Japanese Culture

Activity 1 (of 3): Comparing and Contrasting Diets

Illinois Learning Standards

5.A.2b: Organize and integrate information from a variety of sources (e.g. books, interviews, library reference materials, web-sites, CD/ROMS).
5.C.2b: Prepare and deliver oral presentations based on inquiry or research.
17.A.2a: Compare the physical characteristics of places including soils, land forms, vegetation, wildlife, climate, and natural hazards.

Items Needed

One copy of How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman, map of Japan, computers, and Venn Diagram for each student

Activity

1) Begin by asking students to name some of their favorite foods. Then show the students a map of Japan and ask what foods kids in Japan might eat.
2) Read How My Parents Learned to Eat. Ask questions along the way that promote higher and lower order thinking skills: What utensil does the American man eat with? What is a kimono? When might a person wear a kimono?
3) Discuss the foods mentioned in the book. Then put students into pairs and give each student a venn diagram. Tell students they will use the internet to research foods eaten in Japan and America. They will compare and contrast these foods. Students will consider the following questions as they conduct their research: Why do Japanese people still eat some of the same foods they ate hundreds of years ago? Why are Japanese people eating some of the same foods as Americans today?
4) Students will present their findings to the class. The teacher and students will discuss the foods mentioned in terms of which are healthy and why as well as which are unhealthy and why.

Activity 2 (of 3): Eating with Chopsticks


Illinois Learning Standards

1.B.2a: Establish purposes for reading; survey materials; ask questions; make predictions; connect, clarify, and extend ideas.
3.A.2: Write paragraphs that include a variety of sentence types; appropriate use of the eight parts of speech; accurate spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Items Needed

Smartboard, computer, chart paper and markers for KWL, Japanese food set (IMC,3D, Soci 375), paper plates, chopsticks, cooked rice, and cooked vegetables

Activity

1)Begin by asking what eating utensil is important to Japan's culture. Then lead the class in filling out the "K" and "W" on the KWL about chopsticks.
2) Put the informational reading Chopsticks History and Legend ( http://www.asianartmall.com/chopstickshistory.htm) on the smartboard and read to the students. After reading to the class fill out the "L" on the chart.
3) Show the class the Japanese food set that contains a traditional Japanese meal. Demonstrate for the class how to eat with chopsticks.
4) Give each student their own set of chopsticks and a plate of rice and vegetables, so they can experience the Japanese culture of eating with chopsticks.
5) Students will summarize what they learned about the history of chopsticks in a well written paragraph.

Activity 3 (of 3): Writing a Haiku

Illinois Learning Standards

2.B.2b: Identify and explain themes that have been explored in literature from different societies and eras.
3.C.2a: Write for a variety of purposes and for specific audiences in a variety of forms.

Items Needed

One copy of Grass Sandals by Dawnine Spivak, overhead projector, examples of Haiku poetry

Activity

1) The teacher will begin by asking students what a haiku is. Then the teacher will explain that a haiku is a form of poetry that has been part of Japan's culture for hundreds of years.
2)Read Grass Sandals to the class. This book is about Matsuo Basho the creator of haiku poetry as we know it today.
3) Show examples of haikus on the overhead emphasizing that haikus are mostly about nature.
4) Take students outside to explore nature. Students will then return to the classroom and write their very own haiku to share with the class.

Food, culture and nutrition around the world

These activities are intended for ELLs in late elementary school. That is the reason why, even though the topics suggested for anaylisis and discussion belong in that level, the reading materials are of a lower level of difficulty. Students will have already been introduced to general ideas on food and nutrition.

Learning Center 1 (of 3): What children eat around the world. Reading

Illinois Learning Standards

1. A. Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend selections.

1. B. Apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency.

13. B. Know and apply concepts that describe the interaction between science, technology and society.

17. A. Locate, describe and explain places, regions and features of the Earth.

17. C. Understand relationships between geographic factors and society.

Items Needed

Copies of Hollyer, B. (2003). Let’s eat. What children eat around the world. New York: Henry Holt in association with Oxfam. (IMC 394.1 H746L).

Paper, pens.

Activity

1. As a whole class, students will make predictions about the content of the book based on their reading of the texts and images in the contents page. The teacher will elicit the students’ predictions with general questions about their previous geographical and social knowledge of the countries and peoples involved.

2. In groups, students will read the book paying attention only to the regular days and not on the special days sections of the book. They will be asked to highlight all the regular activities that they children do during the day and to compare them with their own daily actions. The teacher and the students will make lists of those activities on the blackboard in order to revise the verbs connected with daily routines. A discussion of the ways in which the children’s lives compare and contrast will ensue.

