Emperor's Dinner

A WebQuest for 5th Grade Social Studies

Tyler Kobayashi



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Introduction

This lesson was developed as a fun way to incorporate Japanese culture into the sixth grade social studies curriculum on Japan during their spring semester.

This lesson involves food, table manners, and the nutritional content of Japanese food pertaining to the food pyramid. Students will learn about different types of food, etiquette, and nutritional content through posters and presentations they will perform in front of the class.

Learners

This lesson is designed as an introduction to a Japanese social studies unit, it also involves math and art to a lesser extent. This lesson can easily be manipulated to fit additional grade levels such as fourth or fifth grade.

Students will have prior knowledge in the various cultures that we are surrounded by in today's world. Learners will know that many different cultures have different types of food and customs. This lesson will help give the students some perspective on the Japanese culture, mainly food, nutrition, and etiquette. Students will need experience in browsing the web, familiarity with the food pyramid, food measurement, and public speaking.

Process

Students will use various websites that will help them find the information needed to complete the task. The teacher can consider implementing a KWL chart to understand the students prior knowledge of the subject.

The lesson is organized into three parts:

1) A poster which consists of the recipe and ingredients, pictures, food pyramid, math computation, and Japanese table manners.

2) A written report and

3) A presentation of what you accomplished.
This lesson can take up to a week if given appropriate class time and homework.
To accomplish this lesson a teacher should be culturally competent and even skills does a teacher need in order to pull this lesson off? Is it easy enough for a novice teacher? Does it require some experience with directing debates or role plays, for example?

Variations

There could be many variation of this lesson. Many pertain to social studies. Students can split up into teams and consider other cultures to investigate and/or investigate different time periods and view the differences and similarities of the past and the present.

Curriculum Standards

Social Studies Standards Addressed

- Recognize the relationships among the various parts of a nation's cultural life.
- Recognize simple themes, ideas or perspectives of the culture and the relationships to socially acceptable behavior.
- Identify, analyze and discuss various patterns of behavior or interactions typical of the culture studied.
- Identify and discuss typical behaviors from the target culture in a variety of specific settings.

Evaluation

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4
List of Ingredients	Does not list ingredients.	Lists 50% of ingredients.	Lists 70% of ingredients.	Lists 100% of ingredients.
Report	Report is missing all three elements: how you found the recipe, cooking experience, and problems	Report only consists of one of the three elements the of report.	Report consists of 2 of the three elements of the report.	Report consists of all three elements of the report.
Food Etiquette	Found less than 2 different food manners.	Found between 2-4 different food manners.	Found between 5-7 different food manners.	Found 8 or more different food manners.
Use of math in the cooking process	Calculates 50% or less of the ingredients correctly	Calculates 70% of the ingredients correctly	Calculates 80% of the ingredients correctly.	Calculates 100% of the ingredients correctly.
Nutrition	Student did not show effort to place ingredients in the proper category of the Japanese food pyramid.	Student showed minimal effort and placed 50% of ingredients in the proper category of the Japanese Food pyramid.	Student showed effort and placed 75% of the ingredients in their proper category of the Japanese Food pyramid	Student placed all ingredients in their proper category of the Japanese Food pyramid.
Presentation	Student does not participate in the presentation.	Student chooses to only explain 1-3 elements of the poster.	Student chooses to explain only 4-5 elements of the poster.	Student presents all elements to the class.

Resources Needed

Describe what's needed to implement this lesson. Some of the possibilities:

- Books related to Japanese Cuisine and culture
- Websites
- Printed recipes as examples (31 copies)
- Poster board for each student

Links:

http://japanesefood.about.com/library/recipe/blrecipe_index.htm
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2035.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2005.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2006.html
http://gojapan.about.com/cs/tablemanners/a/tablemanner.htm

For this lesson to be successful we will need full class participation and parent participation. Students will need help shopping for the specific ingredients that are needed for the recipe.

Credits and Refrences

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page