While I don’t often give verb conjugation assessments or assessments where students have to choose the correct verb tense, I want them to know how to form verbs in each tense and when to use each one. So many students benefit from having that information and want to have a place to keep track of their thoughts on a verb tense. In recent years, I’ve been using guided notes sheets for my students. We don’t have a textbook at my school so these packets of notes become their text book and provide us with a common reference point.
I create skeleton notes for students and then a matching Google presentation that we go through together so students can fill out their own notes. In the presentations I create a set of slides that are blank with just the skeleton notes and then a set of slides that have all the information filled out. This way the first time we talk about a topic I can fill out the skeleton notes on the board and students follow along. Then I use the filled out slides on days when we review or as a way to get absent students caught up. Depending on the level and verb tense I make the notes in Spanish or English. For example, when I introduce the preterite and all its irregular forms, I use more English, but when I review the present indicative with level 4 students I use all Spanish. I appreciate that by using the skeleton notes, students have a starting point, but are then ultimately responsible for writing down information.
Here are some of the benefits I have found to using skeleton notes:
- I can make sure that highly important information is already included on the note sheet so students don’t miswrite it down
- I can color code my copies so students know what to look for because they are all the same color and formatting
- Students are more organized while taking their notes
- It is an appropriate accommodation for lots of IEPs and 504s
- When I review the notes I can used the already filled out slides to go through the material more quickly
- Absent students can fill in their notes using the filled in ones
- I can reuse the notes from year to year