Unit 6 — Food Cultures

Track E · Klasse 7 · Niveau E

Template: Activate → Input → Practise → Produce → Reflect.
Niveau: E. class test (“Klassenarbeit”) at Niveau E.

Learning objectives Link to heading

  • I can read a short narrative about a family dish and identify what makes it meaningful beyond taste.
  • I can describe a recipe using imperatives and basic quantifiers.
  • I can hold a 2-minute conversation about a food tradition with a partner.

Bildungsplan alignment Link to heading

  • 3.2.1 Soziokulturelles Orientierungswissen / Themen — food and identity across cultures.
  • 3.2.2 Interkulturelle kommunikative Kompetenz — recognising food as a carrier of memory and family history.
  • 3.2.3.2 Leseverstehen — short narrative.
  • 3.2.3.3 Sprechen – an Gesprächen teilnehmen — exchange about a familiar topic.
  • 3.2.3.7 Wortschatz — kitchen and recipe vocabulary.
  • 3.2.4 Text- und Medienkompetenz — recognise emotional weight in a description.

(Source: https://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/SEK1/E1)

Lead-in story Link to heading

Aisha’s grandmother does not measure things. She measures by look, smell, and the angle of her wooden spoon. Aisha has tried to write down the recipe for the family rice three times. Each time, her grandmother has read the recipe and said, very gently, “This is wrong.” When Aisha asked what was wrong, her grandmother said, “It says one teaspoon of salt. There is no teaspoon. There is only your hand.”

1. Activate Link to heading

Picture pair. With your partner, look at the slide. There are six dishes from six countries. For each one:

  • guess the country,
  • say one ingredient you can see,
  • say one ingredient you cannot see but probably exists.

After two minutes, pairs swap their guesses with another pair.

The “ingredient you cannot see” prompt opens the door to family secrets, stocks, and inherited spice mixes — exactly what this Unit is about.

2. Input Link to heading

Reading text — The Sunday Chicken Link to heading

Anya’s grandfather makes the same dish every Sunday: rice, chicken, a sauce with herbs the family will not name in English because the English name does not feel right. The dish has migrated with the family for two generations. In the village, it was made with a chicken from the yard. In the city, it is made with a chicken from the supermarket. The taste is mostly the same. Sundays are the day Anya’s grandfather speaks the most. The dish, he says, is what the family is. Every other day they argue about everything. On Sundays they argue about the chicken.

Vocabulary cluster — kitchen and recipe Link to heading

VerbNoun
to chopa knife, a board
to slicea slice
to peelthe peel
to boila pot
to frya pan
to bakean oven
to seasonsalt, pepper, herbs, spices
to tastea taste
to stira spoon
to servea plate, a bowl

Useful phrases.

  • to be born of — that recipe is born of two villages.
  • to pass down — the recipe was passed down from grandmother.
  • a family staple — rice and beans is our family staple.

Language focus — quantifiers Link to heading

QuantifierUseExample
somepositive sentences (definite quantity)We need some salt.
anynegatives and questionsIs there any rice left?
manycountable, often negatives/questionsThere aren’t many eggs.
muchuncountable, often negatives/questionsThere isn’t much milk.
a fewsmall countable amount, positiveAdd a few onions.
a littlesmall uncountable amount, positiveAdd a little salt.
a lot of / lots ofboth, positive and informalWe have a lot of rice.

Language focus — recipe imperatives Link to heading

A recipe in English usually uses the imperative: base verb, no subject.

  • Chop the onion finely.
  • Add a little oil.
  • Don’t boil the herbs for too long.
  • Let the rice rest for ten minutes.

For polite cooking talk: Could you pass the salt? Would you mind stirring this?

3. Practise Link to heading

Niveau G — controlled Link to heading

A. Some, any, much, or many?

  1. Is there __________ chicken in the fridge?
  2. We need __________ rice for tonight.
  3. There aren’t __________ tomatoes left.
  4. There isn’t __________ time before dinner.

B. Match the verb to the kitchen tool.

VerbTool
1. to chopa. an oven
2. to bakeb. a knife
3. to fryc. a pot
4. to boild. a pan

Niveau M — productive Link to heading

C. Re-write as a polite recipe instruction.

  1. You should peel the potatoes first. → ___
  2. You must not add salt before boiling. → ___
  3. You should let the dough rest for thirty minutes. → ___

D. Quantifier transformation. Rewrite using a few or a little.

  1. We have some eggs (three). → ___
  2. There is some salt (less than a teaspoon). → ___
  3. We have some butter (about half a stick). → ___
Answer key

Niveau G

A. 1. any, 2. some, 3. many, 4. much.
B. 1–b, 2–a, 3–d, 4–c.

Niveau M

  1. Peel the potatoes first.\
  2. Don’t add salt before boiling.\
  3. Let the dough rest for thirty minutes.\
  4. We have a few eggs.\
  5. There is a little salt.\
  6. We have a little butter.

4. Produce Link to heading

Pair speaking task — Family Plate. With your partner, take turns describing a dish that means something in your family. For each dish, the listener asks at least one follow-up question (Who taught the cook? When was the first time you ate it?).

Three rules:

  • Use at least one quantifier per turn (a little / a few / not much).
  • Use at least one imperative inside a quoted family instruction (“My grandmother always says, ‘Don’t open the oven.”").
  • Two minutes each direction.

