Step Three: New or Old Grammar

STEP THREE

New or Old Grammar!

Your students are now warmed up and you have done the basic housekeeping. Organization is flowing. Your students are now ready for a new grammatical idea (or ready to practice a recent one)! This moment is the best opportunity in the lesson to dive into grammar. Your students are fresh, eager, and as ready as they will ever be to soak in some new material.

I am choosing for a model lesson here the present perfect tense. Let me show you how I would present it. The model here can easily be replicated, no matter what verbal tense you might use.

I walk to the blackboard and write down these words:

Haber (to have)

He
Has
Ha
Hemos
Habéis
Han

I will then say: “Hoy estudiamos el presente perfecto (Today we are studying the present perfect)… ¡Repitan, por favor!”  Have your students repeat each word, one after the next. You could quickly translate in English, if you want (I have, you have…).

Next write down these three past participles right next to this grouping. I might, in fact, write out the infinitive “hablar” first, then erase the “-ar” and then write in the “–ado.” Then I would do the same for “comer” and “vivir,” erasing the “-er” and adding “–ido.”

Chorally repeat each past participle. You can quickly translate in English if you want (spoken, eaten, lived).

Now, triumphantly announce: “¡He hablado!” I have spoken!  Chorally repeat. Then say “He comido.” (I have eaten). Then chorally repeat. Then finally “He vivido.” I have lived. Then repeat again.

At this point, immediately go back into your groups of two. Having your students use the nine words on the blackboard, form very simple “yes” or “no” questions. In pairs, students will invent questions (and answers) that might look like these:

¿Has hablado hoy?  – Sí, he hablado hoy.

¿Has comido mucho? – Sí, he comido mucho.

¿Has vivido en Chicago? – Sí, he vivido en Chicago.

¿Has hablado con la profesora? – Sí, he hablado con la profesora.

¿Has comido en la cafetería?  – Sí, he comido en la cafetería.

¿Has vivido en California? – No, no he comido en California.

¿Has hablado con tu amiga? – No, no he hablado con mi amiga.

Now, follow up this simple “yes” or “no” paired group activity with another paired group activity, working with a different partner, of course!  Have your students look at a giant poster of interrogatives that you have hanging on the wall in your classroom.  If you don’t have such a poster hanging up, make one tonight! Hang it up tomorrow!  It should have the most common interrogatives in big, bold letters.

¿Quién(es)?   
¿Cuándo?
¿Dónde?
¿Cómo?
¿Qué?
¿Cuál(es)?
¿Por qué?
¿Cuánto(a)(s)?

Now ask your students to invent more questions, using an interrogative, a form of “haber” and a past participle (one from column A, one from Column B and one from Column C!):

Sample questions (and answers) might look like this:

Right off the bat, your students are speaking in complete sentences. They are using the present perfect tense! You have set them up to look good. They are gaining confidence with each passing second. You have given them a little structure, and they are bringing language to life.

The final part of this drill will work as follows. During the last two segments, you have listened to your students ask and answer questions using the present perfect tense. Now call directly on all of your students, one at a time! Have them answer those questions in front of their classmates. If you remember someone saying that he ate at Burger King, ask him where he ate. If someone has said that she has lived in St. Louis, ask her where she has lived. You want your students to shine in front of their classmates. As they answer questions beautifully in complete sentences, heap praise on them: ¡Magnífico! ¡Muy bien! ¡Bravo!  Succeeding in front of one’s classmates makes a big difference.

To review, this grammar presentation came in four parts:

1)      Choral drill (repeating form of “haber” and the past participles)

2)     Groups of two, using “yes” or “no” questions

3)     Groups of two, now adding interrogatives

4)    Whole group, teacher calling on students individually.

I call this technique, the “Ice cream cone method.” The choral drill is the ball of the ice cream cone. That’s where you start to eat an ice cream cone. Very safe. Very delicious. Totally new material. Students are getting comfortable with something brand new. The groups of two is a little farther down the cone. Pretty easy. Safe – in groups with one peer. Yes or no. You follow closer to the tip of the cone with the interrogative questions. A little harder. Still with a peer.  Finally, at the tip of the cone. Students all on their own. Answering in front of their peers. You make them look good!

This sequence should take no more than five or six minutes. That might be all I would do on the first day. Tomorrow in class, you can count on the warm-up activity using many present perfect questions!  Later in tomorrow’s class, I might focus on irregular part participles. Quickly review first the forms of “hablar,” “comer” and “vivir.”  Then say in Spanish that there are a number of irregular forms, too.

Tell your students you have a good way to remember irregular part participles. Tell them that you have a good friend named Mac, who is a clergyman, who also happens to have a Ph.D. Write out these initials:

Your students will certainly feel that you have gone a little crazy. But then slowly, but surely, begin to fill in the irregular past participles like this:

Choral drill of the new forms. Groups of two. Yes or No. Groups of Two with Interrogatives. Big Group calling on students individually. You know the drill!

Now during the rest of the school year, should your students ever say something like "He rompido la puerta" or "He abrido la ventana," you can correct them by simply saying; "Rev Mac!!!" They will go, "Oh, yeah! - roto .... abierto."  Saying "Rev Mac" is so much better that saying, "Now remember, there are some tricky irregular past participles of -AR, -ER and -IR verbs!"

It works like a charm.

I also share the following secret with my students. I tell them that Santa Claus LOVES all perfect tenses. I write these sentences on the board:

He hablado. Hemos entrado. Ha estado.

My students now look at me quizzically, wondering what's coming next.

I then underline the "h" and "o" as follows:

He hablado. Hemos entrado. Ha estado

And then I write:

Ho-Ho-Ho!

Does this seem a little corny? Of course, it does! But students will remember it. Teachers over the years have invented many of these brilliant tricks. Use them! Be proud of them! Breaking the Barrier is full of them!

End of today's grammar lesson.  I would spend from five to a maximum of ten minutes presenting and drilling a new grammatical idea. Of course, tomorrow's warm-up activity will highlight the present perfect and irregular past participles!

STEP FOUR: Executive Summary