Lesson Plan:

Verb Tenses: Past, Present, Future

3.8 based on 19 ratings
Grade
Fourth Grade

Materials and Preparation

 Verb Tense Chart - Enlarged for you and a copy for students
 Verb Tense Lesson Assessment
 Verb Tense Lesson Exit Ticket
 Past, Present, Future Sentences handout

June 16, 2015

by Melissa Strand

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify the verb and tense in a sentence by circling and labeling.
Students will be able to write a sentence using the past, present, or future tense.

Lesson
Introduction (5 minutes)

 Start by showing the students the enlarged Verb Tense Chart, with past, present and
future simple tense definitions, descriptions and examples.
 Tell students to take a moment with their partners and discuss what’s on the chart. This is
meant for students to have an opportunity to make observations and discuss things that
they might already know, and things they don't.
 Have students share their observations whole class. This will help you set the stage for
the objective and essential question.
 Explain that verb tense tells us when an action takes place. The past tense tells what has
already happened, the present tense tells us what is happening, and the future tense tells
what will happen.
 Tell students that by the end of the lesson, they will be able to identify the past, present,
and future tenses, and write a sentence using a tense.
 To set the purpose for the lesson, introduce the essential question: How does knowing the
past, present and future tense of verbs help us communicate? Have this on the board with
 the objectives. You will revisit this question at the end of the lesson when students
complete the exit ticket.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (10 minutes)

 Demonstrate how to circle and label verb tenses on the whiteboard or projector, using a
simple sentence. One example is: Mrs. Strand is closing her eyes. Replace your name
here to get students invested in the lesson's content.
 Verbalize your thought process through the steps listed below, to model the objective.
Write them on the board as you go, or before starting the lesson, so students can reference
the steps with their partners, and independently.
 Stress that writing two additional sentences is important to meet the second objective of
the lesson.
 Refer to the handout of additional sentences. The handout includes eleven sets of three
sentences each, one for each verb tense. You only need to model this one set.
 Model these three sentences on the Verb Tense Assessment Handout: Mrs. Strand is
closing her eyes. Mrs. Strand will close her eyes. Mrs. Strand closed her eyes.

Activity Steps

1. Read a sentence.
2. Circle the verb. (On this step, think aloud using the verb tense chart from the introduction
of the lesson)
3. Label the verb using this system: p = past, pr = present, f = future. Write the appropriate
abbreviation above the circled word.
4. Write two sentences that use the other two tenses. For example, Mrs. Strand will close
her eyes. Mrs. Strand closed her eyes.

Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling (15 minutes)

 Pass out individual copies of the Verb Tense Chart.

 Have students follow the steps you modeled to complete 2-3 sentences on the Verb Tense
Assessment handout with a partner. You know your students best. Depending on the
group and level of students, you may have certain groups complete 2 sets and others 3
sets.
 After students have tried 2-3 sentences with a partner, have a pair of students join
together with another pair of students to create groups of 4.
 Have the pairs compare their work, making any changes if necessary. Be sure to facilitate
these discussions so that students are not off-track. Now is the time to catch any errors
and decide who may need to be pulled for a small group during independent time.
 Have one group share one of their three sentences. The class must identify the verb tense
used.

Independent Working Time (8 minutes)

  Ask your students to complete the rest of the Verb Tense Lesson Assessment on their
own, using the steps you've modeled for them.

Extend
Differentiation

 Enrichment: Students that finish early will prepare a sentence to act out in front of the
class. Have each student circle and label the verb. The rest of class will have to guess the
verb and tense.
 Support: Give students who are struggling a copy of the Past, Present, Future Sentences
handout. These students can circle and label the verb in each sentence.

Review
Assessment (5 minutes)

Independent Working time can be used as a final assessment of the skill.

 When analyzing their work, look to see if students first were able to circle and label the
correct verb tense.
 Next, assess if they correctly wrote two new sentences that included different verb tenses:
one present, one past, and one future sentence.
 An additional form of assessment is the exit ticket, which will be addressed in the Review
and Closing.

Review and Closing (7 minutes)

 If time permits, allow 1-2 students to share their newly created sentence. Let the class
guess the verb and the verb tense.
 Go back to the Verb Tense Chart. Ask students to turn to a partner and tell them one new
thing they learned from this lesson. Make sure students speak in complete sentences.
 Review the essential question.
 Provide the exit ticket handout. The handout includes a scrambled sentence. The students
must unscramble the sentence, put it in order, then circle and label the verb and tense.
They must also answer the essential question in writing.

Verbs and Their Tenses, Verbs

Subject:

Language Arts  

Grades:
9, 10, 11, 12  

Title - Verbs and Their Tenses, Verbs

By - Melanie Marchand

Outcome: When they finish this lesson, students will be able to identify a verb in a sentence.
They will also understand past, present and future tenses of verbs, particularly the verbs to be
and to have. Hopefully the students will be doing the same sort of verb conjugation
simultaneously in their French classes, so that the two courses will compliment one another.

Purpose: Students should be confident in their ability to recognize verbs in different forms.

Tasks:

1. The first item on the agenda would be to define the word verb: usually an action word.
Ask the kids to volunteer examples. Be prepared to give some of your own in case they
are feeling shy that day.
2. The concept of the infinitive. Explain to the students that when you put a verb after a
pronoun, the verb changes to accommodate it. The unaltered form, in combination with
the word to, is called an infinitive. For example: to jump, to sing.
3. Give the following sentences as examples: He jumps. She sings. Have them identify first
which word is actually the verb. List all the personal pronouns on the board and have the
kids conjugate the verbs. When this is finished, tell them that they have just conjugated
the verb. (YAY! Massive cheers and wild applause.)
4. Now for a look at the most common verbs in the English language: to be and to have.
Explain that certain verbs appear to be an exception to the 'action' rule. Write the
following table on the board, or put it on the overhead:

TO BE TO HAVE
I Â I Â
You (singular) Â You (singular) Â
He  He Â
She  She Â
We  We Â
You (plural) Â You (plural) Â
They  They Â

5.  Have the students conjugate these verbs.

6. Write two sentences on the board in present tense. Ask the students when the event (verb)
is taking place: yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Then have the students give you examples
of actions taking place tomorrow and yesterday.
7. Explain the concept of past, present and future tense. Explain that when in past or future
tense, main verbs are combined with the appropriate forms of the helping verbs (to be and
to have). Give examples.
8. Give the students exercises to practice:
1. Twenty sentences where the students identify the verb(s). Include some examples
where there are both main and helping verbs.
2. Six verbs to conjugate.
3. Ten sentences changing past and future tense into present tense
4. Ten sentences changing present tense to past tense.
5. Ten sentences changing present tense to future tense.