Ditch the Flashcards Part 2: 9 Other Great Ways to Reinforce Verb Conjugations

A couple weeks back, I wrote about different ways to practice vocabulary other than using flashcards.  This got me thinking that it could also be useful to discuss verb conjugation tactics as well.

Conjugating verbs correctly, while annoying and nit-picky at times, is very important.  Students need to not only be able to conjugate based on who is doing the action, but they also need to be able to accurately express the tense of the action as well.  Unfortunately, the best way to do that is drill, drill drill, but these are some ways to practice that don't feel so repetitive.

1. Dice tic-tac-doe
This is a favorite with my students.  I generally pick the harder verbs of the verbs we are working on.  They love having six games of tic-tac-toe going at once and the intensity definitely rises when students are trying to roll the die to get to a certain board.

2. Avalanche
This is a team game with a lot of activity and excitement.  It requires teams to know the definition and the 6 different conjugations of any given verb.  It particularly helps with those difficult verbs.. when teams keep getting avalanched over and over again, you can always bet they will remember the real conjugation when it comes time for the test.

3. Songs
I often teach songs with especially difficult verbs.  It may not 100% teach the spellings, but it at least gives kids the right direction to think when it comes to the spelling.  It also really helps with pronunciation of the conjugations and helps them realize that often, the je, tu, il/elle/on and ils/elles forms all sound the same.

4. Anagrams
Giving students only a specific set of letters and making a game/challenge out of them coming up with conjugations always helps to reinforce the spellings of different conjugations.

5. Whiteboard practice
Just throw together subjects and verbs on slides and voila... you have an activity for students to practice verb conjugation.  I always set my slide up so it shows the subject and verb first, then on the click shows them the right answer.  It's a great way to give them immediate feedback, which is important.

6. Spoons
This game is great for getting students to either group conjugations of the same verb or different verbs of the same form (for example, all of the "tu" forms).  When teaching multiple tenses, you can even put different tenses in there and have them group by subject or infinitive.

7. Category sorting
Like spoons, it helps students to group conjugations together.  I will often put 20-30 conjugations in a list on a sheet. First, students must sort each conjugation into the correct infinitive.  Then they must sort conjugations into the correct form (je/tu/etc).  Sorting into the correct form helps students to see patterns of any given subject (for example: tu conjugations almost always have "s" or "x" for the ending).

8. Foldables
While these work great for vocabulary, they can also work well for verbs too.  It requires students to keep re-doing any of the problem areas but not anything they already have figured out.

9. Conjuguemos
I've said it before, I'll say it again: I love Conjuguemos. It's an awesome online tool for students to not only practice what they're learning (you can do just about anything: verbs, vocab, grammar, you name it), but to get immediate feedback.  If a student is struggling with a particular verb or two, they can set it to just put those verbs up when it quizzes them.

                                              (photo from: www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk)

Plus Haut/Plus Bas: A Fun Way to Practice Numbers

Have any of you ever seen the Price is Right?  Remember that game where you have three different prizes and you have 30 seconds to guess the price while Bob/Drew tells you higher or lower?  While thinking of a way to practice numbers with my students, this game came to mind.

I haven't quite figured out how to apply it, but I'd love to do some sort of contest where each student has a partner and they have 60 seconds to get as many right as possible.  It could get boring having only one group go at a time in class, but there also needs to be some accountability.

In the meantime, I came up with a different way to do "plus haut" (higher) and "plus bas" (lower).  Remember the Who am I? game I discussed in a previous blog post?  This is VERY similar to that.  I put slips of paper with numbers written on them in those badge holders (I HIGHLY recommend you get a set of these.  I use them a lot for games and whatnot.  They're awesome because you can keep reusing them for different units by putting different slips in them).  I give each student a badge but put it around their neck backwards so that the number is on their back.  Then, they must figure out which number they are.  They guess a number and whoever they are asking has to say "plus haut" or "plus bas".  Once they figure out who they are, they turn the badge around to their front.  This not only requires number knowledge on the part of the asker, but also of the teller.

Anagrams for Verb Practice

One thing that drives me bonkers is that, no matter how many times we go over the four main verbs in French (to be, to have, to go, to make/do) the kids STILL don't remember how to conjugate them.  Of any verbs in the French language, these are the ones to do.

Because of how often we work on these verbs, it's easy to run out of ideas of how to practice them.  I've done everything under the sun: dice tic-tac-toe, straight up conjugating worksheets, whiteboards, word scrambles, you name it.  I came up with an idea this week that kind of puts a spin on word scrambles: anagrams.

The activity has two parts and the difficulty depends on the level.  French one only did this activity in the present tense, while French 2 and 3 got to do it in present, futur simple, passe compose, imparfait and conditionnel.

