Preface to teacher: (Slide #3 is the beginning of the student presentation.) 1.Each year as students enter my classroom one of the first items they notice is a plush gorilla wearing a sombrero – our class mascot. He is introduced the very first day of class and frequently referred to thereafter. His name is Oasa Amosan. Early in the year I use his name – first, last or complete – as an extra-credit question on quizzes. By the time we approach conjugation students have one of the most important elements of the process well learned. 2.A basic Spanish text normally begins with some simple dialogs, which I often require my beginning students to memorize and present. It is important to ensure that these dialogs include forms of estar, hablar or other –ar verbs. If necessary, make up your own simple dialogs, for example, something using llevar with articles of clothing. If students create a background of even half a dozen conjugated verb forms – yo hablo, tú hablas, nosotros estamos, ella lleva, etc. – it helps turn conjugation into an “Ah ha!” experience.

Focus of this presentation: (Slide #3 is the beginning of the student presentation.) It is anticipated that at the end of this presentation each student will be able to identify and understand the grammar terms frequently used in teaching conjugation. There are times when we must teach this information so our students have a common ground in the foreign language classroom, either our own or other classrooms in their future. As always, please feel free to adapt this material as necessary for your classroom and your personal teaching style. I welcome any comments or corrections. Bobb Jackson Hillside Middle School Salt Lake City School District

How is learning to work with verbs like getting ready for a dance? When you’ve got the moves, when you know your stuff, when you’re all prepared to shine, then you can do you thing and turn heads on the dance floor. In foreign languages, when you can do more than repeat dialogs, use more than just a few memorized words – when you can say exactly what you want to say – then you’re ready to share yourself with others, and learn more about them, too. Isn’t that why we all decided to study a language?

Learn these words and you’ll understand everything your Spanish teacher (and any other Spanish teacher) is teaching you about verbs. conjugation subject pronoun verb infinitive Verb stem Campbell’s soup Verb ending pronoun As these words reappear carefully write out both the word and its definition. Your teacher may want to add to them, change them, or even give you a few other words.

is breaking down a verb so we can use it correctly. In English, if we say “We is hungry” we’re using the wrong form of the verb. conjugation: Pronoun: a word that replaces a noun. In the sentence “Bob speaks Spanish” Bob can be replaced by He, as in “He speaks Spanish”. subject pronoun: a little word like “She”, “You” or “We” that is used as the subject of a sentence, as in “We are tired”. verb: the word that shows us the action of the sentence and tells us when it took place, as in “I ate dinner”. Infinitive: is what we call the form of the verb before it has been conjugated – the way we find it in the dictionary. In Spanish, verbs with “ar”, “er” and “ir” on the end are normally infinitives. verb ending: the last two letters of the infinitive form of the verb. In Spanish it’s “ar”, “er” or “ir”. verb stem: everything but the last two letters of the infinitive form of the verb. With “hablar” the verb stem is “habl” and the verb ending is “ar”. Have you ever made Campbell’s soup? You open the can, add a can of water or milk, warm it up and you’re ready to eat! If you’ve made Chicken Noodle soup, you can easily make Clam Chowder, Scotch Broth or even French Onion soup – they all have the same directions on them. You don’t have to learn a new process for all of the hundreds of different soups Campbell’s makes. Spanish verbs are similar to Campbell’s soups. Once you’ve learned the process for conjugating one Spanish verb, you can do the same with almost all Spanish verbs. You don’t have to memorize hundreds of different verbs – just one process. AND, that process often helps you use those very same verbs when talking about the past, present and the future. ¡Puedes hacerlo! or, You can do it!

PowerPoint created by Bobb Jackson Hillside Middle School, Salt Lake City School District Porky Pig courtesy of Warner Bros.