Yesterday, Upper School students could be seen walking around the Charlotte Latin School grounds in groups of three, with a stop-and-go rhythm that made it look like it was their first day on campus. Anyone who approached them discovered that they were speaking Spanish and that in each group, one student was blindfolded with a lavender bandanna.

“For our unit on contemporary life, we’ve been talking about free time and leisure time and the difference between the two,” explained AP Spanish teacher (and Upper School World Languages Department Chair) Gretchan Frederick. Wanting her students to be able to navigate through a Spanish-speaking country — for business or for pleasure — Frederick introduced a new out-of-the-classroom exercise this year, aiming to reinforce some useful vocabulary. 

Each group was assigned a location on campus: one student was blindfolded, while another was responsible for instructing the blindfolded student where to go (and making sure that they didn’t walk into a wall). A third student had access to a vocabulary list and could jump in if the first student faltered or made a mistake like confusing “derecho” (straight) with “derecha” (right). When they reached their destination, each group took a selfie, shuffled roles, and then headed back to the classroom by a different route. By the time they returned, they had all plugged holes in their working Spanish vocabulary.

“They’ll learn the material even more deeply because of this physical aspect,” Frederick said. “But the ultimate goal is to have learning be fun.”