As with the draft version that was discussed a while back, the Standards are
still confusing ³what students do² and ³what they can talk about,² although
this may be strategic. ³Using simple tenses² is slated for 3rd grade, for
example, but native-English-speaking students will have been using simple
tenses since kindergarten at least. Knowledge about tenses would logically
go in ³knowledge of language,² but the Standards seem the reserve the latter
term more for stylistics.

This kind of confusion could allow school systems to imply they¹re ³teaching
about² tenses, while only having to demonstrate that yes, their students use
the kind of English pre-schoolers are capable of.  There¹s no requirement
that the students identify a verb form as present, merely that they use some
simple present verbs (note that I¹m not saying that the students should or
should not be able to label verb tenses, only that as worded, the standards
don¹t really ask for what one might think they¹re asking for). I suppose
that could be a feature, not a bug. But it would be very hard to defend if
someone questioned them about it directly.

--- Bill Spruiell

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