn about the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and
National Food Standards. Once students have an understanding about the importance of a
balanced diet, then the Food Tracker would be introduced. Students would fill out the food
tracker and record the information every day for a week. The graphs that the Food tracker would
make great discussion for the class to hold about how each student is doing and for each student
to get a visual for what they are eating. Plus, students can relate what they learned from the
guidelines and standards to see how this food effects their diets.
After the first week, students would only chart and record what they ate on Mondays and
use the rest of the week to plan a goal based on a part of the Food Tracker that was not as healthy
as it could be. Students would analyze their progress on their goal the next Monday when they
plug their information into the Food Tracker.
The activity would be a great benefit to students and their health. Students would be able
to use real life situations to make changed in their diet. Each activity would be individualized to
each student, but the students could still work together to come up with ideas to help each other
because they learned about the same guidelines and standards.
References
Dietary Guidelines for Americans. (2010, January). Retrieved February 28,2016, from
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2010.asp#overview
February 2016 Robson Elementary School Breakfast and Lunch Menu. (2016, February).
Retrieved February 28, 2016

MODIFIED MINI-LESSON
8
SuperTracker: My Foods. My Fitness. My Health. (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2016, from
https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/foodtracker.aspx
United States Department of Agriculture. (2015). Food and Nutrition Service. Retrieved Febrary
28, 2016, from http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/local-school-wellness-policy

Criteria

Points (5) Exemplary

Introduction
SCORE:x1

ChooseMyPlate
Analysis

SCORE:
x1

Application of

results and
proposed changes

SCORE:x1

Summary/Reflect
ion SCORE:
x1

Points (3) Proficient

Introduction was well

organized and created a plan
for the paper
One breakfast and one lunch
(or 2 restaurant options)
were evaluated
Results reflect a hypothetical
student
Screen shot was included

Contained a very detailed

application of National
Standards for School Meals
Contains very detailed
applications of Dietary
Guidelines for Americans
Contains very detailed
discussions for 3 changes to
improve nutrition
A summary of the current
state of the schools nutrition
was included
Summary of changes were
included
A detailed reflection
regarding how this teacher
knowledge of students
impacts your students inside
and outside your classroom

Introduction was somewhat

organized and created a plan for
the paper
Only one breakfast or lunch (or 1
restaurant option) was evaluated
Results reflected a hypothetical
student, but not enough
information was provided
Screen shot was included, but
incomplete
Contained a somewhat detailed
application of National Standards
for School Meals
Contained somewhat detailed
applications of Dietary
Guidelines for Americans
Contains somewhat detailed
discussions only 2 changes to
improve nutrition
A summary of the current state of
the school in terms of nutrition
was included
but did not align with paper
A summary of the proposed
changes was included but did not
align with paper
A general reflection of how this
data impacts your students

Points (1) Ne

Introduction
and did not
paper
Only one br
1 restaurant
evaluated bu
Results did
hypothetical
Screen shot

Contained li
application o
Standards fo
Contained li
application o
Guidelines f
Contained li
included 1 c
nutrition
A summary
of the schoo
nutrition wa
A summary
changes was
A reflection
as it relates
was missing

MODIFIED MINI-LESSON
9
Writing
SCORE:
x1

Referencing
Style

SCORE:

x1

Proper grammar and

punctuation is used
throughout the proposal
All sentences are clear &
developed
Paper was at least 3 pages
with standard margins, font,
& text size
APA style referencing used
throughout paper and on the
reference sheet
The file document name
contains
Lastname.firstname.assign#.
course#
This rubric was attached

Most grammar and correct

punctuation is used throughout
the proposal
Most sentences are clear &
developed
Paper was 1-3 pages with
standard margins, font, and size
of text
APA style referencing mostly
used throughout the paper and on
the reference sheet with some
errors
The file name somewhat contains
the
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.
course#
This rubric was added but not at
the end

Many gramm
punctuation
throughout t
Many senten
and underde
Paper was le
length with
margins, fon
Many errors
referencing
and on the r
The file doc
not contain
Lastname.fi
.course#
This rubric w
document su