GERMAN PRESENT TENSE RESOURCE BOX #1

KS3 GERMAN GCSE GERMAN KS4 GERMAN PRESENT TENSE CONJUGATION PRACTICE FIVE WORKBOOKS @ £1.00 EACH IN THE BUNDLE focusing on a range of German verb groups in the present tense, with 150 conjugation questions (750 conjugations in total), and complete answer keys ideal for KS3 German students who are consolidating conjugtion skills, and KS4 German students who are beginning to work with compound sentences and longer texts, and generally developing their knowledge and understanding of conjugation and tense in German. My students really like this kind of grammar activity, as they like to work and learn independently, which is a successful way of varying teaching and learning methodologies - I’ve found it’s really important to avoid predominantly teacher-led learning in the languages classroom.

The verbs groups are:

regular German verbs
irregular & mixed German verbs
high-frequency German verbs
German reflexive verbs
German separable verbs

The workbooks focus on the correct conjugation of verbs, rather than usage, but I definitely find it useful to remind students of a number of things when focusing on or revising tense and verb conjugation. For example, with German verbs, I encourage students to look for patterns across all the verbs, such as the singular pronouns, including the pronoun man form being identical, pointing out also that man is commonly used in German, often also meaning we, unlike the pronoun one in English.

There are certain complexities with German reflexive verbs, as learners whose first language does not have equivalent reflexive verbs can find identifying the correct reflexive pronoun, and particularly dative reflexive pronouns, and positioning them correctly, quite challenging. Students do often try to conflate what they know about conjugation, and with those whose first language is English, I frequently see attempts such as ich bin sich waschen for I am getting washed or similarly ich mache / tue sich erinnern for I do remember.

I refer frequently the difference in usage between English and German, and this is important particularly when explaining when and in which contexts to use the simple present and the continuous / progressive present tense. Though the workbooks focus solely on the correct conjugation of verbs, and does not look at word order in the context of full sentences, there are very conjugation patterns that students can learn, recognize and apply, ensuring that their spoken and written German is accurate, and that their understanding of German across the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing is robust. Students become very familiar and confident the more they work with conjugation, and these quick conjugations certainly help to embed that successfully.

I’ve used these ‘quick conjugations’ for many years with my German classes. My students definitely find them to be a great way of practising, reinforcing and revising how to conjugate essential verbs in German. I use them in a range of contexts such as independent work either in class time or at home, holiday refresher work, or individual activities for cover lessons. I tend to give my students regular opportunities to practice the conjugations during the whole schools year, and they find this really useful for mapping their own progress and developing their overall understanding of how German conjugation ‘works’.

Each conjugation workbook has the following structure:

Two alphabetical verb reference lists: German-English and English-German.

Three conjugation challenges, each with 50 individual conjugations:

Conjugation Challenge 1: each verb conjugated in German across a range of pronouns, with students writing the corresponding English verb conjugation.

Conjugation Challenge 2: gives the infinitive of each verb in German, specifying the target pronoun. Students write the corresponding verb conjugation in German.

Conjugation Challenge 3: students write the corresponding German verb conjugation, and its infinitive, from an English prompt.

Notes and Next Steps, which encourages students to think about how their understanding of German conjugation works, reflect on what progress they have made, what their targets for improvement might realistically be, and what they might reasonably do in order to meet those targets. They also use this page to note any new verbs they learn, which helps them build up a comprehensive verb vocabulary. It’s also a useful tool to guide and inform whole-group discussion about learning and progress in general, which is a really popular activity with my students.

The answer key is a 6-page book which is absolutely essential in my view. Answer keys help students develop more independence in their learning, and provide them with an additional opportunity to engage with language and grammar. They also genuinely enjoy correcting their own - and particularly each others’ - work!

Try this quick conjugation workbook sampler to see if it’s the kind of learning activity that will work well for your students - it’s free to download here:

GERMAN QUICK CONJUGATION SAMPLER
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/german-conjugation-practice-sampler-12154187

Currently in my store I have quick conjugation workbooks for the above verb groups featuring the following tenses:

present tense (Präsens)
perfect tense (Perfekt)
imperfect tense (Präteritum)
future tense (Futur I)
conditional tense (Konjuktiv II, Futur I)
pluperfect tense (Plusquamperfekt)
future perfect tense (Konjuktiv I, Futur II)
conditional perfect tense (Konjuktiv II, Plusquamperfekt)

Have a browse in my store for more German grammar activities, and a wide range of other German teaching and learning resources, with lots of freebies too - I’ve added a selection here.

The product is non-editable in a zipped format. It is copyright, all rights reserved. It may not be copied, rewritten, shared or distributed outside your own classroom in any way. The license for purchase is a single-user license only. Please read the Terms of Use carefully.

VIELEN DANK UND VIEL SPAß BEIM KONJUGIEREN!