Unit 5 — ¿Adónde vas? (Where do you go?)
Description
Students describe where they go during the week, on weekends, and on vacation, learning to express preferences for destinations and activities. The unit examines how Spanish-speaking people spend leisure time and weekend time, recognizing that pastimes are similar between Latin and American cultures despite some differences. Students compare weather-appropriate clothing and dress codes across cultures, understanding that Spanish people tend toward more formal attire than people in the United States. The unit develops vocabulary for destinations, activities, weather, and clothing while students learn near-future and preference structures. Career awareness and critical thinking standards connect to planning travel and evaluating destination choices.
Essential Questions
- How are Spanish-speaking destinations different from each other?
- How do Spanish-speaking people spend their weekends?
- Where do they like to go and what do they like to do?
- How do Spanish-speaking people dress in comparison to people in the United States, and why?
Learning Objectives
- Name and describe common destinations and leisure activities
- Express preferences for places and activities using target language structures
- Describe weather conditions and appropriate clothing for outings
- Ask and answer questions about vacation plans and weekend activities
- Compare and contrast leisure activities in Spanish-speaking countries with those in the U.S.
- State where one goes during different times of week and year
- Use near-future structures to talk about planned activities
Supplemental Resources
- Printed images of Spanish-speaking destinations and landmarks
- Blank brochure templates or construction paper for vacation projects
- Weather icons or pictures for discussing weather conditions
- Clothing picture cards for matching weather and outfits
Interpersonal Mode
Interpretive Mode
Presentational Mode
Students engage in collaborative discussions about cultural practices and perspectives, write narratives describing family members and personal attributes, read and interpret authentic Spanish texts, and present information about school environments and communities using narrative and descriptive techniques.
Students investigate geography and culture of Spanish-speaking countries, compare and contrast family structures and customs across cultures, examine school systems and educational practices in different societies, and analyze how cultural and socioeconomic factors influence daily life and community development.
Students create visual presentations such as posters and floor plans, develop skits and role-plays to demonstrate cultural practices and communication scenarios, design multimedia projects, and explore art and cultural expressions from Spanish-speaking communities.
Students examine climate patterns and geographic features of Spanish-speaking regions, investigate environmental awareness and recycling practices in different communities, and explore how geography and climate influence culture and human settlement.
Formative Assessments
- Pair interviews about vacation preferences and weekend plans
- Listening to descriptions of destinations and identifying them from images
- Reading passages about outings and matching clothing descriptions to destinations
- Watching videos of people describing activities and answering questions
- Responding to questions about likes and dislikes related to places and activities
- Interpreting schedules to determine activities and preferences
Summative Assessment
Create a vacation brochure describing a destination; research and present a destination for a weekend or summer trip, describing activities and appropriate clothing based on weather; write a narrative about a best weekend or vacation; create a song or skit describing favorite activities
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to teacher prompts about destinations and activities, with visual supports such as picture cards or word banks provided. Alternative formats may include matching destinations to activities, sorting clothing by weather conditions, or creating a labeled picture collage instead of written or oral production.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from visual supports such as illustrated destination cards and weather-clothing charts to anchor new vocabulary as they work toward describing places and activities. For output tasks like the vacation brochure or narrative, offering alternatives such as oral recording, dictation, or a partially completed graphic organizer can reduce barriers related to written expression while still targeting the language objectives. Sentence frames for near-future and preference structures support independent production during pair interviews and writing tasks. Preteaching key destination and weather vocabulary before whole-class instruction helps students access listening and reading tasks with greater confidence.
Section 504
Extended time on assessments such as the vacation brochure or written narrative supports students who need additional processing time for both language and content demands. Preferential seating near instructional visuals and the teacher reduces distraction during listening activities and video-based tasks. Providing a printed vocabulary reference with destination, weather, and clothing terms allows students to focus cognitive effort on language use rather than recall alone.
ELL / MLL
Visual supports — including illustrated vocabulary banks for destinations, weather conditions, and clothing — are especially helpful in this unit, where concrete images can bridge new Spanish vocabulary with students' prior knowledge and home language. Directions for multi-step tasks like the brochure or skit should be given in clear, brief steps, and students should be invited to confirm understanding in their own words before beginning. Where possible, connecting the cultural content about Spanish-speaking leisure and dress customs to students' own cultural experiences provides meaningful entry points and affirms their backgrounds as assets in comparative discussions.
At Risk (RTI)
Breaking the unit's destination and activity vocabulary into smaller, high-frequency clusters allows students to build confidence progressively before tackling more complex structures like near-future expressions. Anchor new language to familiar contexts — asking students to first talk about places they already know and visit in their own community — before extending to vacation and travel scenarios. For production tasks, a structured template or sentence-starter framework gives students a manageable entry point without reducing the communicative goal of the task. Frequent, brief check-ins during vocabulary and listening practice help identify gaps early and keep students connected to the unit's core ideas.
Gifted & Talented
Students who have quickly acquired the unit's destination vocabulary and near-future structures can be challenged to analyze and present comparative cultural arguments — for example, examining what differences in leisure customs and dress codes between the U.S. and Spanish-speaking countries reveal about broader cultural values. The summative brochure or presentation can be extended to require original research from authentic Spanish-language sources, pushing students to evaluate and synthesize information rather than simply describe. Encouraging students to explore regional variation — how leisure time differs across specific Spanish-speaking countries or between urban and rural settings — adds meaningful depth and models the kind of nuanced cultural thinking the unit invites.