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LA Taste: Secondary Lesson

Title: The Taste of Latin America

Arizona State Standards:

  • Reading: Strand 2-Concept 1 (apply reading strategies) Strand 3-Concept 1 (analyze non-fiction)
  • Writing: Research Document: Strand 1-Concept 1, Strand 2- Concepts 1,2,6, Strand 3–Concept 6.
  • Listening and Speaking: LS-P1 & P5 (shares, presents, listens & responds) VP-P1-P3 (develop, analyze, evaluate, organize)
  • History: 1SS-P1(chronological & spatial skills) 1SS-P2 (research methods) 1SS-P3 (interpretation) 1SS-D1 (historical sources) 1SS-D2 (historical thinking)
  • Geography: 3SS-P1 (using geographic tools) 3SS-P2 (regions) 3SS-P3 (social interaction, migration) 3SS-P5 (applying skills)
  • Arts: 2AV-E2 (Art Careers), 2AV-P1/P2/3AV-P2(cultural & historical relevance) 2AV-P4(role of art in society), 3AV-E1 (Purpose of Art)

Goals & Objectives:

Students will...

  • Students learn about the Columbian exchange and draw associations between food and culture, geography, politics and economy through time.
  • Students conduct a complete research on a food of their choice.
  • Students analyze the relationship between the history of food and its artistic representations through time and create their own art piece.

Length of lesson: Three one hour periods.

Materials &Preparation:

  • Lesson handouts
  • art materials (students bring their own)

Lesson:

First Period:

  • What is the importance of food besides eating it? Why is food politics? Why is it economy? What does food say about a culture? What is the relationship between food and geography? For example, some South American countries like Ecuador have high mountain ranges and the land allows for very limited cow grazing. Perhaps that explains why one of their national dishes is ‘cui’, guinea pig. What is the relation between food and history? Students work in groups to think through some of these questions and write down some examples to illustrate their answers. Discuss as a class.
  • The biggest example of how food affects politics, history, economy and culture is the so-called ‘Columbian exchange’. Distribute handouts #1 and #2 and have students complete the workshops individually and share their answers as a class or in groups of three.
  • Students pick a staple food and research its history and the relation of that product to politics, economics, geography and culture. Students should write an article on their chosen food and include examples of how artists have depicted this same food in different art forms: sculpture, paintings, poetry, photography, etc.

Second Period:

  • Give students time in class to create their own art piece on their selected food. They should write a one page abstract explaining how their art piece illustrates the significance of this food through time.

Closure:

  • Students present their work.
  • Display artwork and abstracts in a public space or event at the school.

Evaluation:

  1. Assess students individual and group participation;
  2. Give students a grade for the workshops and their written article;
  3. Assess their art pieces based on the research involved in their production, the capacity to communicate the significance of the specific food, creativity, and effort;
  4. Evaluate oral presentations based on clarity, communication and voice projection.

Extensions:

  1. Analyze the geography of a famous recipe. Where does each ingredient originate? Write a fiction piece on the journey of the ingredients until they reached the table.
  2. Research the influence of the United Fruit Company in Central America and the effects of this company on politics, economics and culture.
  3. Research the trajectory of a certain food from a farmland in Latin America to your plate. Why would a worker at a Costa Rican banana plantation say that consumers’ preference for unstained, straight bananas, the more stained and crooked the workers and banana plantations become?