2 Feb.2016

After teaching for fifteen years, it seems that it does not matter how much and well the teacher teaches, it is the student who must learn. I have already published many methods of teaching irregular verbs. There are posts on teaching irregular verbs with a rap song, there are posts with many games and stories where the irregular verbs are used in context. And the result? My students do not know the irregular verbs! If the students do not learn the verbs, they do not know them.
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[showmyads] This of course does not mean that we should stop making our lessons as interesting as possible. No! It means that we should give students a chance to learn the verbs in an effective way themselves. That was why I started to learn another foreign language. And I found out that the best method to learn new vocabulary was the one which I call SNOWBALL.

Snowball method

Snowball is a simple piece of software which asks me to translate a word. If I get the word right, it disappears, if not, it gets repeated once or twice after a while. The following day, the programme asks me to translate the words from the previous day and adds 20 more words to learn. It goes on like this till day 5 when I have to translate 100 words. On day 6, the software offers the same 100 words again. But on day 7, I have to translate just 80 words as the oldest 20 disappear. In this way, the words disappear and on the tenth day I translate just 20 words.

This means that each word gets repeated at least six times and if the student does not know it, it gets repeated more frequently.

And I used this method to teach the irregular verbs. There are 100 most frequent irregular verbs in English and if you do one snowball every day, each irregular verb will get repeated at least 6 times.

As the answers are evaluated by a computer, DO NOT USE CAPITAL letters and divide the words with a comma (no pause after the comma).

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2 Comments

christina

What are the vocabulary lists for each snowball game?

03/02/2016 at 6:45 pm
Zdenda

The whole game is based on the following list of irregular verbs: 1. beat beat beaten 2. become became become 3. begin began begun 4. bend bent bent 5. bet bet bet 6. bite bit bitten 7. bleed bled bled 8. blow blew blown 9 break broke broken 10. bring brought brought 11. build built built 12. buy bought bought 13. catch caught caught 14. choose chose chosen 15. come came come 16. cost cost cost 17. cut cut cut 18. dig dug dug 19. do did done 20. draw drew drawn 21. drink drank drunk 22. drive drove driven 23. eat ate eaten 24. fall fell fallen 25. feed fed fed 26. feel felt felt 27. fight fought fought 28. find found found 29. fly flew flown 30. forget forgot forgotten 31. forgive forgave forgiven 32 freeze froze frozen 33 get got gotten 34 give gave given 35 go went gone 36 hang (up) hung hung 37 have had had 38 hear heard heard 39. hide hid hidden 40. hit hit hit 41. hold held held 42. hurt hurt hurt 43. keep kept kept 44. know knew known 45. lay laid laid 46. lead led led 47. leave left left 48. lend lent lent 49. let let let 50. lie (down) lay lain 51. light lit lit 52. lose lost lost 53. make made made 54. mean meant meant 55. meet met met 56. pay paid paid 57. put put put 58. quit quit quit 59. read read read 60. ride rode ridden 61. ring rang rung 62. rise rose risen 63. run ran run 64. say said said 65. see saw seen 66. sell sold sold 67. send sent sent 68. set set set 69. shake shook shaken 70 shine shone shone 71. shoot shot shot 72. shrink shrank shrunk 73. shut shut shut 74. sing sang sung 75. sink sank sunk 76. sit sat sat 77. sleep slept slept 78. slide slid slid 79. speak spoke spoken 80. spend spent spent 81 spin spun spun 82. stand stood stood 83. steal stole stolen 84. stick stuck stuck 85. sting stung stung 86. swear swore sworn 87. sweep swept swept 88. swim swam swum 89. take took taken 90. teach taught taught 91. tear tore torn 92. tell told told 93. think thought thought 94. throw threw thrown 95. understand understood understood 96. wake woke woken 97. wear wore worn 98. win won won 99 wind wound wound 100. write wrote written

06/02/2016 at 5:56 am

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Irregular verbs – snowball method

Snowball method

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