Culinary Competition

Hi all, what is it like giving students a task based learning experience, especially for a rural teacher like me? I believe in language acquisition more than language learning. So, I don’t leave an opportunity to offer my learners the experience. Recently I conducted culinary competition for two of my secondary classes. I was spell bound at their commitment.

Before the activity:

·         I allowed forming groups of four to six of their choice.

·         Asked them to prepare a list of food items that they think can prepare without using fire in school. I gave an option of using fire at home and assemble the dish in school. (Couldn’t think of handling fire in school)

·         I wrote a ‘recipe’ of a random dish on the board. (Including ingredient and procedure). Instructed students to write a recipe (in English ONLY) for the dishes they have chosen to cook. Gave them a week’s time. Date set. Offered my help throughout the week.

·         Students were excited throughout the week. Though excited students struggled to find English words for ‘garlic, cardamom, clove, Bengal gram, peanuts, etc. (They knew words in Marathi). I provided language support during the week.

During the activity:

·         The most awaited day arrived. I requested two teachers to be referees for TASTE and two English teachers to be referees for RECIPE.

·         Gave students forty five minutes to prepare or assemble their dish.

·         The groups set up stalls presenting their dish with recipe.

·         Referees, other teachers, headmaster, supervisors enjoyed the tastes of the yummy dishes made by students. All, including me, were amazed at the beauty of their dishes, recipe, team work and their efforts.

·         The presentation went for 45 minutes.

-     The event ended by all students tasting other groups’ dishes too.

By the end of the event all the students had smiles on their faces and referees confused as whom to choose??? I was amazed at their recipe writing as well. Most of them did perfect job in both culinary and recipe writing. With task based learning students were engaged to its fullest and I was in the background.

·