Currently, my 8th graders are studying a unit on their daily routine and hygiene. We have done all the standard vocabulary and grammar activities and well as personalized stories about their own lives and preferences, but so much has been happening in the world related to Spanish-speaking countries and I really wanted to incorporate that into our class while still meeting those vocabulary objectives, so I created this webquest. ___________________________________________________ In this scenario, we talk about all the natural disasters that have occurred recently and how people lost everything, including basic necessities (water, soap, toilet paper -- lots of relevant vocabulary!) As a group, they will be given $200 to purchase supplies for those in need, but they must be wise consumers. They spent the period reading through retail websites in Spanish and comparing and contrasting prices for these items. I made them do the math of converting from pesos to dollars and looking at unit price. Then they had to reflect as a group on what they would buy and why, before reflecting on the experience of the activity overall.
There were a few flaws in this activity that I would change for next year. For starters, some of the websites were not as thorough in Spanish and students had to flip back and forth to the English versions at times. Additionally, a lot of the reflecting had to be done in English because the 8th graders just didn't have enough language to do it justice in Spanish, but I could see this being an awesome activity for Spanish III and up. Also, I am okay with them using English for deeper thinking because they received Spanish input while reading the websites. Overall, I was happy with the assignment because I felt like it allowed me to use the vocabulary that I'm required to teach in a more meaningful way and brought in lots of outside topics like economics, math, and social studies. Click here for other webquest ideas!
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