The Great ESOL Bake Off!

I teach in Bradford and the reason I share this is because we have been in lockdown/under restrictions since I can’t remember when! My classes have been taught solely online for months now (I think I only managed 6 weeks in the classroom before we had to go online!). I wanted to do something that was fun for my students.  Sometimes I feel it’s all grammar, grammar, grammar!  So I decided to hold a baking class as the final class before the Christmas holidays so that we could just have fun together as a class (gasp, fun, I know!).

What we did

• I picked out the simplest recipe I could find (with a Christmas theme) which was gingerbread men.

• I created this ingredients list which I was able to share with the students with a link to a Google Doc via text, along with a list of equipment they would need.  I did not factor in that hardly any students would have weighing scales so I had to do a bit of dodgy “cup” measurement measuring as we cooked.  I will definitely learn from that mistake, but it’s all good reflective practice right!

•  In the class prior to the bake off give the students the recipe beforehand to look at instructional language, the imperative and/or identifying types of texts, discuss and share different recipes and of course maths! They can practise putting the instructions in order and you can pre-teach any new vocabulary. 

• In the bake off session we followed the recipe step by step together.  I was able to model the instructions and monitor individuals on camera.
• Finally we shared our bakes on camera and had the bake off “taste test”!  I had not realised that many of my students had never baked before and many of them were thrilled with their makes and went on to bake the recipe again with their children!  Can you guess the winner…that’s right, they’re all winners in my eyes! #soproud