6.10.D.ii
The Standard
consistent, appropriate use of verb tenses
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading · The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate conventions.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students edit drafts so verb forms match the time of the action. They maintain a logical tense unless the writing clearly moves to another time.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students keep verbs in a clear time frame across sentences and paragraphs. They change tense only when the timing of events changes, and they can explain why.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may switch from past to present without a reason, especially when retelling events. They may also think every verb in a paragraph must use the same tense, even when the time changes.
How to Assess It
- Give students a five-sentence paragraph with three incorrect tense shifts. Ask them to edit the verbs and explain one change.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs sentence strips from a mixed-tense story, then have them correct the verbs and arrange the events on a timeline.
Ask students to explain how one paragraph changes when every past-tense verb is replaced with present tense.
Play Tense Detective by having teams find and correct verb tense shifts in short paragraphs for points.
Have students edit a school announcement or sports recap so completed events, current facts, and future plans use fitting verb forms.
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