3. Students will concentrate on food, then. With the assistance of the teacher, they will produce reader generated questions (RGQs) on food in the different cultures present in the text. Ideally, for this activity, the teacher will foster the questions he or she will already have in mind, but will not have them printed beforehand so as to give way to the questions students may have. Students will be asked to draw a graphic organizer with their questions and to look for the answers in the text. A final group summary of all the data the students will have gathered from the text would be advisable in order to highlight the differences or commonalities between the cultures under examination.

Learning Center 2 (of 3). The food pyramid.

Reading. Presenting.


Illinois Learning Standards

1. B. Apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency.

4. B. Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.

15. A. Understand how different eco­nomic systems operate in the exchange, production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.

15. B. Understand that scarcity necessitates choices by consumers.

17. C. Understand relationships between geographic factors and society.

Items needed
Access to MyPyramid.gov.

Copies of Hollyer, B. (2003). Let’s eat. What children eat around the world. New York: Henry Holt in association with Oxfam. (IMC 394.1 H746L).
Colored construction paper, colored markers, crayons, pencils.


Activity

1. In groups, students will browse the sites for one of the food groups in the pyramid and make their own notes about them. They will prepare a short group presentation on the food group to be shared with the rest of the class.

2. In groups, students will choose one of the meals described in the the book they will have read (e. g. grilled beef, corn on the cob, puthu, madumbes and amasi) and determine how the food groups are represented in it. They will be able to use the food galleries for each of the groups in MyPyramid.gov for visual help. They will also have group discussions about how healthy the meal is in view of what is recommended by American government. Finally, they will make a poster on the meal they have worked on and present it to the rest of the class.

3. Once all the posters are displayed and presented, they will discuss as a class about the different stuff used to make up for the otherwise similar food groups around the world. They will also make connections about the availability of certain items depening on the geopgraphical region of the world in which the person lives. Comparison and contrast with their own geographical and social situation will be fostered.

Learning Center 3 (of 3). Jalapeno Bagels.
Reading. Presenting. Writing.

Illinois State Standards

1. A. Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend selections.

1. B. Apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency.

1.C. Comprehend a broad range of reading materials.

4. B. Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.

5. A. Locate, organize, and use infor­ma­tion from various sources to answer questions, solve problems and communicate ideas.

5. C. Apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats.

Items needed

Copies of Wing, N. (1996). Jalapeno Bagels. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. (IMC EW769j)
Paper, pens.

Activity

1. As a whole class, students will make predictions on the content of the book based on its title and cover. The teacher will jot down all their suggestions on the blackboard so as to come back to them later, once they book will have been read. Then, the teacher will read the first passage of the book aloud (p. 3) and will ask the students to refine their guesses. Their new ideas will also be written down on the blackboard. Ideally, the teacher will guide them to the idea that the may problem in the book lies in the statement “My teacher told us to bring something from our culture.” On the basis of the material on the blackboard, the students will be asked to produce reader generated questions (RGQs) which, this time, will not be induced by the teacher.

2. Looking for answers to the questions they will have produced, students will read pp. 4 to 16 of the book in pairs. After that, they will be asked to make groups of four and discuss their answers. A class discussion will ensue in which they will retell the events in the story and check out their guesses. The teacher will explain why certain guesses where more appropriate than others and why some might not be plausible at all. Ideas about the structure of the story will be elicited. Based on that structure, the teacher will make a list on the blackboard containing all the bread items mentioned in the text (i. e. pan dulce, empanadas de calabaza, chango bars, bagels, challah, sesame-seed bagels, and jalapeno bagels). Students will be asked to describe each one of these items briefly. They will be advised to refer for help to the glossary on p. 21. Finally, they will be asked to predict the end of the story and their guesses will be jot down on the blackboard.

3. Students will be asked to form pairs different form the ones they have formed at the beginning of the lesson and they will read the end of the story. By the time they have finished, the teacher will have written on the blackboard the final passage of the book “Why Jalapeno bagels? -asked Papa. Because they are a mixture of both of you. Just like me!” He or she will ask the students to explain the meaning and moral of the story tracing back to the content of the story, i. e. the different bread items belonging in the Mexican and Yiddish cultures. As a way of connecting this learning centre to the previous ones, the teacher may ask the students questions about the food groups the items mentioned in the story belonged in and about their nutrition and health facts (Learning Center 2) or to spot the cultures where the parents in the story come from in a world map and make connections with the food produced in those regions (Learning Center 1).

4. Something from your culture. As a final step, the teacher will ask the students to brainstorm ideas to describe food items from which they consider to be “from their culture” and they will produce an outline of a writing/photograph/recipe/story project to be presented on the following class. That class will probably start with a vocabulary activity in which students will have to match the names of the different dishes learnt in this lesson to their corresponding descriptions. Ideas about the cultural globalization of food may be introduced on a subsequent class as well.