Wednesday, March 24

We started today with a dictation (the first sentence from Borges' "Funes el memorioso") - more to get a feel for the language and to show the words and structures they've learned rather than to stress understanding. We went over the present progressive hw in the L6 handout and reviewed how to form present progressive. Then, I taught the remaining section of lesson 5 (comparisons of equality - tan + adj + como, tant@(s) + noun + como). They practiced in groups by doing p. 122-23, exercises A and D. Some students already had a good grasp on this, while others needed this grammatical clarification.

After a brief break, we reviewed the prepositional pronouns that Kara had introduced yesterday. They did p. 140 exercises A and B in pairs, and then we shared answers and questions with the class. Class ended with a (quick) grammar lesson on affirmative and negative expressions, reading a series of sentences that used affirmatives and negatives. We practiced changing affirmative sentences into negative ones and the other way around as a group.

In terms of lesson 6, the direct object pronouns and the stem changers remain (I didn't go over them, Kara, because I thought you'd already taught all the stem changing verbs). Students are continuing to work on L6 handout.

I told them there would not be a quiz this week, but rather a test early next week (probably Tuesday?) over lessons 4 to 6. I let them know the material that would be on it (tener expressions, stem-changing verbs e-> ie, o-> ue, e->i, ir+a+inf., ser v. estar, saber v. conocer, comparisons and superlatives, affirmative and negative expressions, present progressive, prepositional pronouns, and direct object pronouns), and encouraged students to start reviewing (consulting the self-test on p. 152-157).I'm working on a draft of the exam and will send it to all of you soon for feedback.

Thanks, and have a good class on Friday. Thursday is canceled this week, and it looks like that is the way it'll be staying unless we hear something else.