Teacher Note: This activity is designed at the Analysis or Knowledge Utilization level of Marzano's Taxonomy. Students are asked to classify, analyze errors in reasoning, generalize, apply to new situations, or make evidence-based decisions — not simply recall information.
Name: _________________________ Date: _____________ Class: _____________
Marzano Level: Analysis (Classifying + Generalizing)
Part 1 — Sort the Ideas (10 min)
Both texts in this lesson — the story "Mia's Table" AND the poem "Recipe" — say that food is more than just something you eat. Read each idea below and sort it into one of two categories:
Category A: Food carries the past (things that connect food to history, memory, and ancestors)
Category B: Food builds community (things that show food bringing people together)
Ideas to sort:
- Bánh mì was shaped by French and Vietnamese history together
- Mia and Jordan discover their grandmothers both teach through cooking
- The poem says one ingredient is "hands — the ones that showed yours how to hold the knife"
- Jordan's whole family gathers to make tamales — tías, cousins, little brother, everyone
- The poem says the dish "traveled across an ocean, changed a little here, added something there"
- The class picnic ends with students seeing each other's lives differently
- Mia's grandmother learned to make bánh mì from her own mother in Saigon
- The poem says: "Mix them all together. Don't rush."
💡 Some ideas might fit BOTH categories. That's okay — explain why!
Part 2 — Make a Connection (8 min)
Choose ONE food from your own family or community. It can be something you eat at home, at a celebration, or that a family member makes.
Answer these three questions:
1. What is the food, and where does it come from?
2. Does it connect to Category A (the past), Category B (community), or both? Explain.
3. What is ONE story behind this food — something your family has told you, or something you wonder about?
Part 3 — Write a Big Idea (5 min)
Both texts agree on one big idea about food. Finish this sentence in your own words:
*"Food is more than something you eat. It is also __________."*
Use at least ONE detail from the story AND one from the poem to explain your big idea.