Not Your Average Saber vs Conocer Story

Confession: I LOVE saber & conocer and teaching it to students. It’s an easy grammar concept to personalize and have fun with. I changed my approach this year and was thrilled with the results & my saber vs conocer story.

Day Zero – Introducing Saber vs Conocer

I used this Google Forms survey to ask students questions in English like:

• a place they are really familiar with/like
• something unique they know how to do
• someone they know that others in the class probably haven’t met

I created a Kahoot! in the TL with the date and images to support understanding. The students had a blast trying to guess who knew what & they got lots of exposure to the verbs. I also learned some new things about my students!

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Using Señor Wooly’s “Amensia” inspired me to write my own short saber vs conocer story for my students.

Narwhals & Octopuses

I came up with this short story about a Narwhal setting out on an adventure across the ocean to meet an unknown cousin. To start, I gave each student a sentence strip in English and asked them to translate it to Spanish. I intentionally distributed the sentences giving less proficient students an easier sentence and more difficult sentences to students ready for a challenge. Students had no idea what the sentences were at this point. In to groups (the strips were color coded) and using their Spanish sentences only, students put the sentences in order to create a story. Next, I gave them the full-text story to read and compare to their story order.

Click here to get your copy of the story & activities!

Students had fun trying to figure out what was going on with a narwhal from Norway, an octopus in Argentina, and a small blue fish. This saber vs conocer story was a challenge, which this group needed. It was fun to see them focus on the story and not the grammar or specific vocab. The story intentionally ends without much resolution. We focused on writing this unit so I asked students to continue the narwhal’s story. They had some great endings!

Make saber and conocer fun with your own copy of this saber vs conocer story. It comes with fill in the blank, circle the correct word, read the story versions, plus extension activity ideas. This story is perfect or Novice-mid to Intermediate-low levels.

Looking for a saber vs conocer story in the past tense or a higher proficiency level? Check out this upper level saber vs conocer story.

Do you love saber and conocer as much as I do? I’d love to hear how you approach this topic in your classes!