Food and religion (3)

Title	La comida y la religión (3)
Unit/Activity No.	Food History/Activity 8
Geographic Topic	cultural significance of foods in religion
Language Topic	food
Language Function	describe, ask information questions
Language Standard	1.1, 1.3, 3.1
Geography Standard	10

I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS

Teacher Instructions

Step 1.	Cut out the six religion strips located in the materials section (católico, hindú, adventista de siete días, mormón, budista and ortodoxo oriental) and place them into a container.
Step 2.	Place students into six different groups. Number the groups from 1 to 6. Have one member of each group pick one of the strips.
Step 3.	Using the internet or library resources, each group will investigate the dietary laws and taboos of the selected religious group and write the information in paragraph form. Each member of the group should have a copy of the paragraph and will be prepared to teach the information to others.
Step 4.	Form students into new groups that include a member from groups 1 through 6 and give each student a copy of Handout 1. In turn, each student will teach their new group the information they have found, while the new group members fill out Handout 1. Group members are to ask the presenter for clarification and more information.
Step 5.	Using Transparency 1, debrief by having students volunteer information to fill in the chart. Invite students who have personal knowledge or additional information to add to the lists.

Materials

Six Religion Strips

II. STUDENTS ACTIVITY HANDOUTS

III. VISUAL AIDS FOR TEACHERS

IV. FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY

For homework, assign a writing activity based on the information students researched and incorporate a past-time frame perspective. One possibility could be to ask students to write a page from a food journal kept by a member of one of the religions they have been studying. For example, “Today is the feast of ____, so yesteday I helped my parents prepare the typical foods according to our traditions.”

You can use the generic MOSAIC rubrics below or invent a task-specific rubric for this activity. The target level of performance for MOSAIC units (“meets standard”) corresponds to Benchmark 5, or ACTFL Intermediate Mid.

	in progress	meets standard	exceeds standard
task completion basic requirements of task are...
	not complete; inappropriate rhetorical strategies used; incomplete information	complete; appropriate rhetorical strategies used; sufficient information	complete; additional details are included; sophistication in rhetorical strategies, presentation of information

	in progress	meets standard	exceeds standard
use of language functions in task completion
describing	simple descriptions predominate in the sample	combination of simple and more detailed descriptions	extensive use of detailed descriptions
narrating in present/past time frames	present tense predominates; inconsistent use of two past tenses (pret./imp.); lack of appropriate connectors /coherence	inconsistent use or distinction of preterit/imperfect; connectors are present but used inconsistently	present and past time frames distinguished appropriately; past tenses distinguished consistently (with some patterned errors); consistent use of connectors

	in progress	meets standard	exceeds standard
content standards As outlined in the National Geography Standards, students demonstrate understanding of...
places and regions	basic descriptions of physical and human characteristics of places	basic descriptions of the physical, human, and cultural characteristics of places; emerging comparison of regions/cultural groups	accurate and detailed descriptions and comparisons of physical, human, and cultural characteristics of regions/cultural groups
environment and society	descriptions of the effects of physical world on human populations (and vice versa) include inaccuracies or are missing crucial information	basic descriptions of the effects of physical world on human populations (weather, economic activity, etc.) and vice versa	accurate and detailed descriptions of effects of physical world on human populations (weather, economic activity, etc.) and vice versa