Sometimes, the cranial density of some of the people with which I have contact truly amazes me. Me dí cuenta de eso hoy en mi clase de español. I spent the first 5 minutes of class (seriously, it was a full span of 5 minutes) explaining the test my students were about to take, including tips for success in each section. I handed out the test and settled in to watch the amazing faces students make when the encounter things with which they are not nearly familiar enough to tackle, when I see a hand shoot up in the back of the room. “What are we supposed to do in the first part?” I patiently explain that if he had been paying attention, it was already explained, but that I’d be happy to do it again. Another three minutes or so go by and another students motions me over to her desk and asks, “What do you mean put these verbs in the past, using the preterit or the imperfect?” This question killed me, as this was the focus of the entire unit (also known as the last two weeks of class). I tried to calmly explain that both tenses indicated past actions, but were used in different ways (blank stare)…….you know, like we did on the worksheets this weeks, and in the conversations, and in the reading, and on homework. Oy.
To their credit, I put a wee tidbit in the directions that they could choose 10 of the 12 questions from the first part to answer, and did not need to do the other 2 – which several people actually read and then called me over to ask what it meant. It was written in English. Seriously.
