Gradebook

Spanish 2 Final Essay

The essay will be in the form of a paragraph written in Spanish.  The paragraph will be an autobiography where you will be expected to show mastery of the uses of the imperfect and preterite tenses by writing about your childhood.

Your paragraph should answer the following questions (in Spanish):

• ¿Qué hacías cuando eras niño(a)?  You will have to use the imperfect tense to talk about at least three things that you "used to" do as a child. (You should try to use the imperfect tense as many times as you can to say as many things as you can about what you "used to" do, because in order to pass the essay, you will need to use the imperfect tense correctly at least three times.)

• ¿Qué hiciste una vez?  ¿Qué hiciste un día?  ¿Qué hiciste cuando tenías cinco años?   (Use the preterite tense at least three times to say something that you did one time, to say something that you did one day, and to say something that you did one time when you were five years old.)

See the sample template for the paragraph below.  Fill in the blanks and then practice writing it.  If you practice writing it several times, and use your textbook to check your spelling and grammar to make sure that everything is correct, you should have no problems passing this part of the final exam.  (If you use an online or computer translator, you will surely fail the essay, because computers do not understand the difference between the imperfect and the preterite tenses.)

     Me llamo ____________.  Tengo ___ años.  Cuando yo era niño(a) yo hacía muchas cosas.
Yo _________________ (imperfect tense).  Muchas veces yo ______________ (imperfect tense).   
Mis amigos y yo siempre _______________ (imperfect tense).  Una vez, yo ____________ (preterite tense).
Un día yo _____________ (preterite tense).  Cuando yo tenía cinco años, yo ______________ (preterite tense).

The above sample essay template is the minimum necessary to pass this portion of the final exam.  You should try to write more just in case you make some mistakes, because (in order to pass) you have to use the preterite tense correctly at least three times and the imperfect tense correctly at least three times. 

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