Unit 1 — Likes and Dislikes and Food
Description
Students learn vocabulary related to food preferences and cultural dining customs. The unit explores how food reflects and shapes culture, examining mealtimes, etiquette, and culinary traditions across Spanish-speaking countries. Students engage with authentic food-related materials and complete tasks that integrate all three communication modes, including restaurant dialogues and menu comprehension activities.
Essential Questions
- How is food different throughout the world?
- Why is it important to discuss food in Spanish-speaking countries?
Learning Objectives
- Identify and use vocabulary related to foods and beverages
- Express preferences and dislikes using target language structures
- Recognize cultural differences in meal times and dining etiquette
- Compare and contrast food customs across cultures
- Interpret menus and food-related authentic materials
- Participate in restaurant transactions and dialogues
Supplemental Resources
- Markers and chart paper for restaurant menu creation
- Printed menus from Spanish-speaking restaurants for authentic material
- Index cards for vocabulary practice and dialogue exchanges
- Sticky notes for labeling food items in classroom
- Printed images or photographs of Spanish-speaking foods and meal settings
Interpersonal Mode
Interpretive Mode
Presentational Mode
Students engage in collaborative discussions, present information orally, write narratives and informative texts describing cultural experiences, and develop vocabulary related to Spanish-speaking cultures and practices.
Students learn about geographic locations of Spanish-speaking countries, cultural practices and traditions, community life in different regions, and how geography and culture influence daily life and customs.
Students create visual representations including posters, floor plans, presentations, and skits that demonstrate cultural understanding and provide creative expression of learned language and cultural content.
Students demonstrate comprehension of global issues including climate change through target language materials and discuss environmental awareness and recycling practices in Spanish-speaking communities.
Students practice mathematical skills through currency conversions, time-telling, measurement of household dimensions, and data interpretation related to cultural comparisons.
Formative Assessments
- Dialogue practice expressing food preferences
- Guided listening comprehension with visual cues
- Menu interpretation tasks with comprehension questions
- Partner conversations about likes and dislikes
- Classroom skits simulating restaurant scenarios
Summative Assessment
Integrated Performance Assessment including writing and performing a restaurant skit, reading and answering questions about menus, and creating a video project using all three modes of communication related to food
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to food preference questions or participate in simplified dialogue practice with reduced vocabulary expectations. Visual supports such as labeled food images or sentence frames (e.g., 'Me gusta...' / 'No me gusta...') may be provided to scaffold language production.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from visual supports such as illustrated food vocabulary banks and sentence frames when expressing likes and dislikes in the target language. For dialogue and skit tasks, allowing oral or recorded responses in place of written work can reduce barriers related to output demands while keeping the communicative focus intact. Chunking multi-step tasks, such as the restaurant skit, into smaller sequential components with check-ins supports processing and task completion. Pre-teaching key food vocabulary and preference structures before whole-class instruction helps build confidence and readiness for interpersonal activities.
Section 504
Extended time on menu interpretation tasks and the summative performance assessment supports full access to content without reducing expectations. Preferential seating during listening activities and reduced visual clutter on vocabulary materials can help students maintain focus during input-heavy portions of the unit. A print copy of any modeled dialogues or menus displayed on the board ensures students can reference materials at their own pace.
ELL / MLL
Visual supports such as picture-labeled food vocabulary, illustrated menus, and culturally relevant images from Spanish-speaking countries help make the unit's content accessible and meaningful. Simplified directions for dialogue and skit tasks, paired with a brief oral check for understanding, allow students to engage with the communicative activities more confidently. Encouraging students to draw on home language knowledge of food and dining customs provides a strong cultural and linguistic bridge into the target language content.
At Risk (RTI)
Connecting food vocabulary and preference expressions to students' own familiar meals and dining experiences lowers the entry point and builds engagement with the unit's content. Offering sentence starters and partially completed dialogue frames supports participation in restaurant conversations without overwhelming students who need additional scaffolding. Breaking the summative performance task into manageable steps with teacher feedback along the way helps students experience incremental success and stay connected to the unit's goals.
Gifted & Talented
Students can explore food culture in Spanish-speaking countries at greater depth by investigating regional culinary traditions, the history behind specific dishes, or the socioeconomic dimensions of food access across different communities. In restaurant and dialogue tasks, students can be challenged to incorporate nuanced language such as indirect expressions of preference, cultural etiquette phrases, or regional vocabulary variations rather than relying solely on core structures. The video project component of the summative assessment can serve as an opportunity for these students to take on a more sophisticated communicative or analytical angle, such as a documentary-style format that compares dining customs across multiple countries.