To continue my deep dive into what went well (or not so well) this year in Spanish 2, I want to talk about food days. 

I just started doing these food days for the past few years and I really wonder is it worth it? Having 24 students in a class prepare recipes and bring them in – meaning I have to refrigerate them, heat the food, help cut everything up, serve it, and clean it all up – becomes a ton of work for me as a teacher. So, why do I continue this practice?

Well, I love requiring students to cook and follow a recipe. We, sadly, do not have a cooking or home economics course in our school and I believe there is so much value in lessons like this. Preparing food is not a common practice for all students and they can learn a lot from the process.

This year to help alleviate having 24 dishes on the same day in each of my four classes, I provided two days to prepare food  (but I will say that almost all students chose the second day so that didn’t work very well). But I do feel that a few other changes really helped make this year more  meaningful and manageable.  Students were able to pair up, which did help have fewer food options and the preparation of the food was part of a bigger project. Plus I have measures in place to help ensure that students were a part of the cooking process and not just serving food that they purchased or that their parents made. To do this, I require them to take pictures while they are preparing their food with them in the pictures. I am happy if their parents or family members are helping them with the process (especially if they have never prepared food before), but I certainly do not want their parents to just be doing it. As mentioned, I also made this one of the assignments of a larger project where they designed a food truck’s menu and vibe based on a famous landmark from their assigned Spanish-speaking country. On their menus, they even had to think outside of the box and create some dishes that were cultural fusions of foods that they and their families typically make at home and foods from the target culture/country (I know my projects are always very multilayered, which is just the extra part of how I am). Overall, I was very pleased with the project because it did incorporate all of the Standards, including culture and making comparisons to their own lives (I mean so many of my students have never thought about the concept of cultural fusion foods that have earned so many people Michelin stars, so again I feel I am doing my job to expose students to something new!

Once students created their food truck menu assignment, we then followed it up with a food truck simulation activity. I used Gemini to help me craft the perfect simulation with half the class being the Food Truck Vendors and the other half were required to go to the food trucks and spontaneously communicate in order to purchase foods from the other student’s menus all while staying within their allotted budgets. Students did not prepare for this simulation, besides having their completed menus (if students were not ready with their own menus, I provided them menus from various restaurants), and their interactions for the 2 rounds, which all together took about 30 minutes, were all in Spanish. 

Both the Food Truck Project and preparing the food (which did NOT happen on the same day), also provided time to talk about understanding the needs of people with food allergies and dietary restrictions. In the Food Truck Simulation, students were also required to “purchase” foods for a friend who had a dietary restriction that was assigned like they are gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, or dairy-free. In terms of food preparation, before and after preparing their foods, I require them to show me the recipe, write down on their food description card all of the allergens being used in their recipes from a list of the 16 most common food allergens, and then we discuss what is cross-contact and cross-contamination and how to best prepare foods with that in mind. Even though we discuss cross-contact with students, students with allergies or dietary autoimmune issues should always proceed with caution when eating in potluck situations. By high school, most students already know this and they proceed with caution based on their awareness of their restrictions. This being said, I still think that having these kinds of discussions in class is teaching and imparting more knowledge about dietary restrictions and needs is another set of life- skills students are learning for their futures. Find out more about cross-contact while cooking here.

Overall, the class Food Truck simulation was a hit and everyone enjoyed the experience of Spanish only in the class for those 50 minutes. Frankly it was a win-win on so many accounts. Back to the Food Days, it is a lot of work, but I do think it is a good experience. I would like to figure out how to possibly spread it out more as to possibly having various food days throughout the year instead of just one or two. Because of high school scheduling and the sheer volume of student extracurriculars, there will always be conflicts that lead to “extra” dishes coming in later in the week that I have to reheat and serve. This year, I ran the unit in May and it was a fantastic end-of-the-year activity. 

After writing this, I go back to the title “Food, Glorious Food” because ending our Spanish 2 class with the new Food Truck Project and Food Sharing Days was glorious on so many accounts. In fact, we know that sharing food, practices around food, and food in general are such big parts of culture, human connection, and something that actually satisfies most of my growing students that I think the trouble and my complaints and stress as the teacher on the food days are quite worth it.  

I certainly did not prepare the Food Truck Project and Simulation with the intent to publish (meaning there will be mistakes and it is just good enough for me to teach with 🙂 but since I have taken this much time to discuss it, here is the version that I used with students this year. 

Of course, I’d love to discuss anything from any post, so comment here or send me an email. All the Best, Gary 

Musical Theatre Note: Did you get the last post’s musical reference? Good-bye Until Tomorrow is a song from Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. Did you get this post’s musical reference? 

Consider following the blog so you get a copy of the resources I share or my reflections I throughout the year (I promise there are not many – except each August when I post 3 to 6).