7.10.D.ii
The Standard
consistent, appropriate use of verb tenses
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading · Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students edit drafts so verb tenses match the time of the actions. They keep tenses consistent unless the writing clearly moves to another time.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students keep verb tense consistent when events happen in the same time frame. They change tense only when the timing changes, and the shift is clear to the reader.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may switch between past and present tense without a reason. They may also think every verb in a paragraph must use the same tense, even when time changes.
How to Assess It
- Give students a five-sentence paragraph with three incorrect tense shifts. Ask them to correct the verbs and explain one change.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs sentence strips from a mixed-tense story, then have them arrange the timeline and revise each verb for clear timing.
Ask students to explain when a writer should change verb tense, then write two examples showing a clear time shift.
Play Tense Shift Detective by having teams find and correct unnecessary verb changes in short paragraphs for one point each.
Students edit a sample school announcement or sports recap so past, present, and future actions are expressed clearly.
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