Nació/Fue

This is an activity to practice the target structures nació (s/he was born) and fue el primer/la primera (was the first). "Fue" also means "went" in Spanish, but students should learn that at a different time. For homework on the night before you teach this lesson, ask your students to bring in a family photo with them to class the next day. If they don't have/bring a photo, ask them to quickly sketch one out at the beginning of class. To begin the lesson, write these two structures on the board, have students repeat them, and teach gestures.

1. nació - s/he was born (see what gestures your students can come up with for this term, haha!)
2. fue el primer - he was the first

After you've introduced the target structures, show a photo of your family to your students. I use this picture of my siblings, parents, and me at my cousin's wedding in 2008 because there are so many of us! If I use a picture of just my husband and me, or even with our son and our dog, I can't get as many reps. My students LOVE hearing me talk about my life, so anytime that they get to see photos of my family and my adventures, they are totally engaged in the lesson. (I also use this photo when I introduce family vocabulary and personality vocabulary, since our personalities are so obvious in this photo!!) My photo discussion might go something like this, not including circling and comprehension checks:

• Clase, ésta es mi familia (Class, this is my family).
• ¿Cúantas personas hay en mi familia? (How many people are there in my family?)
• ¿Cuántos muchachos hay en mi familia? ¿Muchachas? (How many boys/girls are there?)
• Yo tengo tres hermanos y una hermana. Nathan es el hermano mayor de la familia, y Daniel es el menor. (I have three brothers and a sister. Nathan is the oldest and Daniel is the youngest.)
• Nathan nació en 1983. (Nathan was born in 1983.) CIRCLE. **Since saying the years is not something that my students have learned yet, I recommend having a stack of flashcards handy with different years written on them so that you can just hold up the card with, for example, "1983" written on it when you say «mil novecientos ochenta y cuatro».
• Nathan fue el primer hijo de mis padres (use 'niño de la familia' if your students haven't yet learned hijo/hija). (Nathan was my parents' first son/the first boy in the family.)
• Benjamin nació en 1986. No fue el primer niño de la familia porque Nathan nació primero. Nathan fue el primer niño. Benjamin fue el segundo niño. (Don't spend much time on 'segundo' because we are focusing on 'primero', but do write it on the board with its translation so that students who are ready for it can learn it.) (Benjamin was born in 1986. He wasn't the first boy in the family because Nathan was born first. Nathan was the first boy. Ben was the second boy.)
• Samantha nació en 1987. Daniel nació en 1989. Circle these by comparing their birth years and order to the previously introduced siblings.
• Yo nací en 1984. Fui la primera niña. (I talk about myself at the end because the structures are different. By the end, the kids have heard enough reps of the third person structures that they can identify the difference between first and third person, although I don't target them. Just write them on the board and leave it at that.)

It would also be good to talk about where each of your siblings was born, especially if they were born in different places. You can also talk about your parents, if they are in the photo. After you've talked about your family, talk about your students' families. Borrow photos from them, one at a time, and walk them around the room to show classmates while you solicit information from the student. Since many kids won't know their siblings birth years, you may have to do some math with the class by asking how old a brother or sister is and when his/her birthday is. Math is a good thing! Also, it allows you to review how to say age and the months of the year. You can also find out who is the oldest/youngest boy/girl in your class (have your students line up according to age) and who has the oldest/youngest brother/sister. After sufficient personalized practice, show your students this list of famous firsts by Hispanic Americans. (If anyone can find something similar IN SPANISH, please let me know!) It will give you good practice with the 'fue el primer/la primera' structure, although not so much with 'nació'. This reading with Franklin Chang Díaz uses both structures.