During the fall, students build on their previous knowledge to perform basic communicative interactions with increasing shades of meaning. Such interactions include: introducing someone, expressing likes and dislikes, or narrating events in the past. Also in the early months of the school year, students have to create a video introducing themselves and research a national park of Costa Rica and create a poster to present their findings to the class. During the middle portion of the year, students start using the preterit tense, the present progressive and verbs conjugated like gustar. Students study and expand their vocabulary, learning about sports, health, daily routines, clothing, or shopping. They also study the culture of Argentina and Puerto Rico. In the final months of eighth grade, students continue to strengthen their command of the Spanish verb system by focusing on irregular verbs in the present and preterit tense. At this point, they are first introduced to the imperfect tense, which will allow them to start narrating stories in the past tense with a higher degree on accuracy. Students are expected to use Spanish to talk to the teacher, and to conduct all individual and group activities.