Annotated Bibliography

I have put together an Annotated Bibliography consisted of three trade books and two websites to supplement a unit on Spanish food. This is a series of lessons taught to an average 8th grade Spanish class. (It should be noted that the students in middle school Spanish tend to have higher academic performance than most of their peers.) During this unit the students learn a large quantity of food vocabulary in Spanish. The class also uses verbs that have to do with ordering, liking, and eating foods. As part of the assessment the students choose from different traditional Hispanic dishes and make one for the entire class to sample. The websites contain many of the vocabulary the class learns and also some information about Spanish cuisine. The texts are a small series of children’s books written in Spanish pertaining to different categories of food.

Websites

1. Website: Lemon, D.R. (2011). Food Vocabulary: In Www.drlemon.com homepage (Grammar). Retrieved from http://www.drlemon.com/Grammar/food/Food.html.

The Food Vocabulary part of this website is a fabulous tool for teachers. It appears the site was designed by a teacher (Deborah Lemon) for her students. After giving an introduction about Hispanic foods, she offers the following vocabulary lists: restaurant vocabulary, table setting vocabulary, meals, drinks, meats, vegetables, fruits, fish and seafood, cooking, desserts and condiments, and breads and pastries. The left part of the screen has a fixed panel with many different links. The first few links go to various other sites with games for practicing food vocabulary. Other links direct to BBC videos that come with a transcript of the video and a post-watching worksheet.
I am so thankful to this teacher for creating this website! She has a great comprehensive list of different categories of food. One of the sites she links to includes online Java games that she has put together herself using the vocabulary. The benefit of this is that I know exactly what words will be in the games so I don’t run the risk of my students running into words they don’t know. I also love the different BBC videos. My classes enjoy watching videos, and it will be very helpful to have the transcript. Giving the worksheet will help motivate my students to pay attention during the video.

2. Website: U.S. Institute of Languages (2011). Traditional authentic Spanish foods and cuisine. Food vocabulary: In Learn Spanish today (Cultural Information). Retrieved from http://www.learnspanishtoday.com/learning_module/food.htm.

This website has many great resources for different topics in Spanish, but for this lesson I am interested in the food topics. The site has an excellent article about Spanish foods. It discusses customary actions when eating and also talks about different traditional dishes. Elsewhere on the site there is a good list of food vocabulary words, which would work well to supplement the list I give from the textbook. Finally, there is a very fun game called “Burrito Builder” in which different words of foods start at the bottom of the screen and go up. The player has to type in the Spanish name of the food (article included) in order to build a burrito.

Aside from using the food vocabulary list, I would love to play the burrito builder game in class with my students. They are always asking to do something “fun” despite my assertions that “grammar IS fun!” I see two possible ways of using this in the classroom. The first would involve the teacher doing the actual typing of the vocabulary words while the students call them out. The second is to have students get into groups of 4-5 students and each group has a turn to try to “build a burrito”. My hope is that students would enjoy it enough that they might use the game to help them study at home. We could also read the article (either a hard copy or on the projector) as an introduction to the cooking assessment. The dishes mentioned could be options that the students sign up to cook in pairs. They would also be required to bring in a recipe and name (in Spanish) some of the ingredients.

Trade Books

The trade books I have selected come from a series of children’s books on food and nutrition. Originally written in English, they have been translated for Spanish-speaking children. For a second language reader, these would be at an average-advanced Spanish I reading level. They use only present tense verbs, and each book uses the same verbs and structure. I teach Spanish I spread out over 6^th-8^th grade, so these books would be best suited for 7^th-8^th grade. Since we approach the food unit in 8^th, the books will be perfectly suited for them. There will be some challenging words, but after introducing the food vocabulary, the students will be able to read most of the books. These are only three of the books, but there are others entitled “Las Verduras” (Vegetables), “Las Carnes y Las Proteinas” (Meats and Proteins), and “Las Grasas, Los Aceites, y Los Dulces” (Fats, Oils, and Sugars). Ideally they could be used as a set.

