Unit 5 — ¿Adónde vas? (Where do you go?)
Description
Students learn to describe destinations and activities within their daily routines and during leisure time. The unit covers vocabulary for places, leisure activities, clothing, and weather while examining how Spanish speakers spend weekends, vacations, and free time. Through comparative analysis, students recognize both similarities and cultural differences in how people spend their time. Activities include vacation research, schedule creation, and role-plays about planning trips and weekend activities.
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? Why?
Learning Objectives
- State where they go during the week, on weekends, and on vacation using simple sentences
- Express preferences for places and activities using the verb gustar and infinitive verbs
- Describe appropriate clothing based on weather and activities
- Understand and respond to questions about weekend plans and vacation preferences
- Read and interpret schedules, weather reports, and travel descriptions
- Present vacation plans or favorite destinations to an audience
- Recognize cultural attitudes toward formality in dress and social customs
Supplemental Resources
- Printed images or photographs of different destinations for discussion
- Chart paper for creating vacation brochures or destination posters
- Markers and colored pencils for brochure design
- Printed weather forecasts or climate information for different regions
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 related to destinations, activities, and clothing
- Listening comprehension with descriptions of vacation plans and weekend activities
- Partner interviews about preferences and plans
- Schedule interpretation and creation activities
- Clothing selection based on weather and destination scenarios
Summative Assessment
Students create a vacation brochure or research a destination describing where they go, what activities they will do, and what clothing to wear based on weather; write about their best weekend or vacation; present their destination research to the class; or create a song or skit describing favorite activities
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to teacher questions about destinations and activities, with the option to use visual supports such as pictures or word banks to identify places, clothing, and activities. Alternatively, students may create a simpler version of the summative project, such as labeling a travel itinerary or matching activities to appropriate weather and clothing.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students working with IEP supports may benefit from graphic organizers that visually map destinations, activities, clothing, and weather together, reducing the cognitive load of managing multiple vocabulary domains at once. Oral response options—such as completing partner interviews or presenting plans verbally rather than in writing—allow students to demonstrate understanding of gustar and destination vocabulary without being limited by written output. Directions for multi-step tasks like schedule creation or brochure projects should be broken into numbered steps with visual examples of the expected end product. Extended time and frequent check-ins during independent work will help students build confidence as they work with new verb forms and vocabulary.
Section 504
Students with 504 plans should be given extended time for vocabulary tasks, listening activities, and any written components of the vacation or weekend project. Preferential seating during listening comprehension activities supports access to audio input, and a reduced-distraction environment is especially helpful when students are decoding descriptions of places and activities in the target language. Printed copies of any directions or vocabulary presented orally or on the board ensure students can reference key language at their own pace.
ELL / MLL
Multilingual learners will benefit from rich visual support throughout this unit—illustrated vocabulary for places, clothing, and weather conditions helps bridge meaning across languages and makes new vocabulary concrete and accessible. Where possible, connecting destination and leisure vocabulary to students' own cultural backgrounds and travel experiences provides meaningful entry points into the unit's comparative cultural content. Simplified directions for tasks like schedule creation or role-plays, paired with a model or visual example, help students understand expectations without requiring full command of academic English. Encouraging students to use their home language as a thinking tool when preparing for partner interviews or brochure writing supports deeper engagement with the content.
At Risk (RTI)
Students who need additional support should be connected to this unit's vocabulary through familiar, relatable contexts—discussing their own neighborhoods, weekend routines, or personal preferences for activities and clothing before extending to new or unfamiliar destinations. Vocabulary sets for places, weather, and clothing can be introduced in smaller, thematically grouped chunks so students build a workable word bank before attempting to use the language productively in interviews or written tasks. Sentence frames for expressing preferences using gustar and infinitive verbs give students a structured starting point for speaking and writing tasks. Allowing students to demonstrate understanding through annotated visuals, simple labeled drawings, or oral responses reduces barriers while keeping learning expectations high.
Gifted & Talented
Advanced learners should be pushed beyond surface-level description of destinations and activities toward more nuanced comparative cultural analysis—for example, examining how attitudes toward dress formality, leisure, or vacation culture differ across Spanish-speaking regions and what those differences reveal about social values. Students can be encouraged to independently research a less commonly discussed destination, drawing on authentic Spanish-language sources such as travel articles or regional tourism content, and to synthesize that research into a more complex presentation or written piece. Extension opportunities that invite students to experiment with persuasive or creative language—such as a travel advertisement or a first-person travel narrative—push their use of vocabulary and verb structures into more sophisticated and authentic communicative contexts.