Introduction/Rationale
Culinaria. Just writing the name of my favorite restaurant brings my salivary glands into action! Imagine driving into a non-distinct shopping center in which a small hardware store, popular drugstore, a low-scale but very convenient grocery store, and Friendly's card/gift store surround this unique gem of a restaurant open only for dinner. As you approach the non-descript, large glass window you see faint hints of lights – the promises of what is to come. Walking in you must move through the thick, tan curtain that serves to keep in the heat or cold against the weather elements outside. Dark wooden tables are set up with matching chairs in a tight-knit fashion, to make good use of the space. On the top of these are pieces of cut paper – differing colors depending on the time of the year. Lighting is low to add to the ambience, giving the narrow space a cozy feel. On the right is the bar where people can belly up to have a drink as they wait for their entire party to show. No one is seated without everyone being present. Past the bar are the refrigerator cases in which gelato is stored in one while cold wines are displayed in another. Nestled above them are vases of artful masterpieces with bamboo sticks and leaves in varying sizes. Lastly, is the open kitchen where the chefs, a married couple, quietly and quickly work to bring delectable plates of soft shell crabs, spicy chicken, roasted salmon, and beef tenderloin to their patrons. My choices are always the same: tomato parmesan soup and the wedge salad. The deep red soup has somewhat of a chunky consistency, specked with cheese throughout and homemade croutons on the top. When I asked, the waitress told me that they prepared the soup with leftover parmesan rinds. Even the wedge salad seems distinct with the two small portions of iceberg instead of one, homemade blue cheese dressing with Stilton chunks and seeded tomato pieces. Many, even those with whom I've dined, scoff at me. However, these choices are made with care because I need to save room for my favorite desert – a coconut layer cake – the layers so thin with alternating icing or lemon cream that they melt in your mouth. Each aspect of a dinner there seems calm, elegant, and special. All staff members are dressed in black, all patrons at a table receive their food at the same time, ceremoniously laid down and turned just so in front of you. Soft conversations are heard, murmurs, and laughter amongst those enjoying their experience.
Why is it that I love this restaurant - Culinaria? I have to believe that the best thing about each evening that I am there is that the food service, presentation and quality are consistently good. That when I go there I feel happy. Before researching for this unit, I thought about my favorite restaurant without really thinking about it. Now, I am thinking about the sociological aspects of the art of dining. What's happening behind all of this – the preparation of the food, the relationships amongst staff members, between wait staff and patrons, amongst the patrons themselves? Who are the patrons? What are the rules that one must follow? Why must they be followed? The questions behind what is invisible at a restaurant are endless. All of us, including my students, have favorite foods and – I imagine, a favorite place to dine. What are those restaurants and their reasons why? I wanted to think of an angle that would captivate their attention and get them excited to learn about the foundational information that we need to comprehend sociological research methods – what's better than through the culinary arts/dining out experience? Investigating the social relationships at a restaurant through the use of these research methods will help them to see the invisible in a common place.
The Collegewide Core Course Performance Objective states that students in this community college course offered on our high school campus should be able to describe the research methods used by sociologists. On Bloom's Taxonomy, the verb to describe is at the lowest level of the thinking process – to "Remember previously learned information."(1) Obviously, the lowest order thinking is not something to which I want my students to aspire. I believe that students should go farther in their learning than to read and describe data collection methods. Throughout the year we learn about various sociological concepts such as family, race, religion, gender, amongst others. Students should have in-depth knowledge of how sociologists have collected data to formulate and support theories about these concepts. In this proposed unit, students will solidify their understanding of these methods and implement them in individual authentic situations. They will focus on the guiding questions: What is the sociology of the art of the dining out experience? What are the social research methods that sociologists use to collect data including their strengths, and limitations? How do sociologists justify the importance of their research? In collecting data, how do we make the invisible visible?
My students are juniors and seniors located in three schools. This is a community college course held in our high school campus distance laboratory in which some of my students are at my school while others are at two sister schools in our district. The course happens real-time – at the different locations – same teacher (me!), curriculum, activities, etc. This will be my third year teaching in this manner. I am still trying to master this type of teaching/learning environment as well as the content that I had not interacted with in many, many years. In the proposed unit, I would like for the students to first read informational texts and literature that highlights the world of culinary arts getting them immersed into something that they may know something about – I mean, we all eat! However, this will serve only as the background. Students will use this knowledge and that of the sociological research methodologies I will introduce to conduct their own research of a dining out experience in a city restaurant of their choice. In doing so, students will have opportunities to focus on the comprehension and application of their readings and develop their writing, interviewing, and listening skills. Students will then have a richer meaning of and be able to apply these methodologies to the other topics we discuss throughout the school year.
Although my undergraduate degree is in Sociology, it had been many years since I had read texts and engaged in the content. Through my involvement with the Yale National Initiative/Delaware Teacher Institute, I have produced two units to date to use with this course – one on the sociological perspectives and the other on race. I want to add to my collection with the help of this seminar. From the readings, research, and participation in Invisible Cities, I will now have a third unit to use with my students. In the other two units I created, I followed the college text's framework that we use. It is based on "modules" in which real-life examples (countries such as Mexico, China, Greenland, etc.) are used to explain the sociological concepts like family, religion, and formal organizations, amongst others. During the first year, I noticed that students sometimes had difficulty connecting the real-life example with the sociological concept/content. Although this may seem contrary to what we might expect, I think it mainly stems from the idea that they have a difficult time piecing together information that is totally foreign to them. Again, I saw this issue arise in the second year. So, I kept this in mind when I created the other two units being certain to scaffold this information in a manner that they were able to better understand the connection. However, for this unit, I envision that it will look a little differently as I want students to use the sociological research methods that we will be learning about to conduct their own research outside of our school settings.
This unit will be taught at the beginning of the year immediately following the Delaware Teacher Institute unit that I created on the theoretical approaches of sociology. Since this is a community college course at the high school, the College Wide Core Course (CCC) Performance Objective that I follow is to describe the research methods used by sociologists. Students need to: identify the six research methods in sociology and list the strengths and limitations of each method. Instead of just memorizing and listing the information, I want students to engage in these methods by researching a restaurant in our city – to be in "intimate touch, to experience" these methodologies. Students will be able to choose their restaurant of interest within the city of Wilmington, use the research methods of document study, observation, and structured interviews to collect data, reflect on their strengths and limitations, and write up reports to describe the sociology of the art of dining in a way that emulates what sociologists in their own research. These three methods lend well to the dining experience. In doing so, students will have a better foundation for understanding sociology and will be more engaged in the content. Additionally, I want to follow the Common Core Standards. Delaware is adopting these and, although, I have had minimal professional development regarding their introduction into the social sciences, I am determined to include them in units that I develop. From my attendance at a recent summer meeting, I know that this is the major thrust of our district this upcoming school year. We will receive professional development geared towards just this. The Literacy RI. 11-12.7 Standard highlights the integration of knowledge and ideas. It states that students will be able to integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem. Students will actively participate in an action project in which they will synthesize Internet resources (documents), observations, field notes, and interviews dependent upon some variation of the question: In collecting data, how do I make the invisible visible?
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