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Oreos in China and Read 180

A few years ago I read an article about what happened when Kraft introduced the Oreo to the Chinese in 1996.  It was not a success.  The Chinese thought the filling was too sweet-the cookie too bitter.  Kraft almost pulled the beloved cookie off the shelves. Instead, they began a quest to find out how to make the Oreo appeal to the Chinese. Enter the green tea Oreo, the mango Oreo, and an Oreo in the shape of a straw (not sure that still qualifies as an Oreo).  The revamped Oreos were a huge success! I found the article fascinating and decided to design a lesson around  it to share with my students.

First I showed them a news clip from CNN about the topic. Then, I taught them a few vocabulary words that appear in the article using Kate Kinsella's method.  Next, we read the article together and marked the text. I did a think aloud as I read aloud to them.  After that, students created a T-Chart listing the ten most important words in the text, as well as five main ideas from the text.  After that, we began our Read 180 rotations. However, instead of working in our R books during small group, I helped them complete a template I created to help them write a summary of the article.  It was interesting to see how each group came up with excellent, yet unique summaries!  

Finally, students wrote final drafts of their summaries.  Because I have a small class, I was able to circulate and assist students with editing.

Oh!  OF COURSE WE HAD OREOS AND MILK!

My students loved this lesson but not just because I gave them cookies.  It was a high interest topic and allowed for a great discussion about marketing products in different countries.

By the way, if you would like to try this with your students, I am attaching a link with everything I did! 

Oreo Lesson

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