Teaching basic present tense verb conjugations is a major part of a Spanish instructor’s job. Since so much time is dedicated to this concept it is good to have an arsenal of activities geared towards having students retain the concepts. In a previous article I wrote about a group activity that involved rolling a die to practice the verb conjugations. Below is another activity that I have found just as effective.
This activity is also used after having presented the basic rules of verb conjugation and provided numerous examples both on the board and out loud. The instructor will write ten or so non stem changing verbs on the board. Next to this list of verbs he will write one of the subject pronouns. When the instructor calls on a student this student is to conjugate the first verb into the appropriate tense according to the specific subject pronoun provided. The next student called on will conjugate the next verb on the list using the same pronoun. After a couple of minutes the instructor will change the subject pronoun. Now the activity is repeated. Once all of the subject pronouns have been covered the instructor can either change the verbs or move on to the next assignment. This activity can be used for practicing any of the verb tenses. It is especially useful to review and practice stem changing verbs. Teachers can either call on students randomly or just go down the rows. If a student freezes and is unable to come up with the answer the instructor can encourage others in the class to call out the answer. This keeps everyone involved, especially in a large class where a student will wait a while before their turn.
This activity is appropriate for middle school students all the way to college students. If you teach adults don’t think that activities like this are too childish for your students. Learning a language requires the students to actually say the words out loud. So take into account the chemistry of your class and decide which activities would work the best. ¡Buena suerte!