MTAH: daily bread

Getting Your Daily Bread—Breads in Medieval Society

Teacher's Content Base Outline

The following can be used as basis to generated specific lessons.
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Applying State Standards

Although no state standards specifically address teaching about bread or bread making in medieval or colonial life, every set of state standards addresses issues of how people lived in other times and places. Typically, such standards are located among history or social studies standards. General standards that attend to such issues as culture, life in other places, the science and application of agriculture, foods and home economics, and literature are found throughout state standards in various places.

Learning about breads in historical settings and how it is important to understand bread and bread making in society also contains elements of a broad literacy, that is, helping students grasp the meaning and place of things in their lives. The lessons “starters” that follow are targeted toward middle school students (where they could apply the lesson as part of some integrated unit on foods, or technologies, or medieval life etc. However, this material could also be easily moved into the lower grades with greater emphasis on the examples of the various grains and breads, particularly if children could bake the breads themselves! And moved “up” into senior high school with a greater devotion to resources and reflection activities.
As determined by teachers, the standards applied here would vary from very specific history standards to more generic standards designed to explore diversity of life in various cultures.

Activities
Elementary	Middle School/Senior High
(explaining, doing) Teachers will introduce content within the experience of the child. First, identifying and explaining bread as a familiar object in the child's life. Second, the teacher will direct/stimulate the child to move beyond simple understanding of the bread as something that comes from the grocery store to a manufactured commodity central to our way of life in America. Finally, the teacher introduces the concept of bread making as a historical subject, outlining how bread was a central part of life dating back to colonial times and before, in medieval times. As objectives, as a result of the lessons, students will be able to answer the following questions and participate in the suggested activities. Explaining: What is bread? Where does it come from? How are the plants grown? How is bread made? What are the different types of breads? Who eats breads? Doing: Look at the variety of breads: sizes, shapes, and function Examine various grains (seeds) to grow plants for bread making Watch demonstration on bread making Participate in bread making (and eating) Rea/hear about how breads were made in the past Discuss the role of bread making today and in the past	Using the elementary school subject matter as a base, the teacher will lead students to a greater understanding of bread and bread making in past times; to understand the place of bread in society, especially bread as an essential part of everyday life and the role bread played in the economy at various times and places. A particular goal would be to understand bread and bread making in historical terms with the present, that is, something that is the same, but different. The following objectives cover the materials attached: Given the various presentations on medieval times, the students will. . .(the action verb is italicized for emphasis, signaling how the item might be later assessed) recognize the significance bread held in medieval society identify the two main types of breads. describe the two types of breads and give examples of each recognize the place wheat breads held in medieval society define the varieties of “wheat breads” analyze the significance of different shades of “white breads” describe the special health properties attached to white breads identify the “geography” (common domain ) for wheat and rye breads compare/contrast the consumption of bread over time describe the role bread guilds played in medieval society identify the two foods taxed by authorities describe how laws determined tax on breads explain why recipes for bread do not exist from medieval times explain why recipes for porridge have not survived describe a typical medieval menu for a day explain why breads were so versatile for serving and eating Activities: Given the suggested materials, teachers will be able to construct presentations that introduce and provide information about the various aspects of breads and bread making. From these presentations, teachers will be able to design specific activities that include brief “lectures,” research projects (for individuals or small groups), action project that include experimenting with various bread making and baking techniques, and demonstrations (either student or teacher generated)