Write. Communicate. Learn.
Using writing to learn verb tenses in Spanish.
I admit, I have been stuck in the old school ways to teach the two past tenses in Spanish.
- First, let’s study the preterite conjugations.
- Then, let’s study the imperfect conjugations.
- Practice conjugating.
- Next up, learn the rules. When to use the preterite and when to use the imperfect tenses.
- Followed by — here is a sentence, tell me what tense to use!
Difficult. Boring. Frustrating. This is the way I learned. This is the what my cooperating teacher did back during student teaching. This is what many teachers around me have done. Time to shake it up. I do need to give credit to Shari Thompson, a French teacher I work with who has opened up the grammar door a little farther for me. Why not try a new approach? If you haven’t followed my previous blogs . . . it is a whole year of new. Mixed in with a little old. A recap of events.
I did start with a few days of verb conjugation since students had already studied the preterite and imperfect verb conjugations in previous Spanish classes. I admit, I did start with a little of the old here. What do you remember? How do you conjugate?
BUT shortly after, I switched methods. Shari had asked me if I ever had used the story of Alma, a short film created by former Pixar animator, Rodrigo Blas. I had not. I was intrigued. Shari shared her knowledge and research with me (Thanks Shari!), I researched the story/process and began. Before adding grammar to the mix — students watched the short film. Alma is a young girl who is walking down a deserted street and enters a store. We first watched for comprehension (although there are no words) so that the students would feel comfortable once they began the writing process.
Here are a few very helpful sites that I used along my journey.
- Creative Langauge Class by Kara Parker and Megan Smith
- Language Coaching by Amy Lenord
- Teaching Spanish by Kara Jacobs
- The Comprehensible Classroom by Martina Bex
Did you watch the video? Creepy. I had goosebumps. So did the students. We watched it again. Now they were engaged. This time, they had to write the main events that happened (preterite tense). I did not give them a long list of rules or reasons to decipher. Instead, students watched this less than 5 minute video and created a list of the main events that occurred. They had a series of pictures from the film and needed to answer the question “What happened?” Students were engaged, both by the creepy film and in writing the main events.
The next day, we continued with the imperfect tense. Again, they had learned this tense in the past and we had done a mini conjugation review the week before. We watched the movie again. This time, they were only able to write things to describe and “What was happening” (Imperfect Tense).
Finally, we put it together. They were each given one picture to represent a clip from the movie With partners, they had to mix their “What happened” (preterite) sentences with their “What was happening and descriptions” (imperfect). I collected the note cards. We watched the short film again. But THIS time, there were words. The words students had written. The past tense sentences students had written without a list of rules or reasons. The story was amazing!
I was a little nervous I have to admit. Did they really get it? Did they understand the difference between the two?
So, we read a short children’s’ book, El Cucuy by Joe Hayes. It was near the end of October and so a story of the boogeyman fit in right after Alma. We spent about 2 classes reading together. Time to put it to the test. Students had to retell the story in their own words. I took away the books and gave them only pictures.
Instructions: Write the story of the Cucuy using both the preterite and imperfect tenses. Use the pictures to help you with the storyline.
I gave students quite a bit of time to write together. After, I asked for volunteers to read their stories. They were excited to read. And their stories blew me away. Great usage of both the preterite and imperfect. Wow!
They wrote. They were able to communicate. AND they learned!
