Lesson Plan
The beginning of class was a carryover from the previous day. In preparation, the
students had to find an article from a Spanish-language newspaper and locate and then
explain 3 uses of ‘ser’ and three uses of ‘estar’.
Actividad 1
Paso 1: The each student had brought in an article from a Spanish-language newspaper.
First, the student must give write a 2-3 sentence synopsis of the article to share with a
partner. Then, the student must explain one use of ‘ser’ and one use of ‘estar’ to their
partner. The partner’s responsibility is to check the rationale for using ‘ser’ and ‘estar’.
Paso 2: After discussing the articles in smaller groups, in larger groups (the class) one
person give the title of his/her article. The others must make guesses and debate as to
what the article is about based upon that title.
Criticism: I didn’t make a very good transition between this activity and the next. Part
of this was due to poor planning and part was due to the fact that it was a carry-over from
the previous day.
Actividad 2 – This activity is used to introduce indirect object pronouns.
Paso 1: The students are given a series of paragraphs. The first is in English and the
theme has to do with birthdays. The students are instructed to underline the object being
acted upon (direct object) and to put a box around the recipient object (indirect object).
Paso 2: The second paragraph is in Spanish and follows the birthday theme. The
students are instructed to perform the same exercise of underlining and boxing in the
second paragraph. This is done in groups of 2. Then groups switch to compare answers.
Paso 3: The third paragraph is the same text as the second text, except that many indirect
objects have been replaced by indirect object pronouns. The students are told that
everything is the same except for a few small changes. They must compare the two texts
and try to identify the differences. This exercise is done in small groups so that they can
compare answers.
Paso 4: The students share the changes that they’ve found with each other and fill out the
IO box that is at the end of the paragraphs. In this box they must put both the indirect
object and the indirect object pronouns.
Criticism: It was a bit off the cuff, but I was glad that I mentioned ‘gustar’ style verbs at
the end so that they could recognize the topics in a different context.