We are really focusing on the past tense with my Spanish 2 classes. We started with a Weekend Chat / Card Talk style activity to focus on the word 'fue' (went), which you can read about here.
Teaching "said" in Spanish class
Moving on from 'fue', today we started focusing on the high frequency word 'dijo' (said). To begin, I had each of the students write an imaginary rumor in Spanish on a small piece of paper, and write their own name on the paper as well. I made sure that all students understand that the rumors were to be silly, fantastical, and completely baseless--nothing that anyone else would be offended by. Some examples that my students came up with were "The entrance to Narnia is in Spanish class", "X went to the zoo and kissed a monkey", "X is a robot", "Mrs. Bex likes speaking French", "X is the President of Cuba", etc.
Share the rumors
I told students to write down their rumors and to keep them TOP SECRET! They could not share what they were writing down with any classmates. When they finished writing, I collected them. I stood in front of the class and read each one silently to myself as I received it, and I acted very shocked at what I read. Once I had most of the rumors, I began sharing them one at a time with the class. I picked creative rumors and the ones that I knew would not offend. To share a rumor, I simply read it aloud (making small changes for accuracy and comprehensibility). I repeated it a few times and asked a few clarifying questions to make sure that all students understood what the rumor was saying.
Identify the source
Next, I asked students, «¿Quién lo dijo?» (Who said it?). It was their job to guess who the author of the rumor was! I accepted their guesses, and we eventually figured out the source for each rumor by voting for each suggestion and then interrogating the accused parties.
Is the rumor true?
Finally, it was time for LOTS of fun! We continued discussing the rumor as a class, deciding whether or not it was true. If the class determined that the rumor was NOT true, we also discussed the source's motivation for starting a false rumor. Of course, nothing that was shared was actually true; so this was all just a marvelous exercise in imagination. We had a total blast, and the rumors (like our Narnia closet!) stayed with us for the rest of the year!
Super fun and very easy to prep! This could be done anytime as a game, even if you are not intentionally focusing on the high frequency word 'dijo'.
