SER o ESTAR …. esa es la cuestión

I have been putting together resources to teach about character / describing people. Inevitably this leads to some work on SER + ESTAR. Attached to this post is the PowerPoint with the resources leading up to the point where I tackle the two verbs for TO BE. My aim is for the students to be able to put together a description of a friend + what a good friend should be like. Included is a cartoon from Quino which I want the students to explain to me – that will be a challenge to them! I had considered doing something with the Toy Story song and the Simpsons clip (videos below), but they aren’t the ideal clips I was looking for and I really should push on with the topic. I have not had a great deal of luck finding any decent YouTube resources to support this part of the topic. Hope this post is of use to someone!

POWERPOINT: descripciones carácter WORKSHEETS: Descripciones WORDGAMES Descripciones XWORD listos WORDS Mi mejor amigo READING higher version SER worksheet Ser y Estar

¿Qué hará el gato?

Trying to predict what happens next in a video can be a fun and creative way to get students to practise the future tense. Before getting to that stage clearly there’s a lot of work to be done in teaching the future tense(s). Below is a PowerPoint to support this. The creative outcome stage is where you show one of the “Simon’s Cat” videos from YouTube. You only show it up to the point where the cat appears above the bed, which is quite early on in the video. You pause at this point + ask the class, with the aid of dictionaries or support, to write out what will happen next. Once you gather in suggestions you can then continue with the clip and tick off those that were correct. [As usual the video is embedded into the PowerPoint, but you will need to be connected to the internet for this to work].

POWERPOINT: mis-planes-para-el-futuro   WORKSHEET: IMMEDIATE FUTURE use of the verb IR worksheet  El futuro WORKSHEET

Beyoncé and the imperfect subjunctive

The resources below are ones which I have used to teach the imperfect subjunctive + the conditional tense. As the song “Si yo fuera un chico” can be easily translated by many students it is a good way of quickly teaching this structure. The presentation, as you can see, goes on to look at “chuletas” + whether you would ever copy in an exam. The listening exercise on “chuletas” comes from the amazing Notes in Spanish website although I have only used the last part of this particular podcast – http://www.notesinspanish.com/2007/09/28/advanced-spanish-podcast-80-el-sistema-educativo/ . I used to use this site a lot especially at the advanced level although I am no longer sure whether they are updating it.

In the PowerPoint the only embedded video is that of Carme Chacón revealing the “chuleta” on her hand – hardly essential, but it’s there in case you want to show it. As ever, the videos are from YouTube + you have to be connected to the internet for them to work.

The Beyoncé video has to be watched on the YouTube site itself due to copywrite laws. You click on the link on the relevant slide.

POWERPOINT: the imperfect subjunctive + conditional CHULETAS  WORKSHEETS: Si yo fuera un chico BLANKS  Si yo fuera un chico   The Imperfect Subjunctive   SUBJUNCK si COMPLETE THE SENTENCES   SUBJUNCL intro to the imperfect subj   the conditional tense   A2 listening practice las chuletas   Aquí copia hasta el apuntador

The imperfect tense in Spanish

The attached PowerPoint presents the imperfect tense. The resources shown can also be downloaded below. Towards the end of the presentation is an opportunity for students to practise using the tense after watching a clip from the Spanish TV series “Física o Química“. They have to describe what the characters were doing. The clip is an editted one – I took out the swearing!

PRESENTATION: L7 the imperfect tense SPANISH WORKSHEETS: L7 the imperfect tense PRACTICE SHEET L7 the imperfect tense WORKSHEET L7 verbs ALL TENSES

The subjunctive – thanks to Pedro Almodóvar

Over the years of trying to contextualise the teaching of the subjunctive, I developed a few resources liked to songs from the soundtracks of different Almodóvar films. This obviously provides an opportunity to listen to some music but also to take the opportunity to present who Almodóvar is.

The song “Piensa en mí” which is used in the film “Tacones Lejanos” uses the subjuctive after “cuando”. “Sufre Como Yo” uses it after “querer” (when wanting another person to do something). As well as the exercises relating to the songs, I have attached my grammar explanation sheets. My PowerPoint for introducing Almodóvar is also attached + I go on to use other resources which I may post at a future date.

POWERPOINT Piensa en mi LETRA   WORKSHEET   SUBJUNC3 introduction + CUANDO   POWERPOINT   INTRODUCCION a Pedro Almodóvar    WORKSHEET   Sufre como yo Albert Plá    WORKSHEET   SUBJUNC4 wanting and requesting    WORKSHEET   SUBJUNC7 prose trans sentences QUERER

The songs “Sufre Como Yo” (Albert Plá) + “Piensa En Mí” (Luz Casal) can be downloaded from iTunes.

Piensa

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Verbs and tenses

The resources below are ones I made to teach the present tense from scratch. I then thought to myself that I should teach the preterite, future, conditional tenses etc. at the same time! I will come back to the preterite + the future etc.,  but I thought that it would be good for the students to see how the same processes apply when creating different tenses, i.e. infinitive + remove ending (or not) + add tenses endings to the stem of the verb. The students, although top set so quite able, got the idea and a final task was to write a paragraph about a bizarre person + what they did, do + will do. They seemed to enjoy this bit + this allowed them to practise all the rules covered governing tense formation in a more creative fashion. The resources below speak for themselves!

POWERPOINT   THE TENSES   WORKSHEET   verbs ALL TENSES worksheet   WORKSHEET   L5 verbs ALL TENSES   WORKSHEET   present tense endings sheet for revision HOMEWORK   WORKSHEET   present tense endings STARTER

Conjugation’s back VIDEO

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Past, present, future and football.

This is not exactly brilliant and there are errors in the presentation, but sometimes when teaching certain groups I find I have to simplify things to a point where perhaps it is not strictly correct Spanish. You will see what I mean in the presentation in some of the usage of the preterite tense. The point of the lesson was to get a borderline grade C GCSE group to cope with that question that always appears in the reading paper where they have to decide whether the person is making reference to the past, present or the future. I have not taught the full verb paradigm to them as frankly they do not need it and also they would not cope. So, I present a very simplified version of how to make those tenses. Any purists out there please forgive me! I have added in reference to two Spanish footballers – Raúl González and Fernando Torres. On the slides referring to these two palyers the students have to anticipate which verbs make most sense (present/past/future). Those with football knowledge will have an advantage, but that doesn’t matter. Even without it you can make an intelligent guess. It all finishes off with a reading comprehension for which I have produced a Foundation and a Higher version.

POWERPOINT   el año próximo   WORKSHEET   Fernando Torres FOUNDATION VERSION    WORKSHEET    Fernando Torres HIGHER

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JRaUnTSKSo