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Pizza Analysis Activity

(Developed for English 99 Basic Writing / English 101 Academic Writing)

Objectives
Materials
Process
Reflection

Objectives

-- to help students understand that analysis means “breaking something apart” in order to understand the whole

-- to help students construct a paragraph using analysis as the rhetorical mode · to help students understand the importance of purpose and audience when writing

-- to help students understand writing as a discovery process
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Materials

Pizza
(The local pizza parlor might agree to provide pizza in exchange for reading the students’ analysis paragraphs)

Toolbox supplies
(paper, pens, pencils, markers, Post-its)

Music
(resource: Learn with the Classics, by Ole Andersen, Marcy Marsh & Arthur Harvey)

Pizza rating scale
(range = worst pizza I’ve ever tasted to the best pizza I’ve ever tasted!)

Graphical organizer for analysis paragraph
(resource: Infusing the Teaching of Critical and Creative Thinking into Content Instruction, by Robert J. Wartz & Sandra Parks)

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Process

1. Students will judge the quality of a pizza and write analysis paragraphs. Their work will be given to the management of the pizza parlor. Students may work individually or in small groups.

Discussion:
Audience = pizza parlor management
Purpose = to analyze the quality of the pizza
Analysis = breaking something apart in order to understand the whole

2. As students taste the pizza, they use the scale the instructor has provided to record their gut reaction to the pizza’s quality.

Discussion: It’s not much help to know that people “like” or “don’t” like the pizza. In order to understand their own reaction to the quality of the pizza, the students must break the pizza apart and study the parts. They must do a pizza analysis.

3. The instructor gives students a graphical organizer for an analysis paragraph.

Discussion: Students now have the topic and angle for the topic sentence topic=pizza
angle = tastes good or does not taste good
The instructor suggests that students keep the graphical organizer in mind as they work on the next step of the project.

4. Students break pizza apart on their plates: topics, cheese, sauce, and crust. Students take notes or create maps/flowcharts to record information they will use to develop general and specific support for their analysis paragraphs.

Discussion: A general comment about the toppings will be supported with details such as how fresh the toppings are, if the toppings are visually appealing, if toppings are chopped up small enough, and so on. Is the sauce too bitter or two sweet? Is the crust tough or tender? What about the flavor of the crust?

5. Students develop a conclusion that is informed by their analysis.

Discussion: The conclusion might be that a lack of fresh ingredients for toppings and a tough crust are the characteristics that contribute most to the overall poor quality of the pizza. The instructor emphasizes that in order to understand and explain their original reaction to the pizza, students had to BREAK APART the pizza, or ANALYZE the pizza.

6. Group discussion

Can students think of other occasions when using analysis might be useful?
How could students use analysis as a tool in their other courses?
In the workplace?
How will the pizza parlor management use the analysis paragraphs?

7. Students write a draft of the pizza analysis paragraph, using the graphical organizers and their notes.

8. The instructor shares feedback from the pizza parlor management.
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Reflection

Suggested reflection activity
(adapted from Stephen Brookfield’s “Classroom Critical Incident Questionnaire” – Adult Learning: An Overview, by Stephen Brookfield)

1. At what moment during this project did you feel most engaged with what was happening?
2. At what moment did you feel most distanced?
3. What about this project surprised you the most?
4. How could you use analysis as a tool in a setting other than your English classroom?

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Dialogue!

Lisa designed the Pizza Analysis Activity guided by the three components of our theoretical model:

• the unique learner
• the learning-centered environment
• the construction of meaning.

Lisa's comments:

I wanted to design an analysis activity rich in MI opportunities, sensory stimulation, and meaning. The physical acts of taking the pizza apart and tasting the pizza help the students understand (and remember) the concept of analysis. In addition, students make connections to prior learning (i.e. they are judging the pizza against their previous pizza-eating experiences). Using something students know (pizza) to teach a new concept (analysis) makes sense. Students also make connections to future learning/application. Sharing the analysis paragraphs with the pizza parlor manager helps tie the abstract, "classroom learning" to the "work world" use of analysis as a tool.

Click here to email Lisa questions, comments, and suggestions.

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Click here to read more about our model.