Eating does more than just sustain and nourish. It introduces us to a whole new world of learning. One of the most effective ways to enhance the student experience in a second language classroom is with the integration of food education.
Benefits of food education
Looking at language learning through the lens of food education, we discover a host of powerful allies. Not only can students expand their vocabulary beyond the textbook, but they can also engage multiple senses in a hands-on way. Exploring diverse foods can give students the chance to foster a deeper connection with the language.
Incorporating food education into your classroom offers other important advantages, as well. It fosters the development of meaningful relationships, acknowledges cultural diversity, and promotes inclusivity, ensuring that everyone feels valued and involved.
Connections between food and our mental state
We also must consider how food affects the mind. There is a connection between what we eat and how we focus, learn, and behave.
Part of food education, therefore, is helping students understand how certain foods make them feel. For example, helping a student recognize when they are dehydrated can also help them identify what works for them when they are having trouble focusing. And of course, some foods are more nutritious than others. As a part of our food lesson, we can integrate nutrient-dense foods, such as fatty fish, blueberries, dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, and leafy greens, which can help boost focus and prepare students to learn another language.
Ways to introduce food education
If you’re not a food teacher, the idea of integrating food into the second language classroom may seem daunting. Here are some low-prep food ideas to get you started with food education.
- Try doing a “Passport to the World” project, where students each choose a family recipe to bring to school, in potluck fashion. This encourages cultural diversity, while allowing students to build new vocabulary. Have students identify any focus-building foods within the dishes brought to school.
- Alternatively, if you want to present certain foods to your students, you can create a classroom restaurant. Students work on socializing and ordering food in another language. This is great for relationship building.
- For something more independent, students could pick a dish and conduct research about where the dish comes from, what ingredients it includes and why they chose that dish. Students can then either share a copy of the recipe with the class or make the recipe at home and bring it to school for classmates to taste-test.
Conclusion
No matter how you look at it, students must eat. Food education therefore has a natural appeal and offers numerous advantages. It helps students build the skills needed in the real world. It connects seamlessly with other subjects such as math, science and social studies. And when we see how food, mood, and language learning are linked, we discover a secret to help us focus better. With every new recipe, our brains become more attentive and ready to grasp important concepts.
What is one high-focus food that you could integrate into your classroom this week?
