Travels with Spanish 1B

It might be January in New England, but students in Julie Tamer’s Spanish 1B class have been imagining themselves in warmer climates as they create travel brochures to Spanish-speaking countries like Cuba, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, and Costa Rica. The goal of the project was to create a persuasive brochure that entices a traveler to choose their destination.

    Each student researched one of the twenty-one Spanish-speaking countries worldwide and created a seven-day travel itinerary highlighting their country’s unique culture, cuisine, geography, and landmarks. Coming at the end of their units on travel and activities, creating the itineraries in Spanish allowed students to practice newly-acquired vocabulary. Students were required to create a travel agency for the project and discuss their country’s climate in the brochure. While students researched a variety of hotels and resorts, Julie also asked them to find a real Airbnb in their country to incorporate into the travel schedule. “I wanted them to get a taste of what local homes might look like,” she adds. Students also spent time researching, reading reviews, and selecting actual restaurants to include in their itineraries on TripAdvisor. Much of the research was done in class so that students could get support with language questions, and students were given the option of using Canva or Google Slides to design their brochures.

Spanish 1B students have some foundational knowledge of the language, and presenting the travel brochures to the class also allowed them to practice their pronunciation and fluency. “The verbs aren’t going to be perfect yet, and students know that everyone is going to make mistakes, but the goal is to present in the target language and just share their work,” says Julie! “They did such a great job!”