Lesson Title : Past Tense Verbs
Grade Level : 2 nd Grade
Subject/Content Area : English Language Arts
Date : November 7, 2009
Michigan Curriculum Framework:
ELA 1 MC.EE.2
Read with developing fluency a variety of texts, such as stories, poems, messages, menus, and directions.
ELA 2 MC.EE.3
Begin to plan and draft texts, and revise and edit in response to the feelings and ideas expressed by others.
R.WS.02.10 use syntactic and semantic cues including reading context; picture clues; prefixes re-, un; and suffixes -s, -ed, -ing to determine the meaning of words in gradeappropriate texts.
W.PR.02.05 draft a coherent piece with appropriate grammar, usage, mechanics, and temporary spellings.
Unit Outcome:
 Students will be able to identify the different ways in which the past tense form of a verb is used within a sentence.
 The student will be able to use the visual cues to construct meaning in words using the past tense.
 Students will be able to change words from present to past tense using the variations in word endings.
Lesson Outcome:
 This particular lesson will allow the students the opportunity to gain an understanding for how words are constructed using the past tense form of a verb.
After the reading of a story containing multiple words used in past tense form, the teacher will lead a discussion that will guide the students to be able to identify these words. The students will write a story about something that happened to them in the past. They will use words in their story that reflects an understanding for how past tense forms of verbs are used in the creation of a story.
Rationale/Purpose for Lesson:
 The lesson is designed to introduce students to past tense verbs. The students have knowledge of verbs and that all sentences contain a verb. The students are also aware that a verb is used to show action in a sentence. This lesson will build upon the student’s general knowledge of the use of verbs in a sentence. The

teacher will introduce the past tense form of verbs. After being introduced to past tense verbs the students will be able to recognize these forms of spelling in the stories they are reading. This lesson will allow students to recognize the “ed” ending on words in an attempt to gain meaning of base word.
Resources/Materials Required:

Last Night at the Zoo by Michael Garland

Small white boards or magnetic letters
 Dry erase markers and erasers
 Draft books and pencils
Introduction:
 The teacher will begin the lesson by presenting the book to the students. The students will read aloud the title of the book. They will discuss what
“Last Night at the Zoo” means. They will discover that the title describes something that has happened in the past. The students will have a brief moment to discuss something that happened to them “last night”.
Procedures:
 The teacher will use guided reading for the first page of the text. The teacher will point out several of the verbs that are used in the story that occur in the past tense.
 Once the students are shown what the words in past tense look like the teacher will model how to form the meaning of these words by using the base word without the suffix. The teacher will use the white board and marker or magnetic letters to write the word without the ending and then add the ending to create the past tense form of the word. Once this is modeled for the students they will use their white boards and markers or magnetic letters to do the same for the remainder of the past tense verbs on the page.
 The teacher will allow the students to continue to read the story until a word is reached that uses the ending in a different way. For example, previous words such as walk and talk are changed to walked and talked. After a word that only adds th e “d” appears in the text the teacher will stop to discuss how to comprehend meaning of these words. For example, an explanation will show how the words bore and admire are changed into bored and admired using the past tense ending. Students will write these words down on their white boards or use magnetic letters to help them to understand by doing.
 The book “Last Night at the Zoo” has many past tense verbs throughout the story and the students should begin to point them out and to make connections to words that they have read in previous books. The teacher should facilitate this by

asking questions like “Have you seen this word before?” and “Is this something that is new to you?” By asking these types of questions the teacher can gain an understanding for how much the students have been able to recognize and comprehend past text.
Closure:
 After the story is finished the students will show their understanding for the concept of past tense verbs by retelling the story using some of the words used in the story. The teacher will write down all of the words they use in their retelling of the story. Together they will look at each word written down and remove the ending to make the word in the present form again. They will then add the ending back onto the word to show the past tense form of the word.
Guided Study/Homework:
 The students will then have the opportunity to create their own story in their draft books. They will be able to recognize words in a sentence that use the past tense form of a verb as one that includes the “ed” suffix. They will have an understanding of how the past tense form of verbs is used in describing stories that happened to them in the past. In the presence of the teacher, the students will develop a framework for a story about an e vent that happened to them “last night”. These stories can be either fiction or nonfiction. Once the teacher and student agree that the story fits the guidelines of something in the past, and a plan is drawn out in the student’s draft book, the student will return to their seat to write the story. The student should have an understanding of how verbs change forms when going from present to past tense. The students should also have numerous examples of past tense verbs with the “ed” or “d” in their stories.
Assessment:
 The teacher will read the draft books of the stories written by the students to gauge an understanding of the concept of past tense form of words used to describe events that have happened in the past.
Evaluation and Reflections: My mentor teacher is in the process of conducting running records and I wish that I had the time to teach this lesson to the student for whom this lesson was developed. Presenting this lesson in front of peers provides some important feedback. I have added the manipulative of magnetic letters even though the lesson was developed with small white boards in mind. The magnetic letters work well with small group or individual work but would not work in a whole class setting. I really like this lesson for the whole class. I would use the small white boards so I could assess for comprehension based on whether the student held up the appropriate response. I

would also have to either use a document camera or take pictures of the book and download to power point so the whole class could follow along. I think that book enhanced the lesson and I would try to find other to do follow up lessons.