Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez (Credit to Marie Segura)

Class theme/topic discussed : Travel

Goal of the class 

  • Practice vocabulary related to traveling and means of transport
  • Get to know popular touristic destinations in Spanish speaking places

Class structure

  • Warm up: Questions (Do you like traveling? What does traveling mean to you? What are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling? Do you think traveling is a form of education? What places have you been to? Would you like to travel on your own?
  • Input:  Story about one of my trips (emphasis on means of transport and activities I did there)
  • Activity 1: What type of traveller are you? Students have been given a free trip but they can’t choose where to go. In pairs, students fill in a chart explaining what type of traveller they are and rank a list of things they like to do the most when traveling.
  • Activity 2: Organize the trip. Organize a surprise trip for another pair of students using their preferences. Each pair of students receives another pair’s list of preferences. Now they have to organize a surprise trip, by first choosing a destination (4 destinations are proposed on a handout with the main activities you can do there but they can also choose another Spanish-speaking destination and look up for information online) and then deciding on different aspects of the trip: length of the trip, means of transport, housing, activities organized there. When they’re done, students pick 10 items out of a list that they would pack for this trip. They can add things if they want to. 
  • Activity 3: Presenting the trip/Receiving the Gift. Each group presents the trip they organized to the rest of the class (and especially to the group who receives it who has to react)
  • Activity 4: Customs role-play. Students are on their way to their destinations. In small groups they have to recreate getting to the airport, checking their luggage, going through customs and everything people usually have to do when in the airport.
  • Activity 5: Filling a complaint. Students come up with a complaint about something going wrong with their trip (the flight got delayed, the airline lost their luggage, the place they where staying at wasn’t clean enough, etc.) 
  • Activity 6: COVID-19. ¿How has traveling changed since the virus started spreading? What measures have been taken by airlines/airports? Do you think this is going to have a more permanent effect on traveling in the future? How are airports and airplanes going to look like after the pandemic is under control? 

Resources used

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • The class worked okay. Trying to use the handout was hard because of zoom, but after trying to make the questions in a more conversational way, it worked okay. Because only 2 students joined the class, we only did the first 3 activities.

Annex

  • Traveler’s handout
Viajero-handout.pages