Friday, December 7, 2012

Los gemelos & the Imperfect Subjunctive

I experimented with a new way to introduce the imperfect subjunctive.   

First I wrote on the board "Los gemelos Sánchez" along with a short explanation in Spanish that they were 15 year old twin boys that were super naughty.  I listed 20+ verbs on the board in the infinitive form to guide them to the verbs I wanted them to useThe students worked in groups of 4 to use the verbs listed on the board to write a list of things they "heard" that the twins did last week.

After 10 minutes +/-, students wrote some of their sentences on the board.  We read their sentences, commenting on the boys' behavior.  

Then I told the class that not only did the twins do those actions last week, but they were in the habit of doing those things all the time. 

Then I asked them how they thought the mother of the twins felt about their behavior, and how others felt about it.  I wrote the beginning of the sentence and then ended it with the verb in the form they hadn't seen before, the imperfect subjunctive.

A la madre de los gemelos le enojaba que los gemelos robaran dinero de su hermana menor.

Sus profesores estaban tristes que los gemelos siempre sacaran notas malas.

Of course I second guessed myself and wondered if it would have been better to take a few of their sentences and weave it into a story.   

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