ÓSCAR FUENTE

 In the following lines I am going to explain one of the activities that I use in lower levels of ESO, specifically the first and second course. It consists in the designing of a healthy and balanced diet – and a posterior presentation to the rest of classmates – using authentic leaflets and pamphlets that can be found in supermarkets and mailboxes.

Every year I practice this activity coinciding with those units that deal with topics related with grocery, sport, healthy and balanced diet, etcetera. Moreover, in the design of the activity, I give to the students a copy of an original and authentic leaflet of a foreign and British supermarket and students love it. They are excited when they have a real foreign leaflet in their hands.

Let’s move to the development and timing of the activity. First of all, it is an activity (preparation + presentation) that has a duration of three sessions. In the first two sessions students have to analyze the leaflet and choose those products that they want to include in a menu for a whole day including the following meals: breakfast + lunch + afternoon snack + dinner. Students have to take into account calories, properties, and price of every product because they have a total budget of 30£. As it is obvious, they have to design a balanced diet adjusting the price without exceeding.

In the third and final session, students present to the rest of the classmates their menus. They can prepare a Power Point presentation with photos, nutrients data, price breakdown, and everything related to their grocery list.

In a nutshell, I totally agree with Shawn Redwood when saying that authentic material motivate and promote creativity of students. I claim that students get more involved in the design of the activity and, from my personal point of view, it is really encouraging. Moreover, it is an activity that adjust very well to every student considering the different levels that we have at class. Every student feel involved in the dynamic and as I said before, they enjoy working with this materials.