Giving+Tree-El+arbol+generoso


 * El Arbol Generoso Lesson Plan** **(Shel Silverstein) - Imperfect user:SarahPcat**

The first section of the book //El Arbol Generoso// uses very simple sentences in the imperfect. I used the book to introduce the imperfect tense.

I asked students to answer the following questions to get them thinking about the concepts of the book:
 * Pre-reading**

Think of an item (toy, blanket, special hiding spot etc.) you had when you were very young. What was this thing, did it have a name? What was it about that item that made it special to you? As you became older, did you stop using that item? Why? Do you think it is possible to appreciate when you are older the same kinds of things you did when you were young?

I Then provided them with the sentences from the book. They were instructed to underline the words they recognized and cirlce whichever word they thought was the verb in the sentence.

Había una vez un árbol… que amaba a un pequeño niño. Y todos los días el niño venía, y recogía sus hojas, para hacerse con ellas una corona y jugar al rey del bosque. Subía por su tronco, y se mecía en sus ramas, y comía manzanas. Y ambos jugaban al escondite. Y, cuando estaba cansado, dormía bajo su sombra. Y el niño amaba al árbol…mucho. Y el árbol era feliz.

Most students did not have a hard time recognizing -ía and -aba as the endings of the verbs. We then discussed what they thought the verb tense might mean based on the discussion we had about childhood earlier. Students then worked in groups to look up any words they were not familiar with.

I gave students the pictures that accompany the book with the words whited out. I read the story and instructed them to put the pictures in order as I read. After the story was finished, students used the imperfect to write their own sentences for each picture. Afterwards we read through the book again and compared what the author had written to what they had.
 * During Reading**

Students are told to think back on the toy, game, blanket they had written about in the pre-reading activity. Using the structure of //El Arbol Generoso// but the memory of their own toy, students create their own short stories using the imperfect.
 * Post-reading**