Grammar and editing games

Dice games can also be differentiated by student readiness levels. Ask students to begin with a basic sentence and then add onto it. We can then ask students to build on to that sentence, one grammar concept at a time. As the mailman approached, the dog barked ferociously. As you can see, this process can continue for a while. Play this game as a class or in small groups. After each group has submitted a sentence to a shared class doc, study them together. Give awards for the strongest sentence.

Add a brain-based aspect by color-coding grammar elements. Find a simplified version of this build-a-sentence grammar activity that you can use to get started here.

Help students identify grammar skills in writing by asking them to go on a scavenger hunt for specific concepts. They can look through a common text or choice reading books. For example, you might ask students to find a sentence that uses an attribution tag with correct punctuation. Teachers can guide this activity to keep the class well paced. Set a timer and give each group who finds an example a point in the game, not the grade book. If you prefer, students can play at their own pace. Just create a page of directions with space for students to write the examples they find in their reading.

This approach frees you up to provide small group support. Students will enjoy a light-hearted game of silent telephone, reminiscent of the telephone ice breaker game where players whisper ideas to their neighbors until the reaches the last player in line. In telephone grammar, the first person writes a grammar concept on a slip of paper and passes it to the next student. No talking allowed!

The second student reads the paper, puts it on the bottom of the pile, and writes an example on the next clean paper. That student passes the stack to the next person, who puts the example on the bottom of the pile and writes the grammar term he or she thinks best applies to the example written by the previous student.

Pizza Sentence Surgeons. Students can use the checklist to mark off the errors as they find them. Phishing Scheme Sentence Surgeons. Description: This innovative activity requires students to correct the flawed spelling, grammar, and punctuation from a real phishing e-mail designed to trick people into sending money.

Rosa Parks Sentence Surgeons. Students can use the checklist provided to mark off errors as they progress. Spiders Sentence Surgeons - Online. Starfish Sentence Surgeons. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of Harriet Tubman.

Each response is incomplete, and students must fill in the missing information in the "response" section. Students can use the Harriet Tubman biography for reference. Use as Assessment on Google Classroom. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of Amelia Earhart. Students can use the Amelia Earhart biography for reference. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the Statue of Liberty.

Students can use the Statue of Liberty historical passage for reference. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of George Washington. Students can use the George Washington biography for reference. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of Thomas Jefferson. Students can use the Thomas Jefferson biography for reference.

Virtual History Teacher - Benjamin Banneker. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of Benjamin Banneker. It's designed to reinforce the importance of elaboration. Students can use the Benjamin Banneker biography for reference. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of Hank Aaron. Students can use the Hank Aaron biography for reference.

Virtual History Teacher - Ruby Bridges. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of ruby Bridges.

Students can use the Ruby Bridges biography for reference. Grade Levels:. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of Crispus Attucks. Students can use the Crispus Attucks biography for reference. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of Roberto Clemente.

Students can use the Roberto Clemente biography for reference. Description: Students play the role of a virtual history teacher and must grade responses to three questions about the life of George Washington Carver. Students can use the George Washington Carver biography for reference. The printable board game comes with everything necessary for students to start playing today- No Prep!

Students will practice grammar and sentence editing skills with nearly 50 engaging question cards. This game is ideal for small groups, tutoring, even whole class projected on a document camera, using teams. Answers and explanations on the back of each question card tell the student why the answer is correct the grammar or editing rule and also tells the student why the other answer choices are incorrect.

Students can play with minimal support from the teacher. Questions cover the following topics: -Comma use -Semicolon use -Quotation marks and dialogue -Exclamation marks, question marks, and periods -Combining sentences -Spelling rules -Capitalization -Multiple meaning words using context clues -Revision of writing for better flow -Revision of writing for exact word choice -Revision of writing for conclusions The Grammar and Sentence Editing Game comes with: -4 short texts a mix of fiction and nonfiction question cards -Playing board, game pieces, rules -Answers and explanations on the back of each card for students to self-assess Thanks for your feedback.

For another game like this, check out the Making Inferences Game. Thank you so much! Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and leave a short comment for my product.

TPT gives you credit to use for future purchases. Thanks for your feedback! Use a variety of sentence openings to keep your writing interesting. Using the same sentence formats one after another can get daunting for the readers. Vary the length and style of your sentences to keep things interesting. But sometimes, especially with nonfiction, writers get so caught up writing that they accidentally switch tenses. Decide which tense to use at the start of self-editing and make sure each active verb follows along.

Likewise, make sure your tone stays consistent throughout your writing. Choose the appropriate tone for your piece before self-editing and revise your draft to match. Try using a more precise word to replace the whole phrase. Parallelism is using the same grammatical structure for a series of related phrases or clauses.

In the mornings, my routine is to eat breakfast, exercising, and meditation. In the mornings, my routine is eating breakfast, exercising, and meditating. In the mornings, my routine is to eat breakfast, exercise, and meditate. In the mornings, my routine is breakfast, workout, and meditation. One of our writing habits to avoid is jargon, or words that only people in a particular field or industry would understand you might not know what a ginzel is, but oil rig workers do.

Last, double-check that the formatting of your document is correct. Pay particular attention to citations and quotations—MLA, APA, and Chicago styles have different rules for citations, so check which one the assignment calls for beforehand.

Who better to give advice on self-editing than one of the best-selling authors of all time!?