Verb Tense IEP goals
12 templates across 5 skills: grammar, syntax & morphology, spelling, AAC & augmentative communication, receptive language, capitalization, punctuation & grammar. Open any goal to set the baseline and target from your own data, then print the matching data sheet.
12 templates · 5 skills · K–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12 · How we write and review goals
Goals by skill
Numbers are illustrative; set targets from the student's own baseline.
Grammar, Syntax & Morphology Speech & Language
Mark past events with regular past tense -ed
Regular past tense -ed
By the annual IEP review date, given 10 picture pairs showing an action in progress and then completed and asked "What happened?", the student will produce the -ed ending on regular verbs when telling about completed events (such as "jumped," "painted") independently with at least 80% accuracy on obligatory contexts for regular past tense, across 3 consecutive therapy sessions, as measured by opportunity-by-opportunity data collected during each therapy session.
Use irregular past tense verbs
Irregular past tense
By the annual IEP review date, given 10 picture pairs showing a common irregular verb action in progress and then completed and asked "What happened?", the student will produce the correct irregular past tense form (such as "went," "ate," "caught") independently with at least 80% accuracy on obligatory contexts for irregular past tense, across 3 consecutive therapy sessions, as measured by opportunity-by-opportunity data collected during each therapy session.
Spelling Writing
Spell plural nouns and regular past-tense verbs
Plural and past-tense endings
By the annual IEP review date, given 15 dictated unpracticed words that require -s, -es, or a change from y to i before -es, the student will spell each word with the correct ending regardless of how the ending sounds independently with at least 85% accuracy on target words, in 3 of 4 consecutive weekly probes, as measured by curriculum-based measurement probes collected weekly.
Write irregular past tense verbs in sentences
Irregular past tense verbs
By the annual IEP review date, given 15 dictated sentences that each need an irregular past tense verb, the student will write the irregular past tense form of the verb correctly in each sentence independently with at least 85% accuracy on irregular verbs, in 3 of 4 consecutive weekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected weekly.
AAC & Augmentative Communication Speech & Language
Tell about past events with past tense
Linguistic: past tense on the device
By the annual IEP review date, during a Monday news share or end-of-day review about something that already happened, the student will select the past-tense form of the verb on the device when telling about a past event independently with at least 75% accuracy on past-tense contexts in device messages, in 3 of 4 consecutive weekly samples, as measured by opportunity-by-opportunity data collected weekly during news share.
Receptive Language Speech & Language
Pick the picture for plural and tense endings
Grammatical morphemes (receptive)
By the annual IEP review date, given 10 spoken sentences that differ only by a plural or tense ending (such as "the cats" versus "the cat", or "jumped" versus "is jumping") and 2 to 3 picture choices, the student will select the picture that matches the grammatical ending in the sentence independently with at least 85% accuracy on grammatical ending items, across 3 consecutive therapy sessions, as measured by opportunity-by-opportunity data collected during each therapy session.
Keep verb tense consistent within a paragraph
Consistent verb tense
By the annual IEP review date, given a paragraph of 10 sentences with five verbs in the wrong tense, the student will find and correct each verb that does not match the paragraph's tense independently with at least 90% accuracy on verbs, in 3 of 4 consecutive weekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected weekly.
Use the right verb after has or had
Verb forms with helping verbs
By the annual IEP review date, given 15 sentences with has, have, or had and a verb in parentheses to change, the student will write the past participle form of the verb after has, have, or had in each sentence independently with at least 85% accuracy on verbs, in 3 of 4 consecutive weekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected weekly.
Verb tense goals come from syntax and morphology, receptive language, AAC, writing mechanics, and spelling. They cover regular past tense -ed, irregular past forms, future with will or going to, has and have with past participles, and keeping tense consistent in a retell or paragraph. Good goals name the tense forms targeted, whether the student understands, says, signs, writes, or selects them on a device, and the material, such as picture sequences, sentence completion, or a language sample. Most are measured with percent accuracy on a fixed set of items, and use in a language sample counts correct forms out of required ones. Check whether a form is a dialect feature before targeting it; dialect differences are not errors.
Matching data sheets
Each goal above links to the blank sheet built for its measure. These are the sheets this set of goals uses:
Frequently asked questions
How do I write an IEP goal for past tense verbs?
Name the form and the task. For example: given 10 pictures of completed actions, the student will describe each using a regular past tense verb with at least 80% accuracy across 3 sessions. Irregular verbs are usually a separate goal.
How do I measure verb tense in conversation?
Take a short language sample and count correct uses out of all places the tense was needed. Use the same kind of sample each time, such as a retell of a picture story.
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