Unit 1: Deportes y pasatiempos 

Unit Overview: Much of the grammar covered in this course is review from Spanish I, although most topics are also expanded, in that the coverage this year includes more detail, such as additional irregular forms. In the current unit, all of the basic structures covered are familiar from last year: present indicative tense and reflexive verbs. However, the entire conjugation of present indicative is now included, so students have their first introduction to verbs such as ‘caber/oler/reír’, as well as spelling changes for verbs ending in gir/ger, cir/cer, and guir.

Students are familiar with the verbs ‘ser/estar’ from Spanish I, but in the first year they are used mostly independently from one another. Distinguishing when to use each one will be largely new for students, as it is not directly taught in Spanish I.

In Spanish I, reflexive verbs are taught, mostly to describe daily routines and taking care of oneself. The idea of using the same verb reflexively versus non-reflexively will be less familiar, although students should recognize certain examples, such as: ‘Lavo los platos. / Me lavo las manos’. They have been presented with some reflexive verbs used to express change of state (e.g. ‘divertirse’) but this type of reflexive structure is expanded in the unit to include more examples.

Unit 2: Hablando del pasado 

Unit Overview: In this unit, students will narrate past actions and events using the preterite and imperfect indicative tenses. Since narration in the past is quite different in Spanish than in English, it can be confusing for students. They have learned the conjugation of nearly all verbs in the preterite tense in Spanish I (only reír/oír will be new this year) but since it is the most complex tense in the language, they will need extensive review and practice. The imperfect tense is also review from Spanish I, so there will be nothing new for students regarding the conjugation of the imperfect.

This unit will expand upon the usage of preterite and imperfect for narration. In Spanish I, students learned to use the preterite for a single completed action, or a series of completed actions. They learned to use the imperfect to describe characteristics or states and to narrate actions that are habitual or in progress in the past. Students will also read their first short stories, which serve both as an introduction to reading literature in Spanish, and as additional exposure to the past tenses. Both of the stories in this unit are chosen for their simple but profound ideas, as well as their very short length, allowing students to interact with small chunks of text at a time. The story “El dios de las moscas” is written almost entirely using the imperfect indicative (for description and habitual actions). The story “Los dos reyes y los dos laberintos” uses both preterite and imperfect, so students are exposed to their usage in the narrative context.

Since the preterite tense is so complex and requires significant memorization, there is no additional vocabulary component to this unit. The students are expected to understand a few key words from the short stories.