Unit 4 — ¿Cómo eres y cómo es tu familia? (All about me and my family)
Description
This unit develops students' ability to describe themselves, family members, and friends using physical characteristics and personality attributes. Students learn to distinguish between different states of being and possession using the verbs ser, estar, and tener. The unit includes cultural exploration of naming practices, family structures, and the importance of family in Spanish-speaking cultures. Students engage in descriptive writing, interviews, and comparative activities that help them understand similarities and differences between family structures across cultures.
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/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 themselves and others using physical characteristics and personality adjectives
- Express states of being and emotions using estar, ser, and tener appropriately
- Ask and answer questions about family composition, relationships, and characteristics
- Identify and name family members and describe their attributes
- Write descriptions of themselves or family members using simple sentences
- Recognize cultural practices related to naming and family structures in Spanish-speaking countries
- Understand that gender in Spanish applies to objects and concepts, not just people
Supplemental Resources
- Printed images or photographs of people for description activities
- Index cards with personality adjectives and physical characteristics
- Highlighters for marking descriptive words in authentic passages
- Lined journals for writing personal descriptions and family information
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.
Students develop digital literacy and online safety skills through the use of digital tools and applications. They practice problem-solving and critical thinking when evaluating solutions to real-world problems such as climate change. Students engage in research and information gathering from reliable sources, managing digital identity appropriately while creating and sharing presentations and multimedia content.
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 activities identifying physical characteristics and personality traits
- Role-play activities where students describe themselves and others
- Listening comprehension with descriptions of people and families
- Written descriptions of a person with teacher feedback
- Partner interviews asking and answering questions about appearance and personality
Summative Assessment
Students write and present an essay describing themselves, a relative, or another person of their choice; compare and contrast themselves with a family member or peer; present a description while classmates identify key facts; and create a written story or poster describing a person's physical appearance and emotions
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral descriptions of themselves or family members using a word bank or image-based prompts in place of written responses. Sentence frames such as 'Yo soy... Tengo... Estoy...' and visual aids showing physical characteristics and emotions may be provided to support communication.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
For this unit's focus on descriptive language and verb usage, students may benefit from graphic organizers that separate ser, estar, and tener functions visually, helping them process the distinctions before applying them in writing or speech. Sentence frames and word banks with personality adjectives and family vocabulary can reduce the cognitive load of output tasks, allowing students to demonstrate what they know about describing people without being blocked by recall demands. Teachers should consider accepting oral descriptions or recorded responses as alternatives to written essays when the IEP supports modified output modes. Breaking the summative task into staged components — vocabulary draft, sentence draft, and final presentation — allows for frequent feedback and manageable progress toward the end goal.
Section 504
Students in this unit benefit from extended time during partner interviews, written descriptions, and the summative presentation, as processing descriptive vocabulary in a second language can require additional think time. Preferential seating during listening comprehension activities and access to a personal vocabulary reference sheet for ser, estar, and tener supports sustained focus and reduces barriers to participation. Directions for multi-step tasks, such as the compare-and-contrast essay, should be provided in both written and oral formats to ensure clarity.
ELL / MLL
This unit's vocabulary-rich content around physical traits, personality, and family relationships benefits from strong visual support — picture-supported word banks, labeled family diagrams, and visual models of descriptive sentences can help students connect new Spanish vocabulary to meaning without relying solely on English translation. Teachers should provide simplified oral directions and check comprehension by asking students to restate tasks in their own words before beginning. Where appropriate, allowing students to draw on cognates or home language knowledge — particularly for students with Romance language backgrounds — can help accelerate vocabulary acquisition and build confidence in describing themselves and their families.
At Risk (RTI)
Students who may struggle with the volume of new vocabulary in this unit benefit from focused entry points — beginning with a small, high-frequency set of physical descriptors and family terms before expanding to personality adjectives or verb distinctions. Connecting descriptive tasks to students' own families and experiences increases engagement and activates prior knowledge, making the content feel accessible and personally relevant. Teachers can offer partially completed sentence frames or structured templates for the written description tasks to help students produce language successfully while gradually releasing responsibility toward independent expression.
Gifted & Talented
Students who have already internalized basic ser, estar, and tener distinctions can be invited to explore the cultural nuances of how family is defined and discussed across different Spanish-speaking regions, using that analysis to deepen and complicate their descriptive writing. Extending the summative task to include a first-person narrative voice, incorporate figurative language, or make cross-cultural comparisons about family structures challenges students to move beyond description into interpretation and argument. Independent research into naming conventions, such as double surnames or naming traditions tied to specific countries, can enrich their cultural understanding and provide material for a more sophisticated final product.