I used to give students a handout of a graphic organizer for making the positive and negative tú commands. I would first go over the rules for making the command form and go over the irregulars with them. Then, I would give them a chart and have them write the positive and negative commands themselves.

I am so glad I found a better way to engage my students and expose them to language in context. With the help of Pinterest and image search, I compiled images of commands being used in actual context! Many of the images were funny/punny: what better way to engage the students? Now, I show them the images and have them fill in the chart. So when they see these two images, they can figure out what they mean and which is a positive command and which is a negative command.

By looking at these images, they are able to figure out the meaning AND recognize the command. It makes filling out the graphic organizer much more meaningful when they see how the phrases can be used in real life.

If you want to save yourself the hours of finding images and creating a chart (while still being able to edit it to your needs), you can purchase a ready to use lesson here. Otherwise, we hope this idea has helped you to teach with context.

Another resource is to use commercials. We recently used some Snickers commercials to talk about Hunger and Feelings in our Health unit, as well as using the command  “Cómete un Snickers” because “No Eres Tú cuando Tienes Hambre.”