Here's an Idea

Subjunctive Article
by Arlene Manemann TpT Store:  Arlene Manemann

Checking the various parts of CCSS ELA, it was a surprise to us when we saw ELA 8, 1c and 3a - "Using the Subjunctive".  Though students were used to reading and writing the subjunctive mood, lessons on the subjunctive had not been part of our middle school curriculum.  They had seen thesis statements like, "If Edison were alive in the 21st Century, what would he say about his inventions?" and had created similar statements.  In addition, in their Spanish classes the subjunctive mood was being taught; but they were frustrated as they had to learn about mood in Spanish, which they'd not heard about in our school's English classes.

This is changing with the development of the Common Core ELA/Language Skills.  Now students in 8th grade should learn that verbs have mood and how tense is affected by that mood.  Back to the drawing board - and create new lessons!

Terms such as conditional, indicative, hypothetical, and supposition will need to be taught.  All those years of hammering correct subject/verb usage will have to be amended.  It actually is sometimes correct to say "he were" and "she go"!  Consequently, I made a unit to use while teaching the subjunctive.

It is very important to note that we also went back into our lessons on other topics and inserted references to the subjunctive so that it didn't have that solitary appearance that seems to say, "Get through this lesson, kids, and you don't have to think about it again."  They need to know it is more common than appears at first and that, "Were I president, this is what I'd do", uses the past tense of 'to be' correctly - by way of the subjunctive mood.