5 Countries- 5 Cuisines

Teacher Lesson Plan

Grade Level: 12+    Subject: Culture and Communities/East Asia

Lesson Aim/Objective: The objective of this lesson is to expose students to the cultural side of East Asian culture and food by engaging in a research and role playing activity.

Materials: Ipads, Projector, poster board, markers, ingredients to make different types of food

Common Core Standards:  Reading Standards for Literature K–5

• Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers
• Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.
• Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.
• Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

Speaking and Listening Standards K-5

• Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
• With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings. a. Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.

Motivation: The motivation is that the students will engage and participate in a fun activity and end the lesson with a feast of delicious and yummy food from all over East Asia.  We will video tape their performances and the students can enjoy watching their performances and learn from each other about the different cultures they learned about.

Instruction/Procedure:

1. Give students a walk through of East Asia using multi media internet access.  Talk about the purpose of the lesson- learn about the foods from the different countries in East Asia.
2. Assign groups- 4 to 5 people in each group
3. Front load the students with key vocabulary they will be using (example:  Asia. East Asia, Cuisine, Japan, China, South Korea, Tawian, North Korea, entrée, side dishes, regional dishes, soups, appetizers)
4. Have students write out the words into sentences or say the sentence out loud.
5. Assign a country to each group to research
6. Break out into groups and begin to research images and recipes.  Instruct the students to compile 4-5 typical recipes for the country that have 5 or less ingredients (to make life easier in the classroom)
7. Have students work in groups and come up with one recipe they will eventually make.  Have the students work on an explanation as to why they selected that recipe.
8. Instruct students to make a poster with the country name and 5 interesting facts about it- for presentation. 
9. Regroup the whole class and discuss some of the findings in food.
10. Set a date to go shopping for the ingredients and another date to make the food here in class.
11. Have students share out what they have learned about their respective counties.

Assessment Activity:

1. Work samples
2. Responses to discussion question /informal observations
3. Quiz
4. Final presentations

Follow Up:

We will be taping the presentations and as a follow up activity we can watch the presentations again and having the students assess each other using a teacher made rubric to score each other.    

Notes/Reflections/Reminders

• Need to ask parent to bring in $5.00 to help fund the meal
• Schedule a community based learning experience to china town or little Tokyo here in Los Angeles  for the students to buy the ingredients needed to make the different meals.
•  Watch youtube videos about the different recipes so the students are more familiar with the steps needed to make the recipes.