Are you looking for an engaging project that gets your secondary ESL students researching, writing, and presenting about something they actually care about? This Plan Your Dream Vacation Project Based Learning Unit gives your students the chance to explore a destination of their choice while building real research, persuasive writing, and presentation skills.
In this 1–2 week project, students research a dream destination, plan a real budget, create a hand-made trifold travel brochure or digital slideshow, and write a persuasive essay convincing their family to take them there. It is real research, real math, and real writing — with a real audience. That combination is what gets secondary ESL students to actually do the work.
What makes this project different is the built-in differentiation. Three writing levels are included in the same document so you are not creating separate assignments for your mixed-proficiency class. Beginners get full sentence frames. Intermediate students get sentence starters. Advanced students work from the prompt independently. You print, sort, and hand them out. That is it.
This product covers the following standards:
The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes
Locate and evaluate relevant sources
Gather and organize research notes
Cite sources
Write a persuasive argument with claim, evidence, and counterargument
Address counterclaims
Revise drafts using peer feedback
Publish written work for an appropriate audience
Give a presentation using language effectively
Students will research:
Location, continent, and region of their destination
Language(s) spoken and currency
Top attractions and things to do
Food and local cuisine
Cultural customs and traditions
Weather and best time to visit
Why their destination is worth visiting
Real flight, hotel, food, and activity costs
Total trip budget
✨ Plan Your Dream Vacation Includes ✨
Teacher Guide with day-by-day schedule, differentiation notes, and sample persuasive essay
Destination Research Notes — 2 pages, 7 categories
Budget Planning Sheet with stretch challenge math extension
Trifold Brochure Guide — labeled reference version + blank student version
Digital Slideshow Guidelines
Persuasive Writing Assignment — 3 differentiated levels (sentence frames, sentence starters, and prompt only)
Sentence frames and starters
Peer Evaluation Checklist
Presentation Rubric
Writing Rubric
TEKS + CCSS alignment included
This project works well:
After state testing when you still have weeks left
As an end of year project
As a standalone research and writing unit any time of year
In self-contained ESOL and ELD classes with mixed proficiency levels
Are you looking for an engaging project that gets your secondary ESL students researching, writing, and presenting about something they actually care about? This Plan Your Dream Vacation Project Based Learning Unit gives your students the chance to explore a destination of their choice while building real research, persuasive writing, and presentation skills.
In this 1–2 week project, students research a dream destination, plan a real budget, create a hand-made trifold travel brochure or digital slideshow, and write a persuasive essay convincing their family to take them there. It is real research, real math, and real writing — with a real audience. That combination is what gets secondary ESL students to actually do the work.
What makes this project different is the built-in differentiation. Three writing levels are included in the same document so you are not creating separate assignments for your mixed-proficiency class. Beginners get full sentence frames. Intermediate students get sentence starters. Advanced students work from the prompt independently. You print, sort, and hand them out. That is it.
This product covers the following standards:
The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes
Locate and evaluate relevant sources
Gather and organize research notes
Cite sources
Write a persuasive argument with claim, evidence, and counterargument
Address counterclaims
Revise drafts using peer feedback
Publish written work for an appropriate audience
Give a presentation using language effectively
Students will research:
Location, continent, and region of their destination
Language(s) spoken and currency
Top attractions and things to do
Food and local cuisine
Cultural customs and traditions
Weather and best time to visit
Why their destination is worth visiting
Real flight, hotel, food, and activity costs
Total trip budget
✨ Plan Your Dream Vacation Includes ✨
Teacher Guide with day-by-day schedule, differentiation notes, and sample persuasive essay
Destination Research Notes — 2 pages, 7 categories
Budget Planning Sheet with stretch challenge math extension
Trifold Brochure Guide — labeled reference version + blank student version
Digital Slideshow Guidelines
Persuasive Writing Assignment — 3 differentiated levels (sentence frames, sentence starters, and prompt only)
Sentence frames and starters
Peer Evaluation Checklist
Presentation Rubric
Writing Rubric
TEKS + CCSS alignment included
This project works well:
After state testing when you still have weeks left
As an end of year project
As a standalone research and writing unit any time of year
In self-contained ESOL and ELD classes with mixed proficiency levels
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