Webquest: Ordering Food at a Spanish Restaurant

You and your friends have just won a free trip to Spain! You are excited about visiting this beautiful, diverse, friendly country that is so historically and culturally rich and is the cradle of the Spanish language. You are particularly excited about the opportunity to use your newly acquired Spanish language skills, but are somewhat concerned about your ability to communicate, especially when it comes to that most important and enjoyable activity - eating! Will you be able to order food in Spanish at a restaurant or will you starve? What kind of food do they eat? Do they eat tacos, enchiladas and guacamole, like Mexicans do? What happens if I think I am ordering noodle soup and they bring me cow brains? Do they eat meals at the same times we usually do? What kind of currency do they use and will I know if something is too expensive?

In this webquest, we will explore issues such as food and restaurant vocabulary in Spanish, eating customs, currency valuation and comparing Spanish with Mexican cuisine in order to prepare ourselves to order food at a Spanish restaurant. You will research some of these topics and do a variety of activities that will help prepare you for the culminating activity: to create and act out a restaurant skit in Spanish.

You have several tasks in this webquest, some of which will be done individually and some of which will be done in groups of 4, which will be assigned by the teacher. The culminating project is to create and perform a skit in Spanish, which is centered in a Spanish restaurant. However, there are a number of prior activities which will help you to acquire the skills and knowledge to make the skit. All of these activities will form part of your final project grade and are outlined in detail in the "Process" section of the webquest.

7. And now, we are ready for what you have all been waiting. Drumroll, please...

....the creation and presentation of a restaurant-based skit in Spanish!

Follow this process to create your skit:

     1) Pre-skit preparation.
   Let's practice a bit more with additional restaurant
         vocabulary. Click on this link to restaurant vocabulary and do
         the following:
   a) Study "Important words" and "Phrases"
   b) Scroll down and practice with "Flashcards", "Matching",
   "Wordsearch", and "Concentration" exercises.
   c) Take the online "Quiz" at the bottom of the page to see if
             you are absorbing this vocabulary! When you are done
             with the Quiz, click the "Submit" button to see the
             results!

         As an additional resource, check out this
   link to useful restaurant vocabulary and phrases, which you
         might find helpful in creating your dialogue.

      2) Skit preparation. Your group needs to create a skit based in
          a Spanish restaurant, which fulfills the following criteria:
          a) dialogue must be in Spanish (focus on appropriate usage
              of vocabulary and verbs in context)
          b) skit should last 3-4 minutes, without time gaps
          c) each group member must speak at least 5 lines
          d) one of the following themes must be selected and
              developed:
                   * A cook in your restaurant makes the best paella in
                      town. All the customers want to meet him.
                      However, he isn't the friendliest person on staff.
                      What happens when he gets a surpise visit from a
                      special guest?
                   * Your waiter is very friendly but he confuses your
                      order with the person sitting in the next table.
                      You would switch plates but the other customer is
                      already biting into your chicken and loving it? What
                      will you do?
                   * Your co-workers and you decide to go out for a
                      Friday night meal. The problem is that everybody
                      wants to eat something different. Where will you
                      go? How will you compromise?
                   * At a café in Spain, you go out for tapas with a
                      friend. In the restroom, you notice that one of the
                      restaurant employees just walked out without
                      washing his hands! What will you do?

       3) Skit rehearsal. Now the skit is written. What's next? You
           have to practice the skit! Practice makes perfect. Don't just
           "wing it" on the day of the performance. Think of what
           visuals you might need for your performance, like menus,
           costumes, etc. Make sure that all team members have a
           copy of the skit with which to rehearse. Rehearse to get a
           feel of the flow of the performance, practicing reactions,
           facial expressions and body movements that are
           appropriate to the situation.

       4) Skit performance. The teacher will set up the room like a
           Spanish restaurant. Your group needs to provide visuals,
           including menu copies for all cast members. And don't
           leave your enthusiasm at the door. All acting hams are
           welcome! One note for audience members: be quiet and
           respectful during the performance. Encourage each other;
           no negative criticism, please. I look forward to the
           performance!

The items in steps 1-4 in the Process section of this webquest will be graded individually on a scale of 1-5 (1=poor, 2=below average, 3=fair, 4=good, 5=excellent, based on completion and accuracy) representing 25% of the project grade. The items in steps 5-7 in the Process section will be given a group grade and will comprise the other 75% of your total grade. See the skit rubric below to see what factors will be evaluated:

	Beginning 2	Developing 3	Accomplished 4	Exemplary 5
Language Usage	Skit conducted in English or mostly in English or in Spanish, but filled with numerous grammatical errors	Spanish mixed with considerable amount of English; considerable grammatical errors	Spanish used throughout most of skit, with some exceptions; some grammatical errors	Spanish used consistently throughout skit; few grammatical errors
Length of Performance	Skit lasts under 1 minute, with no major gaps or 1-2 minutes with some gaps	Skit lasts 1-2 minutes, with no major gaps or 2-3 minutes with some gaps	Skit lasts 2-3 minutes, with no major gaps or 3-4 minutes with some gaps	Skit lasts 3-5 minutes, with no major gaps
At Least 5 lines per person/ pronunciation/ inflection	Most of skit centers around 1 member, with others having less than 5 lines, poor pronunciation and inflection	2 group members had less than 5 lines, fair pronunciation and inflection	At least 1 group member had less than 5 lines, good pronunciation and inflection	At least 5 lines per person, excellent pronunciation and inflection
Theme Development	One of given skit themes was not developed or was poorly developed	One of the given themes was minimally developed	One of the given skit themes was developed well, but with some confusion	One of the given skit themes was developed very well
Appropriate Facial Expressions/ Body Movements	Little to no usage of facial expressions/ body movements	Inconsistent usage of facial expressions/ body movement	Generally appropriate usage of facial expressions/ body movements	Excellent usage of facial expressions/ body movements
Evidence of rehearsal	No evidence of rehearsal, uninspired performance	Some evidence of rehearsal, but considerable problems with its flow	Skit fairly well-rehearsed, but some problems with flow	Skit obviously well-rehearsed with good flow of speech, events
Usage of Visuals	No props	Few props, poorly used	Good props, fairly well used	Excellent props, well used
Copy of Skit	Sloppy copy of skit/ No copy of skit	Typed copy of skit turned in, but not well-organized	Untyped copy of skit turned in, clear and well organized	Typed copy of skit turned in, clear and well organized

We have learned quite a lot about how to order food in Spanish, eating customs in Spain, differences between Spanish & Mexican cuisine (no tacos, tamales or enchiladas in Spain, unless you go to a Mexican restaurant!), currency valuation, working in groups, and hamming it up on the stage. Do you feel more confident about ordering food in Spanish now? Did you enjoy this webquest? I hope so. Buen provecho!

I would like to thank my WIT mentors, Jay Mulberry, Joy Reeves and techie wizard Alex Wilson for their wisdom, guidance and patience in helping me acquire the technical knowledge to develop this webquest.

* Title VII Foreign Language Assistance Project of the Chicago Public Schools and DePaul University