Chapathi Day

Part of teaching involves bringing stories to life for the students. Helping them envision the settings, relate to the events and step into the characters' shoes are elements of teaching that truly make an impact on them. In each of my courses, I try to ensure they have special experiences that allow them to connect with literature and also have great memories from our year together. When I was in the fifth grade, my reading teacher, Ms. Pendleton did this for us and now twenty years later- I still appreciate it. One of my favorite memories was from our unit on Pippi Longstocking. The story was so imaginative and I really loved reading it with my class that year, but what sealed the deal for me was how our teacher presented it to us. She helped us make connections between Pippi and ourselves. She also let us dress like Pippi on the last day of the reading, watch the film based on the book, and eat one of Pippi's favorite meals-fig newtons with apple sauce. So, in my World Literature class, we did something similar. We are currently on a unit about Indian Literature, so we have read George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant and are currently reading Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Students have engaged in various activities from watching a short documentary about Indian cultural traditions, to conducting research on India and the vast languages, and traditions there, to trying to cook Indian dishes in class! We had butter chicken, rice, stewed lentils, samosas and chapathi. We cooked everything except the samosas-we ordered those from a restaurant. Below, are some photos from Chapathi Day. The students and I researched the recipes online together, watched videos and then did our best to recreate these dishes. They worked hard and were so proud of their food. I am proud of them as well for trying something new. Disclaimer: the food was devoured before I could get photos of the final results! I did, however, manage to get photos of the cooking process.