Lesson Plan: How Tacos Took Over/The Story of Spaghetti and Meatballs

Essential Questions

• How do immigrants influence the food culture of a country?
• What makes a dish truly “belong” to a culture? How do foods change as they spread across borders?

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the articles in their magazines or at Action Online. Preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the titles and subtitles of the articles. Based on what you see, what do you think these articles will be about? Answers will vary. Students may predict that the articles will discuss how tacos and spaghetti and meatballs became popular in the U.S. and tell their origin stories. 
• Have you ever eaten a dish that was influenced by another culture? Explain your answer. Answers will vary. Students may mention eating foods like sushi, pizza, or burritos that originated in other countries but have been adapted in different ways.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (immigrant, mechanical, Indigenous peoples, staple, mainstream) aloud and discuss their definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Tell students that the first article explains how Mexican immigrants introduced tacos to the U.S. and how the dish evolved over time, while the second article explores the surprising origins of a popular dish we think of as Italian: spaghetti and meatballs.
• Tell students that after they read, they’ll compare and contrast information from both texts to understand how immigration shaped the foods we eat today.

Read the texts. (Higher- and lower-Lexile versions are available on the Story page at Action Online. Click Presentation View to access an audio read-aloud.) Then discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• Why was Juvencio Maldonado’s invention important for the spread of tacos in the U.S.? (cause and effect) Maldonado’s mechanical taco fryer made it faster and safer to prepare taco shells, allowing restaurants to produce them in large numbers. This helped tacos become a popular fast food.
• Why did Italian immigrants start making larger meatballs in the U.S. than the ones they made in Italy? (cause and effect) In Italy, meat was expensive and not widely available, so people made small meatballs for special occasions. In the U.S., meat was cheaper and easier to find, so Italian immigrants began making larger meatballs.
• According to the articles, how did Mexican and Italian immigrants influence American food culture? (summarizing) Mexican immigrants introduced tacos to the U.S., and over time, tacos were made with new ingredients and became a fast-food staple. Similarly, Italian immigrants in the U.S. combined meatballs with spaghetti and tomato sauce, creating a dish that was not traditionally eaten in Italy but became an American favorite.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• How do the two articles show that food is constantly changing? Both articles show that food evolves as it moves across cultures. Tacos changed as Mexican immigrants tried new ingredients and faster cooking methods, while spaghetti and meatballs developed in the U.S. because Italian immigrants combined their traditional foods with American influences.
• What is a staple food in your family’s diet? If your family moved to a country with a completely different food culture, what dish would you want to introduce and why? Answers will vary. 

• Have students work in pairs to complete our Compare and Contrast skill builder. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
• Writing prompt: Write a short story in which a parent is trying to persuade a child to try a new food. Have the parent describe the food and give some of its history, such as where it came from originally. The food can be tacos, spaghetti and meatballs, or another food of your choice.