Food Lit Mini Unit Overview
Good Food:
A Food Lit Mini-Unit
Your task: Decide what “good food” is and defend your reasoning in an informed, thought-out, and well-reasoned “narrative of understanding” synthesis essay.
Goals:
Overview:
Families will gather, and they will feast. Grandmas and grandpas will snooze on the sofa, brothers and sisters will fight over the last piece of pie, moms and dads will hide out in the kitchen to steal a kiss or sneak a drink. Or, if you’re like me, you will wait patiently for everyone to go home while you guard the fridge and plan your mega-mode leftovers sandwich. Whatever your style, there’s plenty to go around.
It is the time of year in which we indulge in all things sweet, savory, and carb-laden. And during the holiday season especially, our food is very, very important to us.
But isn’t there something kind of interesting to unearth here? Where does food fit in to our lives? What do we consider “good” food? Why is food so important? Why do we obsess over it at the holidays? How and why are food and memories often intertwined? How is food tied to our roots and our identities? How is food culturally and socially significant?
That’s going to be our job for the next three weeks. We’ll read, write, watch, analyze, and discuss “good food.” And what Food Lit unit would be complete without a feast? Well none to my reckoning. So we’ll do that, too –on Thursday, December 15– the third annual “Family Dinner.”
So be prepared. Talk to your folks, your family, your friends, and your teachers, and determine that one special recipe you’d like to share with our class. Break out the elastic waistbands, it’s going to a delectable time!
A Food Lit Mini-Unit
Your task: Decide what “good food” is and defend your reasoning in an informed, thought-out, and well-reasoned “narrative of understanding” synthesis essay.
Goals:
- To examine the culture of food and the role of “good food” in our lives
- To compare and contrast our ideas of “good food” and that of nutrition
- To identify claims in argument
- To identify support and evidence that back a claim
- To identify claims in narrative writing
- To use mentor texts to shape our own writing
- To draw upon and reflect on family recipes that inform our ways of thinking about food
- To determine what a family meal is good for
- To create a dish that is rooted in family tradition or memory
- To write a deeply reflective essay that uncovers your understanding of “good food”
Overview:
Families will gather, and they will feast. Grandmas and grandpas will snooze on the sofa, brothers and sisters will fight over the last piece of pie, moms and dads will hide out in the kitchen to steal a kiss or sneak a drink. Or, if you’re like me, you will wait patiently for everyone to go home while you guard the fridge and plan your mega-mode leftovers sandwich. Whatever your style, there’s plenty to go around.
It is the time of year in which we indulge in all things sweet, savory, and carb-laden. And during the holiday season especially, our food is very, very important to us.
But isn’t there something kind of interesting to unearth here? Where does food fit in to our lives? What do we consider “good” food? Why is food so important? Why do we obsess over it at the holidays? How and why are food and memories often intertwined? How is food tied to our roots and our identities? How is food culturally and socially significant?
That’s going to be our job for the next three weeks. We’ll read, write, watch, analyze, and discuss “good food.” And what Food Lit unit would be complete without a feast? Well none to my reckoning. So we’ll do that, too –on Thursday, December 15– the third annual “Family Dinner.”
So be prepared. Talk to your folks, your family, your friends, and your teachers, and determine that one special recipe you’d like to share with our class. Break out the elastic waistbands, it’s going to a delectable time!