Volunteers share with the class at the end.

5. Reflect Link to heading

  • I can read a short narrative about a family dish and explain what makes it meaningful beyond taste.
  • I can use some / any / much / many / a few / a little correctly.
  • I can give simple recipe instructions in English.

One sentence in your notebook: What is one dish in my family that I want to ask the cook to explain?

Exam example Link to heading

class test ("Klassenarbeit") — Niveau E (45 minutes)
Materials allowed. A monolingual dictionary (Niveau M only).
Time. 45 minutes.
Total. 60 points.

Task 1 — Reading (15 BE) Link to heading

Read the short text below.

Anya’s grandfather makes the same dish every Sunday: rice, chicken, a sauce with herbs the family will not name in English because the English name does not feel right. The dish has migrated with the family for two generations. In the village, it was made with a chicken from the yard. In the city, it is made with a chicken from the supermarket. The taste is mostly the same. Sundays are the day Anya’s grandfather speaks the most. The dish, he says, is what the family is. Every other day they argue about everything. On Sundays they argue about the chicken.

  1. What dish does Anya’s grandfather make every Sunday? (3)
  2. Why does the family avoid the English name for the herbs? (3)
  3. What has changed between the village and the city version of the dish? (3)
  4. What does the grandfather mean by “the dish is what the family is”? (6)

Task 2 — Use of English (12 BE) Link to heading

A. Quantifiers (6 BE). Choose: some, any, much, many, a few, a little.

  1. Is there __________ rice left?
  2. We need __________ tomatoes for the sauce.
  3. There aren’t __________ eggs in the fridge.
  4. We have __________ time before the guests arrive — about ten minutes.

B. Recipe imperatives (6 BE). Rewrite as instructions.

  1. You should chop the onion finely. → Chop ___ .
  2. You must not boil the herbs for too long. → Don’t ___ .
  3. You should let the rice rest for ten minutes. → ___ .

Task 3 — Mediation (10 BE) Link to heading

Your German pen-pal sends you this WhatsApp message:

“Bei uns gibt es jeden Sonntag Maultaschen mit Brühe. Mama sagt, es geht nicht ums Essen, sondern darum, dass alle am Tisch sitzen. Mein Bruder isst trotzdem heimlich Pizza.”

Write three sentences in English to your English-speaking friend telling them about the family’s Sunday tradition. Do not translate every word.

Task 4 — Writing (23 BE) Link to heading

Write 100–120 words about a dish that means something to your family — a Sunday meal, a birthday cake, something a grandparent makes. Use:

  • at least three quantifiers (some, any, much, many, a few, a little, a lot of),
  • at least one imperative (Don’t … / Take … / Add …) — perhaps embedded in a quoted family instruction,
  • one sensory detail.
Expected answer key — class test ("Klassenarbeit")

Task 1 (15 BE).\

  1. Rice, chicken, and a sauce with named-but-unnamed herbs. (3)
  2. The English name does not feel right; the herbs carry meaning the English word does not preserve. (3)
  3. The chicken: from the yard in the village, from the supermarket in the city. (3)
  4. Sample: The dish is a memory the family eats together every week. It links them to the village and to each other. Cooking it carries identity from one generation to the next. (6 — accept any answer that grasps food + identity + memory.)

Task 2 (12 BE).
A. 1. any, 2. some / a few, 3. many / a lot of, 4. a little.
B. 5. Chop the onion finely. 6. Don’t boil the herbs for too long. 7. Let the rice rest for ten minutes.

Task 3 (10 BE). Sample: “Every Sunday my pen-pal’s family eats Maultaschen — a kind of Swabian filled pasta — with broth. Her mum says the point is not the food but having everyone at the table. Her brother still secretly eats pizza.” Award for: gist (4), addressee-fit (2), correct grammar (4).

Task 4 (23 BE). Inhalt 12 / Sprache 11.

Rubric — grading scale (Notenschlüssel)
Punkte (von 60)Note
56–601
49–552
40–483
30–394
18–295
0–176

Downloads Link to heading

**Slide deck timing.** 45 minutes total.
  • Title + Lead-in (4 min). The grandmother’s “There is only your hand” line. Ask the class what measure by hand could mean.
  • Activate (6 min). Six-dish picture pair.
  • Input (15 min). Read The Sunday Chicken once silently, once aloud. Quick vocabulary chant for the kitchen verbs (chop, slice, peel, boil, fry, bake, stir, serve).
  • Practise (10 min). Niveau split.
  • Produce (8 min). Pair speaking — circulate; prompt for one imperative + one quantifier per turn.
  • Reflect (2 min).

Differentiation. For Niveau G: provide a printed some/any/much/many flowchart. For learners above Niveau M: ask for at least one comparative (saltier than, less spicy than) in the speaking turn.

Cultural note. Resist asking learners to “represent” a culture. Each learner speaks for themselves and their household, not for a country.

Common pitfalls Link to heading

  • much friends → ✗ / many friends (countable) → ✓.
  • some help me → ✗ — imperatives have no some / any.
  • Don’t to add → ✗ / Don’t add → ✓.
  • L1 transfer: Bestreuen and similar German cooking verbs do not always have a single English equivalent. Use sprinkle, dust, or coat.

Further reading / listening Link to heading

Downloads

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