1-2-3 Speak Spanish

For Teachers

Simplify your teaching and clarify the use of tenses with the 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide. Colorful illustrations of 15 model verbs in four tenses are mapped out for easier acquisition. Students familiarize themselves with this core group of verbs and then apply patterns to 100 more verbs on the back panel.

The 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide can be used for games, activities and journaling. It is also great to use alongside your current teaching materials to support and expand verb acquisition. Try some of the activities below with your students!

Games

Game #1 - "Six-Up"

Players: 2-4

Materials:

• 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide
• Dry-Erase Markers
• Dice (one die per group of players)

Unfold the 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide with panels 1-4 displayed in front of each student. Write the numbers 1-6 on the Subject Pronoun Box in Panel 1.

Subject Pronouns

To Play:

First player rolls die to determine which subject pronoun to use in the sentence (a roll of 1 is yo, 2 is tú, 3 is either usted, él or ella, etc.). Players make sentences using the subject pronoun, a verb from the verb illustrations in Panel 2, and a time-word from the blue "when" words. Other vocabulary words can also be used to make longer sentences.

The game can be played in one tense for beginners, or mix and match tenses for intermediate students.

The sentences may be spoken or written. Players put a check (using a dry-erase marker) next to the number in the Subject Pronoun box after they make a sentence and play passes to the next player. If a player rolls a number that he has already checked off, play passes to the next player. The winner is the first player to have all six subject pronoun boxes checked off.

Game #2 - "Tic-Tac-Verbo"

Players: 2

Materials:

• 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide
• Dry-Erase Markers

To Play:

Choose one subject from the Subject Pronoun box and determine a tense for each round. Using the first three rows of the verb illustrations in Panel 2 as the tic-tac-toe board, players make sentences in the chosen subject and tense and mark the verb squares with either X or O after making a sentence. The winner is the first to get three in a row.

Change the subject for the next round, but keep tense the same for several rounds. For more of a challenge, fold Panel 4 over to cover Panel 3 to hide conjugations and have a third person check for accuracy.

Game #3 - "Adivina Adónde"

Players: 8 or More

Materials:

• 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide
• Index Cards (or half sheets of paper)

To Play:

Use the verb "ir" from the Irregular Verbs in Panel 6 and 7. On index cards write down one place you've been, one place you're going in the near future and one place you want to go some day, algún día (quiero ir, Panel 8).

Example:

1. Yo fui al cine el mes pasado.
2. Yo voy al baile este fin de semana.
3. Yo quiero ir a España algún día.

Players turn in the cards and they are read by a designated student. Students guess who wrote each card.

Interviews

Use Panel 8 of the 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide, the verb "hacer" (to do), and "cuándo" words to interview a student by asking four things about him or her.

Example:

1. ¿Qué quieres hacer algún día?
2. ¿Qué vas a hacer mañana?
3. ¿Qué tienes que hacer esta noche?
4. ¿Qué te gusta hacer los fines de semana?

Journaling

The 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide makes it easier to keep a journal by providing a "template" of sentences on Panel 8 (Verbs to use with infinitives) and quick access to tenses of the most common verbs to use with time expressions from the time line. The conjunctions on Panel 8 help with connecting short phrases to form longer sentences. You and your students will be pleasantly surprised at the writing fluency that develops in a few weeks of journaling!

Pobre Ana Activities

See the Pobre Ana Workbook, now available from 1-2-3 Speak Spanish

Use of the 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide along with an easy reader such as Pobre Ana by Blaine Ray is an effective way to acquire tenses of high frequency verbs as well as increasing communication in beginning students.

Pobre Ana Activity #1
Practice high frequency verbs in first person and third person

In Chapter 1 of Pobre Ana, find ten things about Ana that use the verbs es, tiene and va.

Example:

• Ana es una chica con problemas.
• Ana no es muy alta.
• Ana tiene quince años.
• Ana no tiene carro.

Using Panel 6 of the 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide, pretend you are Ana and change es, tiene and va to first person (soy, tengo and voy).

Carry the activity one step further and write a short paragraph about yourself using the verbs and vocabulary from Chapter 1.

Pobre Ana Activity #2
Advina ¿Quién Dice?

Students take on the roles of the characters of Pobre Ana and talk about "themselves" in the first person using the 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide to look up first person verbs. Other students guess who the character is. For example, which character might say:

• "Yo tengo un carro nuevo." (Elsa)
• "Yo soy el hermano de Ana." (Don)
• "Yo soy la secretaria en el hospital." (La madre de Ana)
• "Yo compro mucha ropa nueva." (Sara)

This is a good classroom activity to play at the end of each chapter!

Pobre Ana Activity #3
For Intermediate Students – Preterite vs. Imperfect

A very effective way to teach the difference between preterite and imperfect is to use excerpts of Pobre Ana and have students change all the present tense verbs to either the preterite or imperfect. Because the content is very easy, students can focus on the situations in which each tense is used. Use the 1-2-3 Speak Spanish Verb Guide to change the tenses.

Example:

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