My 8th graders just finished reading El Viaje perdido and it went really well! I was required to teach the preterite tense as part of my curriculum. My goal was to use the novel to make the grammar comprehensible. Some students found it challenging, but after a year of free voluntary reading (FVR) and some easier class novels, I felt like they could handle it.
We had already read Pobre Ana, Patricia va a California and Brandon Brown quiere un perro, so my students were not new to reading in Spanish.
We read the first two chapters before I introduced any explicit grammar instruction. It took us about 5 weeks to get through, although I stretched it out to get us to the end of year. Here are my daily lesson plans for free. I hope you find them helpful!
This book uses all tenses, but I’ve learned that very few kids actually see the ends of the words. They look at the root of the word, and recognize llega, llegó, and llegaba as “arrive.” Their brains use context to fill in the rest. Very few will make the connection that llegó and llegaba are different, so you shouldn’t worry that this book will be too complicated because you haven’t taught preterite vs. imperfect yet! This goes back to the idea of turning grammar into vocabulary, which I have written about before.
Some feedback from my students
Students thought the story was great! They also liked all the activities we did and were proud of themselves for how much they understood. They suggested that I not assign Quizlets as homework because most people did not do them, but I still think it was valuable. Playing the games still exposed them to new words prior to reading, even if they did not do the homework.
Thank you so much! This is wonderful!! 🙂
¡Excelente plan! Gracias por compartirlo.
🙂
Muchas gracias por compartir tu plan. Esta semana voy a incorporar tus ideas en mi clase. 🙂
¡Gracias por todo su trabajo en estos planes y trabajos! Empezamos el libro ayer y no sabía que actividades íbamos a hacer. ¡Esto es un milagro!
Mil gracias por todo. Vamos a empezar el libro hoy:)
Thank you for a good start with the book.
Thank you so much for this great idea/ lesson plan resources!! I am starting the novel with my classes on Monday!
Excelentes actividades. Muchas gracias por compartirlo.
This is so great, thanks so much!