In order to allow students to make real-world connections with the French language during their food unit, French teacher Kacey Schlotz held a French cooking class for her French 3 students via Zoom on April 23. 

The recipe that they made was a French pastry called Tarte Tatin. The key to this class was that Schlotz would not be giving her students instruction cards but instead, she would be providing them with baking vocabulary and walking them through the recipe on Zoom entirely in French. Schlotz said that although the students were apprehensive about only speaking in French at first, they became more comfortable as the class progressed. 

“They responded like they do in the classroom, nervous to be communicating solely in French in the beginning, then warming up towards the end and feeling more comfortable,” Schlotz said. 

One of the students who participated in making the Tarte Tatin was sophomore Eric Otten. Otten said that even though he may not have followed all of the steps of the recipe correctly, it still went well and the recipe was a success.                                                                                                                                                                          

“Cooking the Tarte Tatin went really well for my first time doing this. It turned out really good even though I probably messed up a few steps. Madame Schlotz spoke in French but showed our class all of the steps as we were doing them, so there wasn’t too much confusion among us,” Otten said.                                                                                             

In accordance with what Otten said about his experience making the Tarte Tatin, sophomore Gracie Steinmeyer said that although it was a little bit more difficult to follow along in French, it was a fun experience to have that was different than a normal class.                                                                                                                                                        

“It was nice not to have an actual class and baking the tartes was fun. It was a little confusing following along in French, especially with the quantities of some ingredients, but the directions were pretty clear,” Steinmeyer said. 

Not only does sophomore Maddie Rhodes agree with Steinmeyer that baking the Tarte Tatin was a fun experience, but Rhodes also said that she loved getting to learn more about the French culture through this hands-on baking opportunity.                                                                                                                                                                          

“One of my favorite parts of French class is getting to learn more about the culture of France and different French-speaking countries, so this and the food unit as a whole has been a lot of fun; getting to do something hands-on like this was an enriching experience,” Rhodes said.