Why is it important to know how to teach tense
and time?
The National Curriculum for English at Key Stages 3 and 4 has
the following requirements:
Writing - Language structure
Pupils should be taught the principles of sentence
grammar and whole-text cohesion and use this knowledge in their writing.
They should be taught ... the structure
of whole texts, including cohesion, openings and conclusions in different
types of writing [for example, through the use of verb tenses, ...]
The Key Stage 3 National Strategy: Framework for teaching English:
Years 7, 8 and 9 contains the following objectives:
Year 7: Sentence level
Sentence Construction & Punctuation
Pupils should be taught to:
- keep tense usage consistent, and manage changes of tense so that
meaning is clear;
Stylistic conventions of non-fiction
Pupils should be taught to:
- revise the stylistic conventions of non fiction:
- Information, which maintains the use of the present tense
and the third person …;
- Recount, which maintains the use of past tense, clear
chronology and temporal connectives;
- Explanation, which maintains the use of the present tense
and impersonal voice….
Year 8: Sentence level
Sentence construction and punctuation
Pupils should be taught to:
- explore the effects of changes in tense, e.g. past to present
for vividness.
Strengths and weaknesses in KS3 pupils' use
of tense and time.
Strengths
- In general, KS3 writers already use the tense system accurately and
sensitively in their speech and in short pieces of writing.
Weaknesses
- the ability to write extended accounts, making a choice of tense at
the outset and maintaining it until the end of the writing.
Examples of KS3 Writing
These examples are both taken from imaginary writing, and both illustrate
the difficulty of maintaining consistent tenses. The verb where the tense
slips from present to past (or vice versa) is in bold.
1. Instruction: "Imagine you are Juliet"
Or maybe if I drink the poison my family would
realise that I killed my self because I didn't want to marry Count
Paris.
2. Instruction: "Imagine you are going to direct this scene [from
A Midsummer Night's Dream]. Explain how you want the lovers to play their
parts.’
The lovers would play their parts in the ways
that they would all stand out, and produce the performance needed
therefore producing an enjoyable play to watch. The characters need
to be in control of what they are doing then they will perform better
on the day presenting a good worked out performance by the director.
There is another example of inconsistent
tenses in KS3 writing in the main discussion of tense, and another
in the self-assessment exercises.
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