Unit 4 — ¿Cómo eres y cómo es tu familia? (All about me and my family)
Description
Students learn to describe themselves, family members, and friends physically and by personality. The unit introduces the verbs ser, estar, and tener to express different states and characteristics. Students compare and contrast family structures, explore naming conventions in Spanish-speaking cultures, and examine cultural values around family. The unit incorporates discussion of emotions, body parts, and personal attributes while developing intercultural understanding.
Essential Questions
- How does one express feelings, emotions, and states of being in the target language?
- How do you describe ideas and objects in Spanish? And how is that similar to describing people?
- How is the physical appearance of Latin people similar and different to that of Americans and others from around the world?
- How is a Spanish-speaking family similar and different from that of a U.S. family?
- How are children named in Spanish-speaking countries? What do legal names look like?
Learning Objectives
- Describe physical appearance using adjectives and appropriate verbs
- Express emotions and states of being using target language structures
- Use ser, estar, and tener correctly to describe people and conditions
- Identify and describe family relationships and household members
- Compare family structures across cultures
- Understand cultural naming conventions in Spanish-speaking countries
- Create and deliver personal descriptions in interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational contexts
Supplemental Resources
- Printed images or photographs of people of diverse backgrounds
- Index cards with personality and physical adjectives
- Markers and poster board for 'All about me' projects
- Sentence strips for describing family members
- Clipboards for partner interview activities
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
- Adjective matching with images of people
- Partner interviews about appearance and feelings
- Guided listening with descriptions of family members
- Picture-based storytelling about people
- Written descriptions of self or others with feedback
Summative Assessment
Write and present an essay describing self, relative, or another person; compare and contrast self with family member or person of choice; present monster drawing based on partner description; develop skit based on situation card showing emotional states
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may respond orally to describe a person from a provided image or photograph instead of writing. Word banks with adjectives, ser/estar/tener sentence frames, and visual supports showing body parts and emotion faces may be provided to scaffold responses.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from visual word banks pairing adjectives with illustrated faces and body images to support description tasks involving ser, estar, and tener. Providing sentence frames for partner interviews and written descriptions reduces the language production barrier while keeping students engaged with the same core vocabulary. Teachers may allow oral or recorded responses in place of written tasks when the goal is demonstrating understanding of family relationships or emotional states. Breaking the summative presentation into discrete steps with teacher check-ins along the way helps students manage the multi-part demands of describing and comparing people.
Section 504
Students should be given extended time on written description tasks and any assessment requiring them to compose sentences comparing themselves or family members. Preferential seating near the teacher during listening activities supports focus when processing spoken descriptions of people. Providing a printed copy of verbal directions for partner interviews or skit tasks ensures students can reference instructions independently throughout the activity.
ELL / MLL
Because this unit is rich in personal and culturally meaningful vocabulary, teachers should use photographs, illustrated charts of family roles, and visual emotion cards to anchor new Spanish terms in concrete meaning. Simplified directions for partner interviews or description tasks should be given one step at a time, and students may benefit from using their home language to brainstorm ideas before producing output in Spanish. Connecting the unit's exploration of Spanish-speaking naming conventions and family structures to students' own cultural backgrounds can build engagement and support comprehension of cultural comparison activities.
At Risk (RTI)
Teachers should prioritize a core set of high-frequency adjectives and the most commonly used forms of ser, estar, and tener so that students build confidence with foundational structures before expanding their range. Using visual supports such as labeled family photographs or emotion face cards gives students an accessible entry point for description tasks without relying solely on memorized vocabulary. Connecting personal description to students' own families and experiences helps activate prior knowledge and makes the language feel purposeful and manageable.
Gifted & Talented
Students can explore the nuanced distinctions between ser and estar beyond basic usage, investigating how context shifts meaning when describing people's characteristics versus temporary states. Extending cultural inquiry, students might research regional or generational differences in Spanish-speaking family structures and naming conventions, then incorporate those findings into a more sophisticated comparative presentation. Encouraging students to draft descriptions using a wider range of adjectives, idiomatic expressions, or complex sentence structures pushes toward greater linguistic depth rather than simply producing more of the same tasks.