I started off with a powerpoint with 20 slides.  Each slide prompted them to write a conjugation (I had them use whiteboards).   Then, they had to show me the answer upon me counting to three.  Then I clicked the mouse, which then revealed the answer.  Each one they got right, they got a point.

At the end of this activity, I had them grab random letters and accents (I just typed a bunch of letters into MS word and cut them with a paper cutter) that was equal to the number they got right during the powerpoint.

Then I handed out a worksheet that required them to fill in the letters at the top.  Using the letters they got, they had to come up with as many conjugations as possible.  For each conjugation, they had to indicate which of the four verbs it was as well as which subject (French 2 and 3 also had to indicate which tense).  For every three conjugations they got, I gave them a point of extra credit (I RARELY give extra credit, so this was a treat for them).

This activity worked really well because it incorporated them coming up with the conjugations upon me giving them a subject and verb, but then the roles switched and they had to come up with not only the conjugations, but the subject and verb as well.

One thing I would do differently next time would be to give them maybe one or two "free" letters.  Once they got started, they could pick a letter or two to add to their list.  Some kids got majorly screwed over and could only make one or two conjugations.

Overall, though, they enjoyed it.  They love anything that has a competitive edge to it.

After doing this activity I realized how many different places I could apply this activity.  It could be applied to ANY verbs, not just the four main ones in French.  It could even be applied to grammar and/or vocabulary. You could even get multiple topics into one with the activity if you were to do a grammar concept in the powerpoint and vocabulary and/or verbs with the anagrams.

Want a copy without having to do any of the work? Check it out in my TPT store.

Teacher Appreciation Week

I will be brutally honest.. I love teacher appreciation week.  It's nice to get some recognition that may not happen during the rest of the year.  Those little notes that kids give you thanking you are always something to treasure.

But this is my shout-out to a couple teachers who have played a HUGE role in where I am today.

Let's start back in elementary school.  This teacher's name was Mrs. M (unfortunately, she has since passed away).  I went to a rather small, rural elementary school.  When I was in first grade, there were two full first grade classes, two full second grade classes, and one split first/second.  I was shafted with the split (Mrs. M taught this split).  However, instead of saying shafted, I should say gifted.  I was always a pretty good student anyway and often finished my work early.  Because of it, I followed the second graders a bit. 

Mrs. M was one of those teachers that you knew loved her job.  She did everything she could to make it fun.  We played games, she gave out prizes for reading and math, she always pushed me to do more.  And I did.  The following year, there were no splits, and when I was in second grade, I was in Mrs. M's class again! 

Halfway through the year, it was clear that I was bored.  I had more or less learned all of this the year before and wasn't being challenged enough.  Mrs. M suggested I be bumped up to third grade halfway through the year.  After lots of testing and a school board vote, it was approved.

It may not seem like THAT much of a life-altering thing, but it was.  Moving ahead a grade meant I was 17 when I graduated from high school.  Because I was young, that was one of the major reasons I chose to do a year abroad.  I doubt I ever would have chosen to do so had I not skipped a grade.  Because this teacher believed in me, my world was changed forever.

I kept in contact with her growing up via letters and the occasional visit, and she even came to my high school graduation party (even though we had moved 2 1/2 hours away when I was in 5th grade).  She passed away when I was in France, after a long battle with cancer.  I never knew she was sick...I'm guessing that's why she made such an effort to come to my graduation party.


The other teacher I want to shout out to is Mrs. G.  She was never "technically" my teacher, but she was the teacher who was my first cooperating teacher during student teaching.  So many of my organizational techniques and fun ideas came from my time with her.  She is the most organized teacher I have ever met.  And she runs a class that students LOVE to be in.  Even French 3 kids are speaking almost all French.  Kids come to class prepared and ready to learn.  Even in the hallways, they speak French.  When I think about the kind of classroom I want to have some day, the type of French teacher I strive to be, I think of her.

20,000

So I have officially passed the 20,000 page views threshold. 

Considering I have only been blogging for a year and a half, that is incredible to me.  I have seen my blog posts swirling around Pinterest.  I have seen my page view numbers grow and grow.  My goal when I started this blog was to help others.  I wanted to be a resource.  Another place to go for ideas.

Looks like I am succeeding! :)

To all of my readers: Thank you for helping me along.  I hope this is just the beginning of a great place to go for ideas and tips.

Late Work: To Accept or Not to Accept?

That is most definitely the question on A LOT of teachers' minds.

School isn't just about teaching facts and figures.  We are teaching these students how to be productive members of society.  We are preparing them for the REAL WORLD.  That scary place where you have to pay for stuff and be responsible for yourself.

Many teachers are afraid that accepting late work does not teach students responsibility.  In the real world, missing a deadline can literally be the difference between having a job and being unemployed.  In college, not a single one of my professors accepted late work.  Accepting late work gives them a security net that they might get too used to and could cause major repercussions some day when it is taken away.

