After learning the conjugations for the preterite tense, both regular and irregular, students must become accustomed to its uses. One use of the preterite tense is to show a completed action. The completed action could be defined by a specific time-frame or the tense itself could give the feeling of plot progression. Verbs in the preterite tense give a sense of stating what happened and moving on.
In this activity, students will write a narrative that only uses the preterite tense, demonstrating this feeling of plot progression. Students should be encouraged to use a variety of different scenes and verbs to practice each different conjugation.
To provide guidance, you can provide students with the first cell to spark their imaginations, or let them start from scratch. After students have completed their storyboards, consider having them read them aloud to the class, using the slideshow function to display each cell as they read.
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Create a narrative that uses only the preterite tense.