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Grade 8 · Unit 1 · Mi Voz en Español

Antes y Ahora
Then and Now

The imperfect arrives to partner with the preterite: how things used to be versus what happened — childhood memories, family history, and a changing world, narrated with both past tenses.

🎯 Intermediate Low (exit target)📚 5 lessons planned🚧 Lessons in production

Unit objectives

  • Form the imperfect for description and habit: era, había, jugaba
  • Contrast imperfect and preterite functionally
  • Narrate a childhood memory using both tenses
  • Interview a parent about “antes”

Can-Do targets

  • I can describe how life used to be.
  • I can tell a memory mixing what-was with what-happened.
  • I can interview an adult about their childhood.

Vocabulary scope

era, había, jugaba, vivía, siempre, todos los días, mientras, de niño/a, en aquella época, cambió

How this unit builds

Grade 7’s preterite gains its partner; the two-tense narration is the grammatical summit of the program, opening real literature and family history.

Planned lessons

What this unit will contain

Lessons are produced in the same fully interactive format as Kindergarten — flashcards with audio, games, listening tasks, and take-home activities — and will unlock here as they are finished.

In production
Lesson 1

El imperfecto — how things were

In production
Lesson 2

Los dos pasados — contrast in action

In production
Lesson 3

Mi memoria — childhood narration

In production
Lesson 4

La entrevista — parents’ antes

In production
Lesson 5

IPA: Antes y ahora

Cultural connection

Cuando yo era niño…

Every culture has its “back in my day” — students collect real antes stories from parents and grandparents, some in Spanish, and archive a generation’s memory.