French: Imparfait & Passé Composé Activity

Hello, Jessica here! I have found this activity to be particularly useful and fun in my French classes when teaching the difference between the passé composé (simple past) and the imparfait (imperfect). It is also useful to use with more advanced levels as a way to demonstrate the correct usage of the plus-que-parfait (pluperfect), and as a way to practice the use of irregular verbs in all three tenses.

First, copies of these pictures (below) should be made on transparency sheets and cut down so that there is only one picture on each sheet.

To begin the activity, divide your students into groups of 3-4 (any more and the project becomes too confusing). Give each group a picture on transparency and a marker (the order in which sheets are handed out is not important at this point), and ask them to write at least 2-3 sentences describing what is happening in the picture. You can specify how many of each verb type they are to use, and even give them specific verbs from which to choose if you wish.

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I usually allow about 10 minutes for students to complete this part of the exercise, but of course it is up to you to decide how much time students will need. Once they have all completed their "little story" sheets should be collected and put into order. One by one, you can mount them on the projector and read the "round-robin" story out loud, correcting for grammar and verb usage as you go.

WARNING: You are going to get some hilarious results, so be prepared for lots of laughing!

NB: Images courtesy of U of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Language Center. Original pictures and text can be found at http://languagecenter.cla.umn.edu/lc/frenchsite1022/VERBXpcvsimpTEMP.html