I had the students first read the poem and then listen to the  poem in Spanish by one of the all time great writers Jorge Luis Borges. The poem titled Instantes is a beautiful poem about a man who is now 85 years old and writes and about the ability to live his life over. I personally love this poem because it can speak to the young and old; for the young it can be a reminder of what not to do in this life and for the middle aged person, perhaps, a reminder not to take everything so seriously and for the elderly, perhaps a reminder that they need to teach the young people about life.
The assignment was for students to begin the their poem using the same lines as Borges, Si pudiera vivir nuevamente mi vida, in English, If I could live my life over again, I would…..and they have to finish off the poem. The objective of this assignment is trifold. For them to become familiar with the author Borges. for students to read and listen to a poem, and to use a grammatical tense on a contextual level.
I like the assignment because it was rich, easy to administer and easy to grade. Â I think I will use this assignment again and again. Using the tools such as Goobrics facilitates this process and allows me to give them feedback in a timely manner. Additionally, Google Classroom allows them to put all of their work in one area , thus making it easy for me to find and archive.