I would start with Las Frutas because if my students have been exposed to any food words before, most likely they will recognize some of these words more than the others. I would use this as a starting point for getting used to the book structure, as well as some of the unfamiliar vocabulary. (There is a glossary in the back that gives the definitions for a few of the larger words that are in all of the books.) I would walk through this book slowly with the class so that my students don’t feel lost reading from an entirely Spanish book. Los Cereales would be the second book in the series that I approach. This also has some more common foods, as well as some challenging words. I would create a reading guide to go with this book that students could complete in pairs, groups, or independently, depending on how the class is going and each student’s skill level. We would also look at the food pyramid in the back of the book and discuss the parts. (The pyramid is the same in each book.) In Los Productos Lacteos, we would look at new vocabulary as a class. By this time the students will understand the structure of the book and most of the vocabulary words (nutrition, healthy, etc.) Some words like “lacteos” will be new here, so we will need to look at them and define them. As a closing activity with these texts, I would like the students to attempt to translate parts or all of the text, depending on how well they have adapted to using the books. I could either assign the translation in groups or independently, making copies of the pages. I’d like these translations to be shared with the class.

3. Trade book: Las Frutas

ISBN: 978-0822550624

Nelson, R. (2003). Las Frutas. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group.

Las Frutas is a cognate for Fruits. The book begins by telling children that we need to eat many kinds of foods to keep us healthy, and one of those is fruits. It then explains where fruits come from (plants) and what fruits do (help us grow) and give to our bodies (vitamins and minerals.) It gives a suggested amount of fruits to eat each day (at least two portions). Then the book gives some different examples of fruits, such as apples, kiwis, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, pears, grapes, and orange juice. The book then shows the food pyramid and gives a summary. On the next page are bullet points (the bullet points are little apples) with details about fruit. At the very end is the glossary and index. The glossary defines (in Spanish) fruit, minerals, portions, health, and vitamins. With the exception of the pages after the food pyramid, all pages have photographs. Each pages giving examples of fruits have photographs of that fruit, while the other pages mostly contain photographs of children either eating fruit or reaping the benefits of the fruit.

4. Trade book: Los Cereales

ISBN: 978-0822550631

Nelson, R. (2003). Los cereales. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group.

Los Cereales is a book about grains that we eat. The first few pages contain color photographs of different foods like muffins, pasta, bread, waffles, and oatmeal. The book explains that we need to eat grains for our health, which include bread, cereal, rice and pasta. The book then talks about how grains move nutrition around our body and gives us energy. The photographs in this section show children eating grains and playing outside. It suggests that we have six servings of grains each day. As with Las Frutas, the book then has a series of pages of examples of grains with accompanying photographs. They include bread, waffles, tortillas, corn flakes, oatmeal, rice, spaghetti, and pretzels. After repeating that grains help keep us healthy, the food pyramid is shown followed by a summary. Next are two pages of bulleted details about grains; the bullet points are tiny loaves of bread. Finally, the glossary defines grains, minerals, portions, health, and vitamins. The final page is the index.

5. Trade book: Los Productos Lacteos

ISBN: 978-0822550600

Nelson, R. (2003). Los productos lacteos. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group.

As with the other two books, Los Productos Lacteos opens by saying that we need to eat many kinds of food to keep our bodies healthy. One of these groups is dairy products. The photographs accompanying these pages contain different kinds of cheeses, yogurt, and milk. The next two pages explain that dairy products are made from milk, which gives us calcium. Calcium makes our bones strong and our teeth healthy. The book shows smiling children to illustrate these statements. The next page has a picture of two bowls of yogurt to represent the two servings of dairy we should be consuming each day. The next eight pages are examples of dairy products with corresponding photographs: milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, Swiss cheese, cheddar, mozzarella, and cream cheese, and ice cream. The characteristic final statement of eating these foods to keep us healthy is present, as is the food pyramid on the next page. After the summary page is the details page; this time the bullet points are little milk glasses. The glossary defines calcium, portions, dairy products, and health. This is also followed by the index.