Award-Winning Latin Tutors serving Reading

We worked on grammar exercises and reviewed some basics, while practicing reading and comprehension and lot of writing and proofreading. We also went over a chapter from a book we had read in a previous session, played a couple of games, and left some more for homework.

Today, the student and I worked on the last part of common expressions from Spanish for Gringos. We went over asking and giving directions (right, left, straight), prepositions of location (on, under, next to), and demonstrative adjectives.

Today, the student and I began a more in-depth introduction to verb conjugations. We examined how to form the proper verb conjugations in the present indicative tense for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. We constructed conjugation tables for several common verbs and introduced the concept of stem-changing verbs, which have irregular conjugations. Additionally, we introduced several new phrases that he will be able to use to communicate with the family babysitter. We practiced linking conjugated verbs with infinitives, and we practiced varied responses in how to communicate the same idea. For our last exercise, we reviewed possessive adjectives, both singular and plural, and put these to practice with several examples and translation activities. For our next session, we will move on to medical phrases and vocabulary.

This lesson was a bit on the challenging side--the workbook problems were kind of strange, and the use of por/para can be tricky. Near the end of the lesson we started learning some of the command tense (both formal and informal), and applying these conjugations to small sentences involving giving directions. We're going to try to find homework in the workbook that would allow the student to practice this.

The student and I used the hour to review vocabulary from the chapter his class is currently working on. We wrote each word on an index card, the Spanish word and its equivalent in English on another card, and then played a couple of rounds of Memory using these cards. He says that memorizing vocabulary is the hardest part of learning Spanish for him, so we'll try to find creative and engaging ways to do this. We also practiced using the vocabulary in original sentences, spoken and written, along with the verb "tener."

The student had several questions related to the use of the preposition "a" and some forms of the reflexive pronouns. He also reviewed the Preterite and did some exercises applying it. Although he knows a wide part of the Spanish grammar, he struggles with the application of it to develop the oral expressions, even when he knows the general rules of the composition in Spanish. We expect to soon surpass this little difficulty through the constant reading of Spanish press articles in loud voice. He will also try to continue reviewing the study material he previously has used and apply it in the conversation.