Para vs Por

In Spanish there are several times where we come across a word in English that can be translated two different ways into Spanish but those two ways are each used for distinct reasons.  Students usually struggle with keeping these reasons straight.

"Para" and "por" both basically mean "for" in English but can carry significantly different meanings.  "Las flores son para mi novia" means that you are giving flowers to your girlfriend while "las flores son por mi novia" could indicate that you are trading a floral arrangement to receive your significant other.

In previous years I have taught a list of reasons for when to use para and then a list of reasons for when to use por.  We practiced those reasons in English and Spanish for multiple days but my kids were still nervous and tested poorly on the concept.  I always ended up taking a day to reteach by showing how the reasons contrasted (use para if you are giving something to someone vs por if you are exchanging something).

This year I went straight to the comparison method.  There are four para reasons that line up with por reasons.  We looked at how the different choice of "para" vs "por" affected the sentence and went from there.

My students were still nervous approaching the quiz but as a group they did better than previous years.  I think the uncertainty factor could have been knocked down a little if I had given the students a list of the para reasons and the por reasons right after we finished learning all the reasons.  Having three sets of notes (since I was still rewriting them from last year and was only staying one day ahead of where we were in class) made it a little tricky to find information.  However, I am excited about how this concept went this year and look forward to finding sneaky ways of introducing some of these reasons in the lower levels in the future :)