Students build and perform a realistic Spanish-language supermarket simulation that answers the question, “What does a successful supermarket visit look like when employees and customers work together in Spanish?” Through the Supermercado SOS launch, research on products and their origins, and collaboration with a local supermercado manager, they learn how language, culture, customer service, and store systems work together in real situations. They strengthen speaking, listening, research, collaboration, and performance skills by revising their roles after partner reflection on the manager visit and applying feedback in repeated practice. The experience culminates in a role-play assessment where students rotate as employees and customers and demonstrate clear directions, polite checkout language, and teamwork for an authentic audience.

Students will use Spanish to ask for and give directions to products, assist customers, and complete checkout interactions clearly, politely, and accurately during a supermarket role-play for an audience. Students will research products sold in supermarkets, including selected items’ origins and cultural significance, and use that information to make the simulation more realistic and informative. Students will collaborate to script, revise, stage, and perform supermarket scenes, drawing on feedback from a local supermercado manager, partner reflection after the visit, and rubric-based practice in rotating employee and customer roles. Students will strengthen discussion, problem-solving, and self-direction by improving how a successful supermarket visit works when employees and customers work together in Spanish.

Students will create bilingual supermarket role cards, store maps, shopping lists, product origin research cards, price tags, and cashier dialogue scripts to build the simulation over time. After the Supermercado SOS launch, teams will produce strategy notes and revise their materials using feedback from the local supermercado manager and insights from the observation or virtual Q&A. They will also create a short reflection capture from partner conversations after the manager visit comparing real store roles to their own simulation changes. By the end, the main products will be a fully staged supermarket simulation and role-play performance, supported by a rubric-scored customer service and checkout experience in Spanish for an audience.

Start with “Supermercado SOS,” a fast-paced mystery shopping challenge where mixed teams of native speakers and Spanish 1/2 students receive a shopping list and must find products, ask for help in Spanish, give directions, and complete checkout with polite customer service language. After the challenge, reveal the essential question—What does a successful supermarket visit look like when employees and customers work together in Spanish?—and have teams briefly compare which communication strategies helped or caused confusion. Invite a local supermercado manager to visit that day or join by video to react to students’ first attempts, explain real employee roles and checkout procedures, and set up a later in-store observation or Q&A. Close with a short team debrief in which students identify what they still need to learn about product locations, customer interactions, and cashier language before building their full supermarket simulation.

Host a public “Supermercado en Acción” event where student teams transform the classroom into a working supermarket and perform rotating role-plays as greeters, aisle helpers, researchers, cashiers, and customers entirely in Spanish. Invite the local supermercado manager, families, school staff, and Spanish classes to act as customers using shopping lists, while native speakers showcase brief product-origin displays that explain where selected items come from and why that matters culturally and globally. Include the final scored performance task during the exhibition, with guests observing students give directions, use polite customer service, complete checkout interactions, and collaborate smoothly. End with a short reflection wall or video booth where students share how the manager visit, observation or Q&A, and peer feedback helped them improve their simulation.