Unit 5 — ¿Adónde vas? (Where do you go?)
Description
In this unit for grades 6-8, students describe where they go in their daily lives and with their families. Students learn vocabulary for destinations, leisure activities, and places they visit on weekends, vacations, and after school. The unit compares and contrasts Spanish-speaking destinations with American ones, recognizing that destinations vary greatly in geography and culture. Students explore how pastime activities and weekend destinations are similar between Latin American and American people, though cultural differences exist. The unit also examines how cultural perspectives influence daily attire, noting that Spanish people tend to be more formal while the U.S. is more relaxed. Through various communicative activities, students express preferences, state where they go, and discuss what they like to do.
Essential Questions
- How are Spanish-speaking destinations different from each other?
- How do Spanish-speaking people spend their weekends and where do they like to go and do?
- How do Spanish-speaking people dress in comparison to people in the United States and why?
Learning Objectives
- Name and describe various destinations and places using target vocabulary
- Express where they go during the week, on weekends, and during vacation
- Describe leisure activities and pastimes using appropriate verb forms
- Express preferences for places and vacation destinations
- Compare and contrast weekend activities and vacation destinations across cultures
- Describe appropriate clothing for different destinations and weather conditions
- Understand cultural perspectives on formality in dress
- Ask and answer questions about destinations and activities
Supplemental Resources
- Sticky notes for displaying vocabulary related to destinations and activities
- Chart paper for creating comparison charts of destinations or activities
- Printed images or photographs of vacation destinations from Spanish-speaking countries
Interpersonal Mode
Interpretive Mode
Presentational Mode
Students engage in writing and reading activities across all units, including writing descriptions, creating narratives, reading authentic passages, and expressing ideas through written communication in Spanish and English.
Students explore Spanish-speaking countries, their cultures, customs, families, schools, and lifestyles. Learning includes geographic awareness, cultural practices, and understanding diverse perspectives from target language communities.
Students create posters, presentations, skits, songs, and visual projects. They engage in dramatization, creative expression, and perform cultural activities that integrate music and performance.
Students examine climate change, environmental awareness, and recycling practices in Spanish-speaking communities. Topics include weather, animals, natural resources, and geography-related concepts.
Students use mathematics in practical contexts including time telling, ordinal numbers, counting, measuring, creating floor plans with scale, and interpreting quantitative data.
Students utilize digital tools and applications including Flipgrid, Edpuzzle, Duolingo, Quizlet, Google Tools, YouTube, and other web-based platforms for language learning, research, and project creation.
Formative Assessments
- Interviews with partners about vacation preferences and weekend activities
- Listening activities identifying destinations and activities from descriptions
- Reading passages about clothing and destinations with comprehension questions
- Partner conversations debating and discussing weekend plans
- Viewing and interpreting authentic videos about activities and destinations
- Written descriptions of schedules and their corresponding activities
Summative Assessment
Assessment transfer task requiring students to read passages describing clothing and determine appropriate destinations, compare school uniforms using Venn diagrams, watch authentic videos and answer comprehension questions, create vacation brochures, write presentations about best weekend or vacation experiences, research a destination and describe activities and appropriate clothing, and create songs or skits describing favorite activities
Benchmark Assessment
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Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through verbal responses to teacher questions about destinations and activities, supported by word banks or picture cards. Simplified response formats such as matching activities to locations or selecting from multiple-choice options may replace written or presentation-based tasks.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students with IEPs may benefit from visual supports such as illustrated vocabulary cards for destinations, activities, and clothing to reduce the language processing load inherent in this unit. For oral and written output tasks—such as describing where they go or expressing preferences—teachers should offer flexible response modes, including allowing students to respond orally, use sentence frames, or point to images rather than producing extended written text. Directions for multi-step tasks like creating comparisons or researching destinations should be broken into numbered steps with a visual model of the expected product. Pre-teaching key vocabulary related to places, leisure activities, and cultural dress before introducing reading passages or listening activities will help students access content more independently.
Section 504
Students with 504 plans should be given extended time on reading passages about clothing and destinations, as well as on any written or project-based tasks in this unit. Preferential seating near the teacher or away from high-distraction areas is particularly helpful during listening activities involving authentic video or audio. Printed copies of any directions or visual prompts displayed on the board should be provided to ensure consistent access throughout the unit.
ELL / MLL
Because this unit is rich in cultural content and destination-related vocabulary, teachers should build background knowledge using maps, photographs of Spanish-speaking destinations, and short visual media before introducing reading or listening tasks. Simplified, chunked directions in both English and, where possible, students' home languages will help MLL students access multi-part tasks such as comparing weekend activities or describing appropriate clothing. A growing word wall or personal vocabulary reference organized around key thematic categories—places, activities, clothing, and preferences—will support students as they work toward using target vocabulary in context.
At Risk (RTI)
At-risk students should be connected to the unit's themes through personal experience first—inviting them to share familiar places they go, activities they enjoy, and what they typically wear—before introducing Spanish vocabulary and cultural comparisons. Reducing the number of vocabulary terms or destinations required at one time, while ensuring those selected are high-frequency and personally relevant, will help build confidence and a foundation for broader content. Structured graphic organizers for comparison tasks and partially completed sentence frames for expressing preferences will lower the barrier to participation while still engaging students in meaningful language use.
Gifted & Talented
Gifted students should be encouraged to move beyond surface-level comparisons of destinations and activities by researching the geographic, historical, or socioeconomic factors that shape leisure culture in a specific Spanish-speaking region. Rather than simply describing where they go or what they wear, students can be challenged to analyze how cultural values—such as formality in dress or the role of family in weekend plans—are reflected in language and daily life, drawing on authentic sources such as news articles, travel content, or social media in Spanish. Extension work might involve crafting a persuasive argument for a travel recommendation or writing a cultural analysis piece that synthesizes multiple perspectives, pushing toward higher-order thinking within the unit's thematic framework.