My intermediate students are learning USED TO. Unlike last year, I gave them the opportunity to choose what to write about. They could write about a real past memory or create a story using the picture of the trees, the same picture I used before with my 2/2010 students (See Would X Used to).
2/2011:
This semester, I gave the students the chance to choose what they would do as a written task in order to practice the structure learned "USED TO". They chose from writing a creative text or writing about a past memory.
When I was a child, I had good memories about my past. But there is one thing that I´ll never forget. It is my favorite place "the park. Until today, my parents go with me and make picnic, play and talk there, every Sunday. I really love this park. (Julia Serpa)
When I was a child, I used to go to a very beautiful forest. There, I used to play with the monkeys, climbing some trees or swimming in the river. But one day, everything changed. Two hunters entered in the forest killing and destroying all they could see. I was very angry, perhaps I couldn´t do anything. When I lost hope, the hunters drank the river´s water and something happened. In some minutes, the became trees. In a few years, the forest recovered herself and I could go there many times. (Marcus)
When I was a child , I used to play outdoors, go to school, draw a lot. It was cool. I used to wake up on Saturdays and see TV Globinho. I didn´t worry about the future. (Maria Carolina)
When I am walking and I see talll trees, I remember parts of my childhood. It was great. I remember that I used to climb a lot of trees as high as I could, but the fear of falling down when I was climbing down was terrible of course. The feeling of climbing the tree, the clallenge that the tree imposed to me was much greater than that little fear, and as long as I saw a tree, I was there climbing it. (Victor)
Sometimes we just forget about how powerful life is and appears in different ways, like a tree, for example. A tree used to be a seed first and it can be a seed for a long time without growing but it doesn´t mean that it doesn´t have any life. It´s like the sun. It´s not because it´s night that the sun is dead. A seed used to be a frozen form of the tree. Then, the tree grows and it´s as complex as an animal life. The tree is there, it can´t talk, it can´t move, it can´t demonstrate its life, but it´s breathing and nurturing, every single day, and it´s because plants exist that there are other forms of life. (Thainá Leão)
In the middle of a forest, near a big city, there used to be two trees. These trees used to shelter small creatures like little fairies, they lived there for many years and they were responsible for protecting the forest and controlling the seasons. One day, men from the big city wanted to destry the forest with machines to cut down the trees and remodel their houses, but the fairies were too small to defend themselves in a fight, so they reclaimed the source of power they had to protect the forest. In the end, they resolved the problem peacefully with the agreement they both left the forest in peace. After that, the place turned into a sacred place for both, representing their love for nature. This used to be a story told from generation to generation about those trees. (Maria Fernanda)
When I was younger, I used to play Super Nintendo. My favorite game was Super Mario World. I liked Rock n´Roll Racing too, and all the five Bombermen Games. I played those games until today. The new video games aren´t so cool. (João Felipe)
One nostalgic memory I have was when I was a child, I used to live in São Paulo and I had a friend who lived in the same building. We used to go to the groundfloor and play games, ride a scooter and swim. It used to be fun and we spent a lot of time making jokes and having fun . That was one of the best memories I have when I was a child. (Rodrigo)
I used to have an imaginary friend, he was my best friend when I was 4. We used to play cards together and talk a lot , but when I was 5, I didn´t believe anymore in my imaginary friend. (Fernanda)
When I saw a tree, I remembered my brother. When I was eight, we had one guava tree and we treated the tree like a person. When someone hurt the tree, we used to put one bandage. It was our friend and our club. We used to spend our afternoons on the tree. One day, someone cut down our tree and we stopped going out to play. That was a good time. Now, we can´t come back to this things because we have many things to do.(Dayene)
Mary was sitting under the trees. She used to think and read in a calm place. She used to see birds and the sunset. Mary thought it was beautiful. She would run on the long streets around the trees, sometimes she felt alone but the books had all kinds of characters and everytime she read a book, she used to have a new adventure. (Amanda)
When I was a child with my brother, we used to climb up trees to joke or pick some fruit or to take a break. Normally, we climbed trees to pick fruits and we sometimes needed to climb the trees to pick the ball. I love to climb trees, I´d like to do it now. In the picture, we can see two trees and the space between can be a goal and the trees are good for the environment and I already planted trees and I expect to plant others. I think that little children need to play outside instead of being in front of the computer and the TV. (Sebastien)
