When pupils’ flair for the written Danish language is increased by lemon cake

Come join a Danish lesson with a class of 12-year-olds:
The pupils are on discovery, examining and tasting a range of foods in the classroom: strawberries, cold buttermilk soup, oranges with cloves, apples, cinnamon, lemon cake, and popcorn. The pupils have plenty of time to use all their senses, to reflect on the flavour of what they taste, and to write notes on every taste experience on the way. They do not yet have to think about spelling, layout or writing. They only have to focus on writing down their thoughts. 

After 45 minutes of sensuous attention, every pupil is handed a piece of paper with notes about taste, experiences, people, places, feelings, and emotions. The teacher now asks the pupils to look at their notes and consider which memories the taste experiences provoked. Afterwards, the writing assignment is introduced. The pupils are told to write down one of the memories they thought of in the tasting experience. The teacher presents a fictive example to inspire and support the pupils’ writing. The class talks about the language in this example, including how moods are described. After this, the pupils start writing. 

Teacher and master of educational theory and curriculum studies, Cathrine Terkelsen, who works with development of taste didactics and teaching materials in Taste for Life, is the author of the teaching resource “Et potpourri af skriveøvelser” (“A potpourri of writing exercises”). The resource is used in Danish classes in the intermediate stage (4th to 7th year) of a Danish public school. Try it here (in Danish).