Spanish Preterite & Imperfect Narrative

Once students have mastered the conjugations and uses of preterite and imperfect, they are ready to be challenged on all the material together. Students should work methodically with this activity, as they create their own, original storyboard narrative to combine the preterite and imperfect. Students will need to not only consider the different uses of preterite and imperfect, but they will also have to attend to verb conjugation, including the many irregular forms of the preterite tense.

While there are many ways to create a narrative storyboard, one way to target all the categories is for the student to create a timeline storyboard focused on their childhood. Students should, however, be wary of assigning specific times, as it can appear misleading to use the preterite for specific time-frames. Instead, have students label these timeline sections as “childhood” or simply block them out. Have students create a narrative timeline that includes description, habitual/repeated action, incomplete action, completed action, and interruptions. Below each image, students will provide their text, highlighting the use of imperfect, preterite, or both.