Standards-Based Outcomes (MDE):
English Language Arts:
I. Meaning and Communication
Content Standard I, 1: All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.
3. Selectively employ the most effective strategies to construct meaning, such as generating questions, scanning, analyzing, and evaluating for specific information related to a research question, and deciding how to represent content through summarizing, clustering, and mapping.
Content Standard I, 2: All students display the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.
1. Write fluently for multiple purposes to produce compositions, such as stories, poetry, personal narratives, editorials, research reports, persuasive essays, resumes, and memos.
3. Plan, draft, revise, and edit their texts, and analyze and critique the texts of others in such areas as purpose, effectiveness, cohesion, and creativity.
Content Standard I, 3: All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts.
3. Read and write fluently, speak confidently, listen and interact appropriately, view critically, and represent creatively.
Social Studies
V. Inquiry
Content Standard V, 1: All students will acquire information from books, maps, newspapers, data sets, and other sources; organize and present the information in maps, graphs, charts, and timelines; interpret the meaning and significance of information; and use a variety of electronic technologies to assist in accessing and managing information.
2. Use traditional and electronic means to organize and interpret information pertaining to a specific social science topic and prepare it for in-depth presentation.
Prior Knowledge:
- Students should have a basic knowledge of and familiarity with computer word processing programs.
- Students should be able to prepare a product by following a recipe and using basic cooking and/or baking techniques.
- Students should have the teamwork skills to be able to prepare a product while cooking with other students in a kitchen .
- Students should have knowledge of countries other than the U.S.A. They should be able to determine the relationship of food to other aspects of the country such as culture, customs, history, religion, and geography.
Cue Set:
- The teacher asks the class, “What special food dishes are important to your family? What celebrations or activities are associated with these food dishes? Do these reflect your heritage?”
- Each student writes down at least five food dishes that are part of his/her family’s heritage. He/she includes all the associations connected with those particular foods.
- Each student then does research of a country and a recipe from that country (possibly a family recipe). With the help of members of his/her kitchen group, the student prepares the dish.
Best Shot Instruction:
- The teacher first models a country not selected by any students. He/she explains the assignment and then demonstrates how the geography, history, religion, and culture affect the type of dishes that are prepared in the country. He/she also includes the eating habits of the inhabitants of the selected country.
- Students research their chosen countries in the computer lab using the electronic encyclopedia Encarta and Internet when available. They also find recipes typical of their selected countries and prepare shopping and task lists for the recipes. The students explain how these foods are characteristic of the countries from which they originate.
- Using the computer word processing software and Print Shop Ensemble, the students prepare reports of their countries. Their research must include maps and flags. Outline maps of the countries can be downloaded from the encyclopedia. The students construct map keys and then fill in important landmarks and geography with the computer drawing program.
- Each student acts as the group leader when he/she and the kitchenmates prepare the food product. A picture is taken with the digital camera of the student with his/her dish after it is prepared.
Reteaching and Enrichment:
- Students who feel they have no special food dishes or family ties to rely upon when choosing countries will be able to research any country they would like to “adopt”. These students could also choose food traditions they would like to start with their own families.
- The students who do exceptionally well could be in charge of a class cookbook. They could develop a cover and assemble and edit all the recipes. The digital camera photo of each student with his/her dish and a few sentences the student has written about how this dish is characteristic of its country of origin would be included. If it is a family recipe, the student can write about the importance of the dish, personal anecdotes about the recipe, and/or the reasons why they chose this particular one. The cookbooks can be duplicated so that each student has a copy.
Review and Closure:
- Each student serves his/her food dish to the class.
- The student answers questions on an exam:
-What would you do differently if you had to prepare your final project again?
-How could you improve the recipe?
-If you had to select a second recipe, what would it be?
-Why would you select that recipe?
Assessment:
- The report is assessed by the teacher. A rubric which includes format, information, interest, grammar, spelling, content, and cover design is used.
- Students are observed by the teacher in the computer lab while they are researching and producing the report.
- Students are assessed by the teacher as to their teamwork habits and culinary skills while preparing their dishes.
- Students are assessed on the quality and presentation of their dishes.
- Students taste and write evaluations of each other’s dishes.
- The teacher assesses the students’ written evaluations with predetermined criteria.