But... let's think for a moment about the purpose of homework for a second here.  Why do teachers assign homework?  Contrary to popular student belief, it's not to torture them.  It's to reinforce the things we are learning in class.  As a language teacher, I simply CANNOT give them the practice in class that they need to truly succeed.  I only see them 45 minutes a day.  Homework is so important when it comes to practicing and retaining their skills in my room.

So.. with that being said... accepting late work has its pros too.  Most students, if they couldn't get any credit for it, would choose not to do the work.  Why bother if it won't have any benefit to them?  I tell my students at the beginning of every year to not focus on their grade.  I got an A all throughout high school in French and graduated with minimal speaking ability.  I have students with C's that can speak better than students with A's (I will be diving in to grading in a future post). What they need to focus on is the skills they are learning in the classroom.  They need to think about where they are at the end of the year in regards to where they started.

With the help of my cooperating teacher while student teaching, I instated a policy that I still use to this day.  All work is due at the beginning of the hour on the day it is due (unless otherwise noted).  (This is where the in-folder comes in handy.  I give a last call for anything to be handed in, I clip it together, and it goes in my personal "to grade" folder in my stuff.  Anything that shows up in the folder after that is considered late.) I accept late work until the day of the test for that unit, but they only get 50% credit for it.  Some teachers I know give them X number of days or weeks, but who has time to keep track of all of that?  I sure don't.  Having a concrete "this is the last day to hand in late work" makes my job a lot easier.

This is a great balance and leaves the kids with the best of both worlds.  It encourages students to still get the practice they need, but it also shows them there are consequences to not handing in something on time.  I have had parents complain that 50% is a steep penalty and that it should start small and get bigger for the amount of time it's been missing.  I remind them that the students have known from the beginning that this is my policy and that keeping track of how long the work has been missing is just WAY too much work for me.  Accepting late work already puts more work on my plate, so it's only fair that they have to "pay" for it in some way (their grade).

What is your late-work policy?  Feel free to share in the comments if you have a policy that works really well for you. 

Paper Dolls for Clothing Practice

Growing up, I loved to play with paper dolls.  My grandmother would always get them for me and I would spend hours putting different outfits on them.

My 1s are currently in a clothing unit and I figured it would be a lot of fun to use paper dolls to practice clothing vocabulary!

So I set out to find a perfect set that I could use.  I couldn't find anything, so I took an afternoon and decided to make a set instead.  It was a lot of work to start.  First I had to make the outfits in Paint and MS Word.  Then I had to print them, cut them out and laminate them all.  I had the kids cut out their own sets (saved a lot of cutting time) and then had them each cut out a laminated set too once it was laminated.  Each set was put into a 5x7 envelope and voila!  Something I can use over and over and over again.  I can even share it with the other languages for them to practice too.

There are so many different ways to use it.  I like giving them each a set and telling them how to dress their person.  It is also fun in centers.  I make cards that have the description on the front and a photo on the back.  Students read the description and dress their person.  They can use the photo to check.

CLICK HERE if you'd like to download a set for your own class!

Ditch the Flashcards: 14 Other Great Ways to Reinforce Vocabulary

One of the hardest parts of teaching/learning a foreign language is the MOUNTAINS of vocabulary that must be taught/learned.  Yeah you can use flashcards, but those get old rather quickly.  Rather than resorting to the same old, same old.  Try these ideas instead:

1. Foldables
This activity has students writing out their trickiest vocabulary words.  Students who know their vocabulary only have to write it once.  Students who are struggling must rewrite the problem words more than once.

2. Diagrams
This activity has students drawing and labeling their vocabulary words in their context.  It taps into their creativity and helps them apply an image to each word.

3. Triangle Puzzles
This activity has students problem-solving with their vocabulary words.  They must put together a puzzle and the edges match if the English to French is correct.

4. Do you have what I have?
This game requires students to dip into their memory stores to come up with different vocabulary words from the unit they are working on.  By only getting points by NOT matching other people, students must think of the more obscure and lesser known words.

5. Charades
Who doesn't love good old charades?  Have students act out the different words on their vocabulary sheet.  This has students matching words to physical actions (TPR).  It definitely helps reinforce the vocabulary.

6. Tout le Monde Qui
This game is filled with running and fun.  Students put desks or chairs in a circle.  There should be one less chair/desk than there are people.  The leftover person will be in the middle and say "tout le monde qui____" (for example: tout le monde qui porte un jean).  Anyone who fits that description must move and find a new chair.

7. Tout le Monde Avec
This is a spin off of Tout le Monde Qui.  Instead of choosing things that apply to the specific students, put a ziploc bag or a sheet with different items representing vocabulary words at each space.  If the item the student in the middle calls is in your bag/on your sheet, you need to find a new seat.

