At the edge of the horizon

At the edge of the horizon
At the edge of Japan

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Welcome to the Eigo Cafe! Lessons in Cooking with English

Let's make pancake!

I just want to say that cooking and teaching ESL almost always perfectly accompany each other.  It's one of the easiest ways to utilize all learning styles (Speaking, Listening, Reading, Kinesthetic and Tactile).  I suppose writing isn't in there, but it could be if you had the students write out the ingredients in English, which is what I do.


Breaking the eggs, breaking the eggs...



I have scheduled two different cooking lessons for two of my smaller schools.  The idea came from a hotcake/pancake making lesson another teacher organized and invited me to join as the ALT.  The entire lesson was done in English (with some explanations in Japanese for the JHS students).


I put Martha Stewart to shame

If you're teaching ESL (in Japan, or anywhere) and you have access to the Home Economics/Home Studies lab, you should try to do a cooking lesson (preferably baking or cooking something that's simple to do, like say...pancakes or brownies).  This is a real-world application lesson that your students will enjoy and will be able to use outside of the classroom, especially if they want to go into the culinary arts or in the tourism industry.

So, here's my lesson plan for tomorrow.  I'll be heading for my last lesson at Tomino sho-chu gakko and I'm excited to say that I have two different types of baked goods that I'm going to let my wonderful students make together.  Both come from pre-prepared mixes as it's easier to do so this way.  I ordered a box of gluten free brownie mix (if you don't know, I'm one of the lucky people with gluten intolerance on this planet*) off the internet and bought an American brand chocolate cake mix in Naha that has directions in English on it.  The only thing I need to make certain about is that the measurements have been converted to metric, so we don't overdo or underdo our ingredients.  Yay!

Each one of my classes will  participate in a part of the cooking process and by the end of 4th period, if all goes as planned, the entire school will have chocolate cake and gluten free brownies for dessert at lunch!  Now if that isn't a way to say goodbye to one of my schools with love and devotion...

Yummy Yummy in my Tummy


In a few weeks, I'll do a more intense cooking class at one of my other island schools.  We are planning to actually cook hotcakes/pancakes for everyone and then serve it up as a role playing activity for the teachers.  "Welcome to the Eigo Cafe!  May I take your order, please?" 


Served up with a side of butter, an English lesson and a smile!

*Speaking of being Gluten Free in Japan, I think I'm going to write an article on here about the trials and tribulations of maintaining a GF diet in Japan.  It's been very difficult.  So, get ready for a b_fest (and I don't mean breakfast either).

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