Unit Plan - ¡Vamos a viajar! - Travel Vocabulary, Direct Object Pronouns, Costa Rica Culture

Sep 28, 2026

Unit plan for Spanish 2 focused on travel vocabulary, direct object pronouns, and Costa Rican culture. The plan describes Rochester High School’s diverse learning environment and outlines student proficiency levels using ACTFL guidelines. It explains how prior knowledge gaps (e.g., boarding pass, itinerary, customs) are addressed through visuals, PowerPoint examples, and multiple modalities for learners with special needs. Instructional design includes ACTFL standards and unit objectives for comprehension, vocabulary application, and cultural inference.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages40

Reading Time1 h 41 min

AccessFree to download

Unit Overview

Description of Learning Environment

Overview of the Instructional Design

Unit Plan ¡Vamos a viajar! vTravel vocabulary vDirect object pronouns vCosta Rica Claire Scislowicz Fall Semester 2015 Student Teacher at Rochester High School Spanish 2 (Freshmen and Sophomores) 2 Description of Learning Environment Rochester High School is one of three high schools in the Rochester Community Schools district, located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. In 2014, the racial profile of students and staff was out of 1643 individuals total. From this number, 1177 were white, 144 were African American, 182 were Asian Hispanic, 77 were American Indian, 1 was Pacific Islander, and 53 were two or more races. Out of the three high schools in Rochester Community Schools, there is no denying that Rochester High contains the highest minority population and diversity. The racial make-up definitely impacts the level of education. For example, classrooms with a lot of diversity provide the opportunity for students to think critically and discuss distinctive cultures in depth. Also, the population of many minority students can lend itself to teaching tolerance and acceptance of all races. At Rochester High, the total minority enrollment is 27 percent, which has remained at this level for the past 3 years. In addition, the school is home the English language learner's program for the district for grades 9-12, and has 43 different languages represented. Today, the highschool serves over 80 students who may be scheduled for direct instruction of English and/or for academic support in English. My student teaching experience has been in Spanish 5AP, Spanish 4, and Spanish 2 classes. Therefore, I have taught freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The Spanish 5AP curriculum is extraordinary because it focuses on six major world themes: families and communities, global challenges, beauty and aesthetics, contemporary life, personal and public identities, and science and technology. These themes are extremely relevant for students, which make our class discussions and participation very engaging. As far as the Spanish 4 curriculum, so far, I have taught about the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the work world and its vocabulary, reflexive verbs, verbs with prepositions, double object pronouns, and commands. Finally, for Spanish 2, I completed my unit on travel vocabulary, direct object pronouns, and the culture of Costa Rica. My students at Rochester High have a wide variety of interests, skills, and knowledge. For example, sports, band, music, technology, and travel are all interests that many of my students hold. Students in each level started the year with a solid foundation of Spanish from the previous year. Even my Spanish 2 students retained a lot of basic grammar from Spanish 1. With respect to my learners’current levels of proficiency based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, overall I would classify Spanish 5AP students as intermediate low-mid, Spanish 4 students as novice high-intermediate low, and Spanish 2 students as novice low-mid. Before I began my travel unit in the Spanish 2 classes, I found out what my students’previous experiences were with the content. Most students had been exposed to direct object pronouns at the end of Spanish 1, but did not retain the grammatical structures. In relation to the travel vocabulary, they needed the background information of going to an airport to travel. Some students were still confused about the meanings of a boarding pass, itinerary, and customs, so I thoroughly explained these terms to them at the beginning of the unit to avoid further confusion. A few of my Spanish 2 students have learning disabilities or special needs so I accommodated for them by providing multiple modalities for vocabulary and practice sentences. My PowerPoint with travel vocabulary words as well as direct object pronouns included a plethora of visuals and written examples for these students. 3 Overview of the Instructional Design • Title of the unit: ¡Vamos a viajar! • Duration o

FAQs

What is the unit title and how long does it last?

The unit title is ¡Vamos a viajar! and it lasts two weeks.

What themes and language goals drive the unit?

The unit centers on travel vocabulary, direct object pronouns, and Costa Rican culture, with objectives tied to communication, comprehension, comparisons, and culture standards.

How does the unit address students’ prior knowledge and support learners with special needs?

It begins by checking prior experiences with direct object pronouns and travel-related terms, then explains key concepts to prevent confusion. It also provides multiple modalities and uses PowerPoint visuals and example sentences to support students with learning disabilities or special needs.

Sep 28, 2026

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