Synthesis: Mama Panya's 'Mooncakes'

The theme of the text set is to discover the different types of foods eaten around the world. Students might only be aware of Americanized versions of cuisine, such as Americanized Chinese food or Mexican food, and not be aware of authentic meals eaten by other cultures. Reading about food around the world can also help students learn about different ways people eat, while some students in the classroom eat using forks, other students use chopsticks, or even use their hands to pick up food and do not use utensils.

Books to Be Used ϖ Mooncakes: The book introduces the Chinese Moon Festival, which students might not be familiar with, and how the characters eat mooncakes and drink tea to celebrate.

¬ Loretta, S. (2013). Mooncakes. Custer: Orca

The book also explains that the people of Kenya enjoy wrapping food inside the pancakes, and suggest tying pancakes with tuna salad wrapped inside them. This might be new and some students might find eating pancakes this way to be strange, but the purpose of reading the book is to learn about how other cultures eat food and not to criticize the different ways.

¬ Chamberlin, M. & Chamberlin, R. (2005). Mama panya’s pancakes Cambridge: Barefoot Books ϖ Everybody Serves Soup: This book features multiple recipes for soups found throughout the main character, Carrie’s, neighborhood. She encounters Southern corn chowder, Japanese miro shiru, Puerto Rican chuletón, Greek chicken soup (avgolemono), Italian lentil soup, beet and cabbage soup, and Barbados oxtail soup. This will show students how all these different families all enjoy soup, but incorporate different flavors and ingredients based on their culture. The book can be used to a classroom menu, with each student bringing in a recipe for soups that their families enjoy.

¬ Dooley, N. (2000). Everybody serves soup. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda

I chose the book to teach students to not make fun of other students’ foods, since the book shows the main character, Yoko, getting teased for taking sushi to school. The teasing inspires their teacher to have an International Food Day at school. Yoko’s classmates still avoid her sushi during the day of the event, except for one student who ends up loving the sushi. The book can teach students to not call other people’s gross just because it is different from what they are used to eating.

¬ Wells, R. (1998). Yoko. New York City: Disney-Hyperion Books

Videos

ϖ Recipe Videos

¬ Chinese Wonton Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knu07Rrs_Gw

¬ Jewish Kreplach Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpw2KNldNWE

I would try to integrate recipe videos of meals discussed in certain books. For example: in Chicken Soup, Chicken Soup two different types of chicken soups are discussed, one soup includes Jewish Kreplach and the other soup has Chinese wontons. Recipe videos can help students highlight the similarities and differences between the two. The Chinese wonton recipe video will also show students the students that chopsticks are not only used to eat, but also to cook.

Assessments

ϖ The class will receive a KWL Chart in order to determine what students already know and what they want to learn. Once students finishing read the text, they will fill in the “L” section and explain what they