¿Cómo será nuestro futuro?

As I looked ahead to future units in our text book, ¡Avancemos!, I came across the unit titled "Cómo será nuestro futuro?" I immediately began to think of all the possible ways I could incorporate real-world environmental concerns and the Spanish language. Then I found "The Garbage Game." After playing this game, and only once, I knew exactly how I could utilize it in my own classroom. This game prompts the user to reflect on their own habits when consuming and disposing of products and the consequences of each potential action on the environment. This form of self-reflection, to be ultimately completed in Spanish, will serve as the main language learning objective of the game.

Before introducing this game to my students, I would assign them a pre-Garbage Game survey. The survey would contain a series of questions, in Spanish, asking students to reflect on their own daily habits in terms of consumption and how they dispose of waste. Furthermore, students will be asked to analyze their role in either protecting or jeopardizing the environment. Students will be expected to complete the survey as thoroughly and specifically as possible and to use unit vocabulary as much as possible.

After students have completed the survey, they will be expected to play "The Garbage Game" outside of the classroom. Once having played the game, students will then complete the post-Garbage Game survey. The survey will contain questions, in Spanish, asking students to re-visit their initial responses; they will be asked to reflect on their new-found perspective and to reevaluate their impact on the environment. They will also be asked to specifically disclose what changed, or stayed the same after playing the game. The pre and post surveys will serve as the formal assessment of the language learning objective.