TPRS in preterit

For whatever reason I have a terrible time creating TPRS class stories in the preterit.

It makes me nervous for whatever reason and the stories just seem to "lack" something that my Spanish I present tense stories have.

So I've decided to just GO FOR IT.  It's a little ugly but I've got to try because I really do believe this style of teaching works.

www.martinabex.com saves my life over and over and over again.  Martina's story scripts give me something to work with (or really everything because her scripts are HILARIOUS and contain fabulous high-frequency terms) so I can play with changing bits and pieces to past tense.

Today I felt a little but like a genius.  It happens so rarely in my Spanish II classes that I have to revel and soak in this moment.  I took the story script "Una persona especial" from Martina Bex and retold it in the preterit.  Before telling the story I taught the vocab first, did gestures, dictionary pictures and practice sentences.

Then - I passed out a version of it written in present tense with the verbs underlined. Students read the written version out loud with a partner. Students had to change them BACK into preterit.  We reviewed the preterit verbs and then students re-read with a partner their modified past tense version.

Next, students are going to rewrite this story with their own details.  This story was PERFECT for a rewrite.  They had to pick a new main character, a new placed the character walked to, a new famous/special person they saw.  I made them fill out a "plan" sheet of their story and show it to me for credit before they left today.

The students will write the stories on a form that contains a rubric written specifically for this writing assessment.  This is an "open" writing assessment meaning that I will allow them to use notes and dictionaries but not their friend or myself.  Usually I don't give these types of "assessments" since it's not really measuring what they can do, but the assessments have been a little low lately and the category could use a boost, as well as the students' confidence level.

Finally, I will quickly breeze through their writing, assign them a proficiency level based on the rubric and circle errors.  Students will pick two sentences with errors and re-write them correctly on Monday.  .