Reading Cookbooks

For some reason, my students this year love checking out cookbooks from our school library.  I've had a few students in the past who will check them out from time to time, but right now we are on a serious cookbook kick.  I love that cookbooks are an option for our students to take home to read for the week.  It's reading that is applicable to everyday life.  People who don't consider themselves readers, will inevitably need to read a recipe, a nutrition label, or put together a meal plan. Reading and literacy is important beyond reading novels because the way you read a recipe differs greatly from the way you read a novel.  You have to process the information in different ways, and you are reading for separate purposes.  I think that the readers who choose cookbooks to take home like the accessibility of the text.  It's often in a list format, contains short paragraphs, and at the end you get a delicious treat.  I mean, what's not to like?  I've already been told what I should make for dinner on multiple occasions.  It's not a great diet plan, since the majority of kids' cookbooks are dessert-based, but I'm not arguing.  I think that our class might have to write some of our own cookbooks this year.  I'll let you know how those recipes turn out...

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