Tag: teaching past tense

Describing Childhood with the IMPERFECT

Childhood goes hand in hand with the imperfect tense. Here is a spin on the typical classroom activities!

Last week I explicitly taught the Imperfect past tense to my Spanish 2 students. It was not the first time they had been exposed, but it was the first time I explained the various verb endings.

This week was a difficult one with state testing. I needed something light and entertaining. Over Spring Break, I gave my students the homework of sending me a picture from their childhood. So, this week, I put those pictures to use.

My goal for this activity is for the students to be able to answer the questions ¿Cómo era? and ¿Qué hacía? (What were they like? and What did they do?). So, to start the activity, I write those two questions on the board. Then I ask students to Think, Pair, Share adjectives that especially describe childhood personalities. After time to think and time to share with a partner, I tell students to just shout them out and I write them on the board as fast as I can.

The next question pertains to activities in the past. Once again, students Think, Pair, Share childhood activities. I tell them to keep the activities in the past, and they do well remembering what verbs in the imperfect should sound like based on last week’s lesson. I also write these on the board.

I use the @ symbol to remind my students that these adjectives will end in ‘o’ when describing a boy and ‘a’ when describing a girl.

Now comes the fun part. Remember those pictures of my students? I organize them in folders for each class period. Then, I project them on the board.

First we try to guess who it is in the picture (some are obvious and some are more difficult – especially the baby photos). Then, I start describing them. I completely make it up, flying by the seat of my pants. If you have trouble improvising on the spot, you may consider writing a short description for the pictures you want to spotlight.

Project the photo and make up a story about it! Write words on the board that the students might need to make your story comprehensible.

I like to have fun with it. If I have a shy student, I talk about how social she or he was as a child. Her parents had to tell her to be quiet so often that now she is just quiet! If I have a loud student, I expound on how annoying he or she was, how they stomped and yelled all the time.

In the pictures, I try to take the opportunity to teach words like pesad@ (annoying), mimad@/consentid@ (spoiled), egoísta (selfish), and bien/mal educad@ (well/poorly mannered). I add these words to the board as I use them.

After each story, I would ask students to answer the two target questions of the day. Then I would ask the whole class the questions and get a choral response from them. To keep students awake, after each picture, they had to change seats and sit by someone new.

My students were impressed at times with how spot-on some of my impromptu stories were and they laughed at the ones that were obviously out in left field. At the end of it all, the most fun part was seeing classmates as kids and remembering our childhoods.

I did this lesson for two days that were divided by a day of state testing. It was a nice break from sitting and testing. I got through 8-10 pictures each day, depending on how much I elaborated. I didn’t get through all of the pictures, but that’s okay! Next week I will use them to review the target questions and possible have them as options for a timed write.

Comparing the present and the past

Most language teachers at some point need to delve into the past tense. While this 3-day lesson is not the first exposure my students get with the past, it is the first time I clearly outline the imperfect past tense.

Most language teachers at some point need to delve into the past tense. While this 3-day lesson is not the first exposure my students get with the past, it is the first time I clearly outline the imperfect past tense.

DAY 1: We start the day with a partner chat in English about what activities students did as children. It is okay if they also do the activity now. Then I randomly call on students to share with the class. I ask students to 1) repeat the action/verb the student said in English 2) tell me what that verb is in Spanish. I then wrote it on the board in black. We repeat it and talk about how it is what a person does now in the present. Then I write the past tense underneath it. We all repeat the word various times, then I repeat the student’s original childhood activity in Spanish.

This is the time for circling with questions. Ask “Who else did this action?”, “Did you do this action?” “Class, did Sue do this action?”, “I did this action, too!”

We work on this for 30-40 minutes. I have students pause and talk to each other about what they do in Spanish and we do a lot of questioning and circling. For the last 10 minutes of class, we do an inside-outside circle of students sharing what they used to do as a child.

DAY 2: Now that I have explicitly shown the difference between the present and the general past, I tell the students a story of sorts. I draw a line across the middle of the board and write “Ahora” (now) above the line and “De niñ@” (As a child) under it. We start by creating a character and describing him/her. Then we describe what s/he does on a typical day. My first class made her a boring person with boring activities. My second class made her much more interesting.

Make a line down the center of the board to divide the past and the present.

Once the present activities are decided, I have students switch seats and tell their new partner about our person’s present day.

Now it is time to switch it up. We go through the same verbs, but now change them to the past. Our boring person, it turns out, was an interesting child. Our interesting person was a boring child. We have a lot of fun with it!

Debrah es baja y gordita. Ella es feliz y activa. Ella va al parque. En el parque camina los gatos. De niña, Debrah era baja y flaca. Ella era antipática y enojada. Debrah iba a la escuela. En la escuela ella escribía mucho.
Ahora Debrah come huevos y atún para el lonche. De niña ella comía un sándwich de jamón y queso. Ahora ella lee el diccionario de “Twilight”. De niña ella leía “Huevos verdes con jamón”. Ahora se ducha en la noche. De niña se bañaba en la mañana.

Once we have determined the childhood of our character, students once again change seats and tell their new partner what our character used to do in the past. Once conversation dies down, I throw a ball or stuffed animal to one student who starts the retell of the story. I help by pointing at the verb and giving prompting when needed.

Now students move one last time. After the last move, they compare our character’s present and past. The sentence stem is already on the board to help them along. “Now Debrah is…, but as a child Debrah was…”. I walk around and make sure students understand and are getting it. If time allows, we go over it again as a class.

DAY 3: Today is a writing day. I have the students make a line from tallest to shortest and then I fold the line to pair them up. Each group gets a paper and writing utensil and then sits on the floor (I am *mostly deskless). I show the students how to fold their paper, one step at a time. The goal is to have 2 columns with 8 sections. (Fold long way once, then fold in half 3 times). The first column is labeled “Ahora” (now) and the second is labeled “De niñ@” (as a child).

As I demonstrate what I want the students to do, I re-emphasize how to know if a verb is in the present or the past.

I make an example of what I want with my students. The goal is for them to make a story like the one we told yesterday.

After writing a few lines to get the students started, I have them continue in their pairs. I have verbs on the wall to help them out as well.

Verb walls are a great thing! I remind students that for this activity we are working with the “general past”

Once most groups are done, it is time to move on. I combine the pairs and have them read their story to the other group. Once that is done, I switch up the pairs again. This time, they take turns reading one of their sentences (without the “ahora” or “de niñ@”) and the other group needs to determine if the sentence is in the present or the past.

During the last 10 minutes of class, I give an assessment. I am required to enter 1 data-based (non-participation) grade per week. This listening quiz should be rather simple for them with our practice. For the quiz, I chose sentences from the stories my students wrote. I read a sentence and the students need to indicate on their quiz sheet if it is in the present or the past. Then they need to draw a small picture of what the sentence represents. I am sure to choose sentences with verbs we have practiced extensively in class.

QUIZ listening past tensesDownload

This was a fun, interactive 3-day lesson with my students. During this week, I also had them email me a childhood picture. Come back next week to see what I did with them!

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