Curated OER
Sentence Combining/Sentence Variety
Challenge your writers to improve their writing by introducing them to 10 strategies they can use to vary their sentence structures. Each strategy is described and examples given. Pupils then create their own sentences using this...
Curated OER
A News Story of Your Own: Sentence and Lexical Variety
Given the two-sentence skeleton of a news story about a car theft/joy ride, budding writers create their own version of the story varying diction and sentence structure to heighten interest and complexity in their writing. Resource...
Curated OER
Clauses and Compound Sentences
Sentence variety is extremely important when it comes to learning the written word. Add variety to your learners' writing by focusing on clauses and compound sentences. The information provided is followed by a practice opportunity to...
Curated OER
Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex Sentences in Your Writing
Have you ever graded a stack of essays that felt like a series of bland simple sentences? A helpful grammar presentation will help learners spice up their writing by varying their sentence style, making them stronger and more attentive...
University of North Carolina
Sentence Patterns
In an ideal world, sentences in a college-level essay should feature a variety of sentence types. In reality, most papers stick to simple and compound sentences, two of the types a handout on sentence patterns discusses. Part of a larger...
Curated OER
Sentence Construction
Switch it up! Present young writers with suggestions for how to add variety and interest to their writings. Using a draft of one of their papers, viewers bracket the first words of their sentences and use the provided questions to...
Curated OER
Sentence Combining
Avoid short, choppy sentences in your class's writing by focusing on sentence structures. The first page in this two-page packet shows your class how to combine sentences using conjunctions, a list, an appositive, or compound predicate....
Curated OER
Clauses: Building Blocks for Sentences
Colorfully animated and packed with engaging examples, this PowerPoint encourages to employ clauses to create a variety of sentence structures. Peer editing of sample paragraphs would provide an opportunity for guided practice with...
Curated OER
Combining Sentences: Correct Punctuation of Phrases and Clauses
Break down the particularities of sentence combining with this explanatory handout. Using three example sentences, the handout demonstrates a variety of ways to combine sentences. This resource could act as a reference sheet for your...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 28
As writers continue to revise their argument essays, the focus shifts to editing grammatical conventions, parallel structure, and varying syntax to add interest. After examining model sentences that demonstrate sentence variety, writers...
Syracuse City School District
Capitalization and Punctuation
How many of the pupils in your language arts class can differentiate between a colon and a semicolon? Clarify common conventions, including end punctuation, proper capitalization, and sentence structure, with a series of helpful grammar...
Curated OER
Punctuation
Should that pause in your sentence be long, short, or somewhere in between? Practice using commas and semicolons with a series of grammar activities. High schoolers read a series of sentences and paragraphs and decide where they should...
Curated OER
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself
The narrative works of Frederick Douglass engage learners in the topic of slavery. They will experience American history in a new way, a Douglass expresses his thoughts in his own words. Pupils then interpret this literary work.
University of North Carolina
Semi-Colons, Colons, and Dashes
Hey teacher, what's that weird thing with a period on top and a comma on the bottom? If you've ever received a question like this, it may be time to review the handout on semi-colons, colons, and dashes. Part of a larger series of...
Curated OER
Sentence Completion
In this grammar worksheet, learners finish ten sets of unfinished sentences by joining them together with a variety of -ing expressions.
Curated OER
Persuasion and Parallel Structure
Discuss the definition of parallel structure with your high school class. In small groups, they read a section of "The Declaration of Independence" to identify examples of parallel structure. Each learner writes an essay explaining the...
National Math + Science Initative
Vocabulary Study: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Like Scrooge, your language arts learners will not shut out the lessons you teach in a vocabulary activity based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Included in the packet is a variety of vocabulary activities and two AP-style writing...
Curated OER
Must Not vs. Don't Have to
In this grammar worksheet, students write fifteen complete sentences from a variety of prompts of things one must do and other things one does not have to do.
Curated OER
Sentence Revision
In this sentence revision instructional activity, students rewrite given sentences using the word given. Students invert the sentences to create variety in their writing.
Curated OER
Appositives and Present Participle Phrases (-ing word groups)
Combine sentences with the help of this grammar resource! Learn how to combine sentences using appositives and present participle phrases. The first page focuses on combining two sentences and creatine one. On page two, writers practice...
Road to Grammar
100 Ice-Breaker Questions
What if you could ease your English language learners into class with engaging questions? You can do just that with these questions. The questions, designed to prepare learners for working with English, are grouped by topics, such as...
Curated OER
Verb Issues I
See the variety of verbs spelled out in these slides. From infinitives to intransitives, each verb is defined and shown with examples. Relationships of verbs to other parts of a sentence are clearly explained. This complex subject is...
Curated OER
Tense Buster
Pupils, after using the "Intermediate" selection of the Tense Buster software, recognize and practice using passive voice in their writing. As a result of this task, they correctly use five new vocabulary terms with passive voice in...
Curated OER
The Article II
In this grammar activity, students practice using expressions of quantity in a variety of assignments associated with thirty-six sentences.