When teaching present tense verb conjugations in Spanish you will want to do some exercises that combine the target verbs with the unit’s vocabulary. No matter what textbook you use, there will be a specific theme and a list of appropriate vocabulary words. Exercises that use both the verbs and the vocabulary together will naturally improve the student’s overall ability to communicate in Spanish.
For this activity, the instructor writes out a short story or passage in the present tense on the board. It is based around the theme of the unit. The challenge is that the verbs are left blank. An example theme would be “A Day at the Park”. The verbs would have to do with activities common to this setting, as would the vocabulary. The passage contains many of the words already covered in the class throughout the semester, but also some that haven’t been covered yet. Textbooks will most likely have examples of passages like this, but the instructor may choose to write their own. This way he can focus on the words and phrases that he finds useful. The point is that the passage is written on the board, with the verbs omitted, for all of the students to see.
Before the activity starts each student will be given an index card with a conjugated verb on it. The card has a piece of tape on the back so it will stick to the board. Since the passage will only contain about fifteen or so of the verbs being covered there may be some students that have cards that won’t be used. That is OK. The students don’t know if they have a card that will be used or not. The instructor now has individual students read the passage out loud for the class. The readers stop at each blank and everyone waits for the student with the appropriate index card to approach the board and stick his card in the blank space. If no student gets up the instructor prompts the student for the correct answer. As a class, the students come up with the correct verb and conjugation. The student with the correct card will then know that he must go up to the board and place his card in the blank.
This activity is fun and it gets everyone involved. As the sentences are read the instructor can review any grammatical concept that comes up in addition to the verbs and verb conjugations. This activity will work for middle school classes up to the college level.
