Tesol Planner has a wealth of creative ideas which include quite an assortment of colored pictures of verbs that can easily be laminated and cut up to make small piles of student activities. This activity challenges students awareness of the past tense. I give each student a stack of mixed regular and irregular cards. They are to distinguish which verbs belong to the regular “ed” side, and which are irregular. Next, they take the regular “ed” cards, and further decide if the ending sound of the “ed” is voiced, voiceless, or needs an extra syllable. Once they are finished, they get together with a partner and they combine all of their cards, discuss and follow the same directions. When they are satisfied with their groupings, they stand up and walk around to check on what the other students have completed. There is always a lot of discussion, with peers teaching and helping other peers. They also need to be able to produce the correct ending sounds. There is lots of reinforcement and practice. Finally, I put a table in front of the whiteboard, with the ending sounds on the board. Collectively they practice one more time putting the cards in the correct positions while voicing the verbs and explaining the patterns.
As one final activity, I scramble all the cards, turn them upside down, surround myself with the students, and turn them over one by one. Whoever correctly pronounces the verb in the past tense gets to keep the card. There is always a lot of focused energy and laughter with this additional reinforcement.
