Restaurant 108

TIPC Ratings

Since my students have significant cognitive disabilities, in order for them to be successful with doing internet based research, my students currently require a framework in which to do the research. In this lesson, that meant that several websites were put into a folder on School Space for the students to access. This arrangement allowed them to choose the website they wanted to use but without having to work through a search engine. They then had to locate the correct place to find the sale prices for any recipe ingredients. Prior knowledge gained through other classroom experiences and the knowledge of an upcoming community based instruction trip to Martin’s, helped the students to determine that martinsfoods.com would be a good place
to search for that information. In addition to the computer based research the students
performed, some demonstrated through classroom discussion that they could not find prices for all of the ingredients and would need to find that information elsewhere. Their prior experiences of trips to their grocery store helped them to determine that while shopping, they would be able to find the prices. During the actual trip to the store, when they were unable to locate the items they were looking for or the price, they performed first person research by asking a store employee for assistance. This kind of real-world research in an authentic environment practicing skills they will need forever, demonstrate an approaching level of research and information fluency.

The students both communicated and collaborated frequently throughout this process. They
were required to communicate what recipe they had researched and try and sell their fellow classmates on why they should vote for that particular recipe. During the shopping trip they communicated with each other about what they were looking for and what they should do when they could not locate something. When they could not locate an item at the store they had to communicate to a store employee what they were looking for in an appropriate manner. They also assisted in creating the advertisement communication to the staff to entice customers. During the actual event, the students practiced communicating using their vocationally focused manners and customer service skills they have been practicing. The students also collaborated with one another on researching the recipes and the prices, presenting their recipes to the class, and most importantly with the preparation of the meal. In order to make and serve the luncheon, they had to work together and communicate where they were in the process of cooking. In this manner they used communication and collaboration to solve real-world problems of finding healthy cost effective recipes, locating all of the necessary ingredients in the
authentic environment of the grocery store, and making a meal for paying customers from start to finish as a team.

The students used a variety of resources such as the internet, the prices and items in the store and the store employees to figure out how much it would cost to make each recipe. They used these different resources to find the cost, but while in the store they had to determine which items were better buys. They did this by comparing the costs of two similar items. Some of the students with more developed math skills, were able to review their prior experience of comparing unit prices of the ingredients while at the grocery store to determine the best value.

In planning the menu for this luncheon, the students were reminded to consider the audience (the staff) for whom they would be creating the meal. When one student suggested serving chicken nuggets, another student said that “grownups” would not want to eat chicken nuggets. So they worked collaboratively to determine what recipe they would make by voting using ActivEngage. This collaboration enabled the students to create an original luncheon that was well prepared and executed and received rave reviews from all of the customers.