Instructional Strategies

I want to learn more about ESCAPE Projects...

Multilingual resources can offer students the opportunity to use their home language in the learning process, increase access to educational content, and accelerate learning. Examples include:

Multilevel and multimodal resources can help reduce language demand, support students’ funds of knowledge, and cater to different student needs and contexts. Click each item below to see an example.

Diagnostic and formative resources can help identify students’ prior knowledge or learning gaps, and promote learning. Click each item below to see an example.

Culturally Contextualized Activity On Water Cycle: Making Roti

This video outlines the process of making roti, a staple bread in Indian households, and uses this culturally contextualized activity to explain scientific concepts on water cycle such as evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. By integrating a familiar cultural practice with scientific principles, the explanation not only grounds abstract scientific concepts in everyday experiences but also makes the learning process more relatable and accessible. This approach demonstrates the effectiveness of culturally contextualized activities in education, where leveraging cultural knowledge and practices can enhance understanding and engagement in learning complex subjects.

Chapati or Roti is the most commonly used bread in Indian households, but what makes it puff up like a balloon. For that, we will need to look at a roti recipe. We need two things for making Roti – Whole wheat flour and water. Add water to flour gradually and knead it till it becomes a soft round ball. Take a tennis ball-sized pinch, dab it with the dry flour, and roll it into a flat, thin round. Please turn on the gas stove and put the Tawa/ flat griddle to make it hot. Once the Tawa is sufficiently hot, put the Roti on a hot Tawa/griddle. Cook one side first, then turn it one; it is about one-fourth cooked. Next, turn and cook the other side. This should be a little bit more cooked than the first side. Brown spots should be visible. Roti can be seen puffing, and we just added two things – flour and water. Nothing seems to be happening with the flour, but the water dissolved in the dough on being heated evaporates and forms tiny bubbles that later coalesce to form a big bubble. As Roti is closed on, edges vapors get trapped, which cause Roti to puff up, and as soon as we tear a piece from it, vapor escapes and Roti gets flattened.

Water turns into vapor as it gets heated; similarly, water from lakes, ponds, and other water bodies become vapour due to sun heat. So when we poke the puffed up Roti with the fork, we can see steam escaping.

Let us see what happens when we wrap puffed up hot Roti in foil. After a few seconds, the Roti becomes flat, and a few water droplets can be seen on the foil. The question is where this water comes from, as we know it turned into vapor. The answer to the puzzle lies in the temperature change; as soon Roti is taken off from the Tawa or heat, the water, which turned into vapor, starts cooling and turning back into the water; this process is called condensation.

The water vapor from the lake, ponds and sea rises and come in contact with the cool air of the atmosphere, which turns the vapor into the water, and it comes back to earth in the form of rain or snow; it is also called precipitation.

Why do we have a steamy bathroom mirror post hot shower?

Where does water from wet clothes go when we put it to dry in the sun?

Provide opportunity for parents and community to access curriculum-related content and support their children. Examples include:

Provide opportunity for mutual learning and community building. Examples include:

Multilingual & Multimodal Community Concept List

Watch the video to learn how to implement language friendly and inclusive instructions in your classroom. This activity/strategy is shared by one of our teacher colleagues, Douglas Falcao.

Inclusive Pedagogy by Mai Naji
Click here for a copy and example of this activity