Unit 1 — Likes and Dislikes and Food
Description
Students explore food as a cultural cornerstone and learn how eating practices differ across Spanish-speaking countries. The unit develops vocabulary related to preferences, meals, and food items while examining cultural attitudes toward mealtimes and etiquette. Through authentic materials and communicative tasks, students recognize that food traditions reflect and strengthen cultural identity. Activities include menu reading, restaurant role-plays, and comparative analysis of meal customs in different countries.
Essential Questions
- How is food different throughout the world?
- Why is it important to discuss food in Spanish-speaking countries?
Learning Objectives
- Use memorized words and phrases to express food preferences and dislikes
- Identify food vocabulary in culturally authentic materials
- Demonstrate comprehension of simple oral and written messages about food and meals
- Engage in basic exchanges about food preferences using practiced questions and responses
- Present basic information about favorite foods using memorized phrases and simple sentences
- Recognize cultural practices related to mealtimes and food etiquette in Spanish-speaking countries
Supplemental Resources
- Printed menus or menu images for reading and comparison
- Index cards with food vocabulary for vocabulary games
- Chart paper for creating class menus or food comparison charts
- Markers and colored pencils for menu design projects
Interpersonal Mode
Interpretive Mode
Presentational Mode
Students engage in speaking, listening, reading, and writing activities that develop communication skills. Through interpersonal dialogues, students practice oral expression. In interpretive tasks, students read and analyze authentic Spanish texts. In presentational modes, students write descriptions, create narratives, and present information orally, developing both language production and comprehension skills aligned with English Language Arts standards.
Students investigate cultural practices, traditions, and perspectives of Spanish-speaking countries through primary and secondary sources. Units incorporate geography, history, and civic understanding of diverse communities. Students analyze how cultural values influence daily life, family structures, and social customs, developing global citizenship and cross-cultural competency.
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Students create visual presentations, design posters, and develop multimedia projects that integrate Spanish language content with artistic expression. Through dramatization, skits, and performance-based assessments, students communicate cultural narratives and personal information using artistic mediums alongside language skills.
Students explore climate change and environmental awareness through Spanish-language contexts, connecting scientific concepts to cultural practices in Spanish-speaking regions. Units include vocabulary related to weather, seasons, and geographic features that influence climate and human activity in target language communities.
Formative Assessments
- Vocabulary and phrase recognition activities using pictures and gestures
- Partner interviews about food preferences using question-response patterns
- Comprehension checks with menu reading and food-related listening activities
- Participation in TPR (Total Physical Response) and dialogue activities
Summative Assessment
Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) requiring students to write and perform a restaurant skit, read and answer questions about a menu, and create a video project using all three modes of communication related to food
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may respond orally to food preference questions or participate in simplified role-plays with visual supports such as labeled pictures of food items and sentence frames. Alternative response formats include selecting images or gestures to express likes and dislikes in place of written or extended verbal responses.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students benefit from visual supports such as picture-based food vocabulary cards and illustrated menus to anchor new language during comprehension and production tasks. For oral and written output, offering options such as responding with single words, gestures, or sentence frames helps students demonstrate understanding of food vocabulary and preference expressions without being limited by output mode. Breaking the summative performance into smaller, scaffolded steps — such as practicing the skit dialogue in chunks before a full performance — reduces cognitive load while still targeting communicative goals. Pre-teaching key food and preference vocabulary with repeated exposure across modalities supports retention for students who need additional processing time.
Section 504
Students should be provided extended time for vocabulary recognition activities, menu reading tasks, and any written components of the summative assessment. Preferential seating near the teacher or a reliable partner during dialogue and role-play tasks supports focus during communicative exchanges. Directions for multi-step activities such as the restaurant skit or video project should be presented both orally and in writing to ensure students can reference them independently throughout the task.
ELL / MLL
Because this unit is conducted in Spanish, MLLs benefit from visual anchoring — pairing food vocabulary with images, realia such as actual menus or food packaging, and short video clips from Spanish-speaking cultural contexts to make meaning accessible. Teachers may allow brief use of a student's home language to clarify meaning when introducing new food terms or cultural practices, helping students connect new vocabulary to concepts they already know. Simplified or chunked directions for partner interviews and role-plays, along with sentence starters provided in advance, allow MLLs to participate meaningfully in communicative exchanges without being blocked by unfamiliar structures.
At Risk (RTI)
Students who need additional support should be introduced to a focused core set of high-frequency food vocabulary and preference phrases before applying them in communicative tasks, allowing them to build confidence with manageable language before adding complexity. Connecting food vocabulary and cultural practices to students' own meal experiences and familiar foods provides a meaningful entry point and activates prior knowledge. During partner and role-play activities, pairing these students with a supportive peer and offering a visual reference card with key phrases gives them the scaffolding needed to participate actively and experience early success.
Gifted & Talented
Students who have quickly internalized food vocabulary and basic preference expressions should be challenged to move beyond memorized phrases by exploring regional variation — comparing how food vocabulary, dishes, or mealtime customs differ across multiple Spanish-speaking countries and analyzing what those differences reveal about culture and identity. For the summative assessment, these students can be encouraged to incorporate more complex and spontaneous language in their skit or video, such as negotiating preferences, expressing opinions with justification, or integrating culturally specific references beyond what was explicitly taught. Independent inquiry into an aspect of food culture that interests them — such as the social role of a particular meal or the influence of Indigenous or African culinary traditions in Latin America — extends learning into analysis and cross-cultural synthesis.