Come Fly with Me: Spanish I Students Turn Travel Agents

Have you ever thought about planning a trip to Spain? Lakota West students in Tricia Becker’s Spanish I class have some recommendations. They put on their travel agent hats to learn more about the country - and shared this knowledge with their classmates.

In other words, the “travel agents” would build a travel package for a family of four where money was no object.

Through the project, the students met two intercultural objectives for the class: “Interact with cultural competence using knowledge and understanding of native and other cultures” and “identify typical cultural products and practices related to familiar, everyday life in native and other cultures to help understand perspectives.” 

While not a new assignment, Becker wanted to switch things up and looked to the school’s innovation specialist, Lindsay Ellis, for some ideas. “Lindsay helped me re-envision by adding choice, student ownership and reflection,” explained Becker. “As an innovation specialist, Lindsay says that helping teachers reinvent our lessons (and) projects through a student-centered lens is one of the favorite things about her job, and she is very talented at it!”

Together, the pair have been diving into Becker’s Spanish I and II curriculum. “We’re honing in on deepening her projects,” said Ellis, noting that Becker wants to include more project-based learning in her classes. Ellis suggested incorporating a student-choice board, which empowers students to decide how they want to share the knowledge they gain through their research, as opposed to telling the students how they would present. 

After deciding which area of Spain they wanted to research, students chose one of six different presentation options: 

• Create a digital bulletin board, using an online tool called Padlet;
• Create a travel brochure;
• Create a video commercial;
• Create a website;
• Create a poster; or 
• Create a custom method of presenting the information.

Working in groups or individually, the students researched their regions, learning what tourists might find interesting. Many presentations included information about Spanish customs and celebrations, historical monuments and foods that are specific to the region. “When you go somewhere, you think of food, attractions and beautiful sights,” said junior Shaunjay Hemans. Using an application called Wevideo, he created a commercial about Galicia, located in northwest Spain, to present to the class.

Kaylan Mares worked with her partners, Vibol Vann and Jeilin Segovia, to research La Rioja in the northern part of the country. The group agreed that this project was a great way to learn about the country. “Some people don’t know about other cultures,” said Mares. “It’s good to learn about it and it’s also a good way to learn about (different) religions.”

In addition to a presentation, the assignment also included self-reflection. “Since COVID, students aren’t used to collaborating,” said Ellis, referring to the strict guidelines schools had to follow over the past two years. When brainstorming what self-reflection would look like for the project, Ellis suggested they start with asking ‘what was your contribution to your group?’ “This has set a really strong foundation on what group work can look like and how it can work.” 

Each student not only explained their responsibility in the project, but also reflected on how they contributed to the project. “With this being the first project of the year, I wanted to get students in the habit of thinking about and monitoring their own learning and contribution to a group,” said Becker. “Giving students the opportunity to self-reflect will hopefully get them in a habit of taking more ownership of their learning, with the goal of advocating for themselves and their learning needs in my class and others they may have.” 

It seems to be working.

Becker overheard a student sharing with one of her group members that she would make more of an effort next time. The other student was very supportive, noting that this was the first group project and they were there to help one another. Becker noted, “I really feel like the reflection piece of the project helped (the student) to identify where she felt she could improve for the next time. It organically created a meaningful conversation and improved the group vulnerability and dynamics.”

Self-reflection isn’t just for the students - it’s for Becker as well. “I am proud of the students for their work. Just like the students, it is time for me to self-reflect as an educator on what I can do better next time.”