Making the Most of Reading for Purpose
Providing ideas to encourage students to read widely—beyond the readers and textbooks—is an often mentioned strategy of giving students access to the language and ideas that all students need to be successful in school, life and beyond.
Cooking and kids in the kitchen might sound like a recipe for chaos but if you can turn a blind eye to mess (Teaching them to clean up after their creative juices have been in action is another challenge!) then the advantages gained by building the skill set of a budding sous chef are rewarding for you both. Children relish the independence and satisfaction of creating, mastering and eventually adapting exciting foods.
Setting a purpose for reading helps keep students focused and engaged while reading, and gives them a mission so that comprehension can be reinforced.
The vocabulary found in recipes is something often not encountered in other genres and yet is something that is, in fact, part of everyday life. Shredded, batter, puree, knead, garnish, grate, ingredients, spatula, transfer, season, batch … all add to the reading fun of discovering new words and their meanings while mixing, cooking and baking exciting dishes like:
- Tropical Budda Bowls
- Bingo’s Fairy Bread
- Dragonite Squash Gnocchi
- Hansel and Gretel Spare Ribs
Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him,” said Maya Angelou, an American memoirist, poet and civil rights activist.
There are some wonderful cookbooks which will appeal especially if they are age, interest and skill appropriate.
Some of my favourites are:
Title: Barbie Cooks
Author: Q Weldon Owen Production
Images: Waterbury Publications
Publisher: Roger Shaw
ISBN: 978-1-68188-833-0
Title: Pokemon Cookbook
Author: Victoria Rosenthal
Images: Nintendo Cratures Inc
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 978-0-0085-8712-3
Title: Bluey and Bingo’s Fancy Restaurant Cookbook
Author: BBC Studios
Images: Bluey character @Ludo Studio Pty Ltd
Publisher: Puffin Books and Penguin.com.au
ISBN: 978-1-76104-576-9
And…
Title: Roald Dahl Marvellously Revolting Recipes.
Author: The Roald Dahl story Company Ltd
Food Photography: Jan Bladwin
Illustrations: Quentin Blake and various illustrators
Publisher: Puffin Books /Penguin Random House
ISBN: 978-0-241-61881-3
If your kid is obsessed with the Pokémon universe, this is the cookbook for them. Your Pokémon trainers of any level will be equipped with over forty delicious recipes, including quick snacks and epic meals.
Who could resist Jellied Gnats or Wormy Spaghetti?
Just as food can be based around different characters, books, movies and television shows, it is also a wonderful place to start with appreciation of different cultural backgrounds.
Bethany Edwards, in her blog writes, “One of the first experiments I tried in my class with cooking was to map the ingredients. We read a book called Chicken Sunday, by Patricia Polacco. In this book, the plot shows a beautiful inter-racial friendship between a Russian girl and two African American neighbors who are brothers. The story line also includes racism and stereotyping by a shopkeeper to accuse the African American boys of violence. However, the story ends with both the shop keeper and the children learning something new about each other as well as being able to appreciate the diversity in cultures.”
Sarah Hauser shares her choice of ten books that bring stories of food, family and culture, which will open the readers eyes to a culinary world much bigger than our own kitchen table. These books tell stories from the Phillipines, Native America, Korea, India, Mexico, China and Jamaica.
Indeed, how we cook and eat is one of the most beautiful ways to express ourselves, our family traditions and our cultures. There’s an intimacy that develops when we both cook and eat with others.