AREPA NATION: A delicious lesson plan!

A couple of weeks ago we were reading with my AP Spanish class the book: 24 hours in Bogotá, published by Klett World Languages. The story of Annette and Santiago who live in the capital city of Colombia. In one of the chapters, Santiago is having breakfast and it is described that he drinks tinto (Colombian espresso coffee) and arepas with cheese. Immediately my students asked me about arepas! This book, and in general the entire collection of 24 hours in… includes cultural components that are very well explained and presented with high quality photos. The picture of the arepas is so good that my students wanted to try them right away. I promised them that I would make some arepas and that I would bring them for the next class. But unfortunately I didn’t have time to make the arepas at home and that’s why I decided that we’d better made them during class together.

The first step was to contact my mother in Colombia, so she could give me her delicious recipe. Once I had the recipe in my hands I proceeded as follows with the class.

1- I divided the class of 18 students into 3 groups of 6 each.
2- I asked one of the students to open a document in Google to share with everyone and write there what each student should bring.
3- Each group needed to bring:

-two cups of white flour (PAN)
-two cups of Cotija cheese (any shredded cheese works, but Cotija is perfect)
-A stick of butter (or the equivalent of 6 tablespoons)
-A cup to measure water
-A spatula
-A large mixing bowl

4- I asked each group to bring a griddle to make their own arepas, instead of just one griddle for the whole class. It is important to plug griddles into outlets that are set apart from each other and place them on a table, away from paper or plastic.

5- Three students from the group are in charge of making the arepas, while the other three work on a presentation on google slides answering 20 questions about the arepas, they must find the answers and also images for each one. You can see the questions HERE.

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6- The jobs were:

-A student mixes the entire large bowl
-A student makes the patties
-A student is in charge of grilling the patties

7- Preparation:
-Mix at the same time a cup of flour, a cup of WARM water, a cup of cheese and three tablespoons of butter.
-Knead everything until it has a consistency similar to that of pizza dough. You have to add water or flour to achieve the perfect dough.
-Make golf size ball with the dough , then crush them with your hands to form the arepas.
-The arepas are roasted in the griddle at 400 degrees, constantly turning them with the spatula until they achieve a golden color on each side.

See my studnets in action HERE

HERE I share a poem dedicated to arepas and that belongs to my book: BUEN PROVECHO, which you can learn more about HERE.

I hope you enjoy the arepas!

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