Students in Marisa Minicus’ Spanish 8 classes at Lynbrook South Middle School recently put their language skills to the test with a real estate project about the home. As an engaging way to learn home terminology in Spanish, the eighth graders were asked to create an original home online and serve as the real estate, pretending to sell it.
 
Using their tablets, the students conducted research on the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island website in the Spanish language to become familiar with isolated vocabulary and important details that would be essential in a real estate advertisement. They also worked with the school’s technology specialist Jill Robinson to highlight their house and its details using the platform Microsoft Sway.
 
After about four class days, the students presented their homes in Spanish to their class. Students worked individually or as a group and either read their house details aloud or pre-recorded their information into audio clips which was embedded into their presentations. The class filled out a questionnaire during each presentation and listened for specific information such as how much the house would cost to buy and how many bedrooms and bathrooms it featured. Afterwards, the eighth graders were asked to reflect on their projects in the aspects of contribution, presentation, planning and preparation.
This was the third year that Mrs. Minicus assigned the project to her students as a fun way to culminate the home unit.
  
“I love the way that they put things together,” said Mrs. Minicus. “What’s neat is that they all have the same rubric and every single one of them turns out unique.”
 
The Spanish 8 course is one of a few courses offered at Lynbrook South Middle School that qualifies students for high school credit.