GENERAL TOPIC: Conjugation of present tense regular verbs haben/gern, and school subjects
FOCUS: How can we use DFS activities to best review verbs for German classes?
MATERIALS: one small ball and one beach ball, or other ball that has clearly delineated sections (such as a soccer ball) labeled with different school subjects, chalk, chalkboard
ENGAGE (HOOK): Today we are going to review present tense regular verbs that you have reviewed this week using a series of games to job your memories
(PROCEDURE): 1) Appoint one student volunteer as scribe. 2) Start with “haben” on board. Facilitator uses ball to “call” on people in class to fill out conjugation of verbs (I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they). Every time the student receives the ball, they tell the scribe what to write in the appropriate section, and throws the ball to the next student. This gives the students more responsibility to pay attention and control what happens in the classroom. 3) Once the haben chart is completed and reviewed a few times, review how to use gern with haben. Then erase the charts.
THREE BALL TOSS 1) Push desks back, if possible, have students stand in circle (or go outside)
2) Facilitator starts with ich habe gern ______, using the beach ball. Whatever subject the student sees on the ball when they catch it completes that student’s sentence.
3) Facilitator throws ball to student next to her, and the student continues the conjugation with du hast gern _______. The student then tosses the ball to the next person who gives the er hat gern phrase. The ball is tossed around the circle until the conjugation is complete.
4) Repeat the procedure until the students have a pattern and rhythm established. Once the students have the pattern down, let the ball be tossed wherever a student wants to throw it. The students need to pay attention to the conjugation, so that they can call out the appropriate phrase.
CHALLENGE: Instead of using just one ball, let the students toss around a couple of balls—one to review simple conjugations and the other to create complete sentences.
NAME/MOTION Everyone stands in the circle. Each student gets an index card with a school subject written on them, in both German and English. These will be the students’ new “names.” Have players introduce themselves to the group by saying their new German names plus a movement that will help the class remember that word. The group mimics each name and repeats the motion. Continue until everyone is introduced.As an extra challenge, break the students into smaller groups (8-10). Have the first person repeat their name and action. The second person says the first person’s name and action plus their own. Continue until the last person repeats all the words and actions of their group.
Describe: What did we do?
Analyze: How did this help you learn conjugation?
Relate: How might paying such close attention to the pronoun and the verb endings in conversations help us in german? Where else might you use these techniques?