A banana peel and a plastic bag are both trash, and only one of them is going anywhere. What happens to the other one is a question with no answer key.
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Students will learn the difference between biodegradable and nonbiodegradable materials, understand why the difference matters, and then write and defend a position on what should be done about it.
Biodegradable substances break down in the environment. Sunlight, weathering, oxygen, moisture, bacteria and fungi decompose them back into the elements they are made of, and those elements return to the soil. Fruit and leaves are biodegradable.
Nonbiodegradable materials - aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic bags - do not do this, or take so long that it makes no practical difference. They accumulate. Recycling is the main way of keeping them out of the environment.
🚨 This section is an ARGUMENT, not a drill, and it should be taught that way. The book ends it with “You Decide!” and no answer key. Let the student reach a conclusion you disagree with, and then ask for the reason rather than correcting the conclusion.
The written task at the end is the point of the lesson. A paragraph with a clear position and two reasons is a better outcome here than a perfect vocabulary score. This is the reading-and-writing pairing the whole course is aimed at.
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Before You Start
The words this lesson uses. Tap a card to see what it means, then come back to them whenever a question uses one.
Part One
Questions about the story you just read. Pick your answer straight off, or press Find it in the story if you would rather hunt for the sentence first.
Part Two
The word cards are at the top of this page. Look back at them as often as you need, then answer.