Ir de Compras

While home this weekend, I went to Walmart with my mother. The one we went to just recently opened and as most new ones do, it had self-check registers. I raced my mother to one so I could set it to Spanish. I love doing everyday tasks in Spanish because it gives me the opportunity to see words, phrases and commands that are very practical. Although I understood everything that the machine said, it was fun to see my mother, who hasn't taken Spanish since she was in high school, quickly pick up on the machine's commands because of the visual cues.

Although it would be unrealistic to bring students on a field trip to Walmart, activities similar to this would be helpful to teach students how to take advantage of visual cues as well as how to form and use commands.