At our school, the final project for the first unit of sixth grade English is a personal narrative that is somehow related to food. Since kids have been writing personal narratives since 3rd or 4th grade, our team made the decision a few years ago in an effort to shake our young writers away from their go-to topic. Plus, food is universal, we reasoned, everyone eats every day and there is a lot of untapped material there.
Today was the day when I revealed that parameter of the assignment to the students, and to be honest? They were underwhelmed and even a little resistant to the idea, and as confident as I am in our choice and reasoning, by the end of the day I was a little weary of defending it.
That is, until in the waning minutes of the last class, when we were wrapping up, a student walked over to me to ask me a question in a semi-private conversation."Can I tell you a fun fact about myself?"
Sure!" I said and turned from what I was working on to look at him.
"I do not like cake or cookies or pie or ice cream or anything sweet!" he declared.
"Wow!" I answered "That is unusual! What do you like?"
"Mostly Asian food," he told me.
"Your family is from Vietnam, right?" I said. "What are your favorite foods?"
We talked for a few minutes about Pho (he likes it with tripe!) and summer rolls and my favorite, cha gio (Spring rolls). He told me his mom is a great cook, but she has a Bolivian friend who is so good at making spring rolls that they always get her to do it. He also told me that his mom had lost her job because of COVID, but that his dad was still working, and they were doing okay.
"It was really nice talking to you," I said as the bell rang and he gathered his things.
"Can I tell you something else?" he stopped at my desk before he left. "You're my favorite teacher!"
And as pleased as I was to hear him say that, I'd really like to think it was the food talking!
No comments:
Post a Comment