8. QR Codes
Who doesn't love technology?  In using QR codes and having them either give clues to or match up to vocabulary words, you have students moving around the room and using technology to practice vocabulary.

9. Categorize
Whenever possible, do activities where you have students categorize their vocabulary words.  For example, whenever I teach a food unit, I always have them sorting vocabulary words into the food categories like vegetables, fruits, meats, etc.  You can even have them categorize by pronunciation sounds or by noun vs verb.

10. Scavenger Hunts
Have students apply vocabulary to their real life by requiring them to hunt for vocabulary words (maybe take photos or even jot down) at home or in the halls/other classrooms at school.

11. End letter/Beginning letter
Students must make a string of words by making the next word start with the last letter of the most recent word.  For example: Tondre, eplucher, ranger, raisin, nettoyer

12. Pictionary
No explanation needed! Who doesn't love making crazy drawings and trying to get people to guess the word.

13. 100,000 Pyramid
Students try to get their partner to guess the vocabulary word by giving clues to them.  Watch out! You cannot say the actual word or any part of it.

14. Word Searches
While this might not reinforce definitions, it definitely helps with spelling.


Vocabulary acquisition is crucial in learning a foreign language.  Students can be taught grammar and conjugations until they are blue in the face, but without the vocabulary, they will have a hard time forming sentences.

Feel free to comment with any more ideas you have!

                                                           (photo from aasd.k12.wi.us)

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale (updated!)

I am throwing a HUGE SALE. The sale is done :(  But my $25 deal below is ongoing!

Everything in my store is now 15% off, now through Monday (the day after Easter).

To top that off, anyone who makes $25 worth of purchases in one transaction and leaves me feedback on at least ONE item (feedback is crucial so that future buyers know the quality of my work) will receive a FREE GIFT! 

What is this free gift you ask?

All of my work that is in my possession (stuff I've made, stuff that has been shared with me, stuff I've collaborated on, stuff I've found) is in one backup folder on Google Drive.  This folder updates as I make new activities.  If you make $25 worth of purchases and leave me feedback on at least one item, I will share that folder with you (to access it, you must have a Google account of your own...don't worry...it's free if you don't have one).

What does that mean?  That means you have basically "subscribed" to me.  EVERYTHING I have ever made, shared, sold, not sold, as well as anything I will ever make in the future will now be at your disposal.  I am talking HUNDREDS of files and resources organized into folders by topic and/or by book and chapter. (Of course... Mrs. Organized right over here has everything organized into folders).

I cannot, in good conscience, sell this "subscription", as there are things in my Google Drive folders that are not my original works (but don't worry, everything on my Teachers Pay Teachers store is).  While much of the work is my own, some of it is things shared with me by other teachers.  This is why it is a FREE GIFT.  It is no different than sharing resources with you, my worldwide colleagues.

So, go check out my store at THIS LINK! I have some awesome resources in there that could help you greatly.  A majority of my items are 1.99 or less (that's before the 10% discount).  Please leave me feedback after you have used them!  Feedback helps me make resources even better for my buyers.

If you decide to take advantage of my sharing offer, once you have made your purchase and left feedback, click on THIS LINK to fill out a form.  The form asks you for the transaction and feedback information as well as your e-mail address.  Once I see that everything is set, I will add you as someone who can view my shared folder.


If you are interested in starting your own Teachers Pay Teachers store, CLICK HERE.  It is totally and completely free and a great way to earn some extra cash.  All it takes is a couple minutes of your time to upload a resource and that's it! No more work and it can gain an unlimited amount of money.

Using QR Codes to Enhance Learning

A teacher in the Spanish department was using QR codes the other day around her classroom and it got me thinking... what could I do with QR codes to enhance my lessons?

Of course, once I start thinking about ideas, my mind doesn't shut off and I want to try it RIGHT NOW.

We are fortunate enough to have a set of iPads in the library that can be checked out to teachers.  Each iPad has a barcode reader on it that also reads the QR codes.

I gave it a whirl today with my French 1s.  They are currently learning clothing and adjective vocabulary, so I gave them a sheet with 20 different people on it wearing different things.  Then, I made 20 different QR codes (Code A, B, C, etc) that, when scanned, would pop up with a description of someone.  Upon reading the description, they would have to match that description to the correct person on their sheet.

This was an awesome activity.  It really is no different, practice wise, than writing a description on a worksheet and having them match it up.  But in letting them use technology, it gives it an awesome spin that gets them excited about the topic while reinforcing chapter vocabulary.

What I love about this is you can do QR codes with just about anything!  I'm thinking I'll use it when I review the question words and question formation.  They will scan the code, which will pop up with an answer.  They have to come up with a question that would elicit that response.

You can also do QR codes that, when scanned, will speak to the students too.  Especially in foreign language, having the codes speak is an awesome tool!

If you're interested in having a copy for yourself, get it HERE .