I really love a lot of the documentaries that Netflix has been producing that focus on various cultures in Latin America! The most recent one is Heavenly Bites: Mexico. I created a few day lesson plan to look at the tortas episode. Overall, we are studying the influences of other cultures on Mexican food and this episode includes a lot of traditional Mexican food as well. My students watched this episode in Spanish with English subtitles. A couple of caveats before you launch into this episode! There are a few places with cursing. You could skip those parts or discuss it ahead of time: you know your students and community. The translations are a bit more drastic than the actual words, but that is what pops up on the screen! I also cut the video off after looking at the torta-tacos. I felt that the end didn’t add as much to my lessons as the other parts of it. I created this lesson within my food unit in sixth grade. We have also looked at Nailed It! Mexico and Street Foods Mexico. (I added a middle school version to our lesson plans there.)
I hope that these lesson plans help you or inspire you to create more with the series!
Maris Hawkins 