Put the "fun" back in grammar fundamentals! The 36 double-sided worksheets in this bundle feature over 180 exercises on the most important topics in grammar: subject-verb agreement, misplaced modifiers, dangling participles, comma splices, semicolons, hyphens, and dozens more! The handouts introduce students to the grammatical rules for combining various types of clauses, phrases, and punctuation marks. Of equal importance, the worksheets illuminate numerous stylistic techniques used by famous authors to generate beautiful sentences — and give students ample opportunities to craft their own dazzling sentences!
Tired of the dry sentences in traditional grammar textbooks? These worksheets feature 400+ mentor sentences written by some of the BEST authors in the English language: William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, John Keats, Mary Shelley, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Sandra Cisneros, Mary Oliver, Delia Owens, Jhumpa Lahiri, Louise Erdrich, Celest Ng, and many more. Best of all, the worksheets feature 150+ writing prompts that invite students to write their own original sentences. Tackle grammar with top-quality lessons that students will never forget!
Teach the difference between to, two, and too by using excerpts from Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities! Teach the difference between layand lieby using excerpts from William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying! Teach the difference between there, their, and they'reby using excerpts from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching Godand Tommy Orange's There There! You'll be Introducing students to great books that they'll want to take up for pleasure reading!!
Finally, a set of grammar worksheets filled with amazing sentences by the world’s best writers!
This bundle of 36 double-sided worksheets was designed for ELA & English courses in grades 7-12. If used as your primary lesson plans, the worksheets will fill 4-5 weeks of class periods; if used as bell ringers, they would extend across 6 months! Either way, they’re an amazing tool for welcoming students into the classroom, getting all students focused, and launching every class in a constructive direction!
The bundle features 6 worksheet packets on the grammar topics listed below. Each packet has 10-12 pages of worksheets (plus a final quiz with 10 questions). Here are the 6 areas of grammar covered by the 6 worksheet packets:
1. Subject-Verb Agreement
2. Misplaced Modifiers & Dangling Participles
3. Commonly Misused Words: Lay & Lie, Its & It's; There, Their, & They're
4. Comma Usage: Comma Rules, Oxford Commas, & Comma Splices
5. Colons & Semicolons
6. Dashes & Hyphens
Here’s a description of the 5 sections of each worksheet:
1. Monday Mechanics: Learn the Rule! Each worksheet begins with an important grammatical rule or stylistic technique. After learning the rule, students read 3-4 sentences written by highly acclaimed authors, then they IDENTIFY which sentences are grammatically correct. Answer keys included!
2. Tuesday Application: Apply Knowledge! The second section features additional examples of the rule as it appears in sentences written by a diverse spectrum of highly acclaimed authors. After reading the mentor sentences, students EXPLAIN why each sentence is grammatically correct. Answer keys included!
3. Wednesday Analysis: Analyze a Sentence! Students ANALYZE a short passage written by a talented literary stylist: Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, Sandra Cisneros, Isabel Allende, Naomi Shihab Nye, Delia Owens, Celest Ng, etc. Students analyze how the author’s use of the grammatical technique helps to deepen the meaning of the passage. Answer keys included!
4. Thursday Creativity: Write creatively! Students WRITE their own original sentences in which they employ the stylistic technique that they’ve been learning about. The prompts are designed to inspire vivid writing!
5. Friday Funnies: Fix the Amusing Error! Finally, students are challenged to FIX a grammatical error that appeared in a magazine article, television commercial, or road sign. These errors are hilarious! They’ll enable you to wrap up each worksheet on a note of joy!
Here are the authors whose sentences and poems are included in these worksheets. They’re some of the best writers in the English language…
William Shakespeare
John Keats
Jane Austen
Mary Shelley
Charlotte Brontë
Charles Dickens
Henry David Thoreau
Emily Dickinson
Louisa May Alcott
Robert Louis Stevenson
Bram Stoker
Oscar Wilde
James Joyce
Virginia Woolf
Willa Cather
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
William Faulkner
Zora Neale Hurston
John Steinbeck
James Baldwin
Flannery O'Connor
George Orwell
Dorothy Parker
J. D. Salinger
E. B. White
Carson McCullers
Harper Lee
Jack Kerouac
S. E. Hinton
Sylvia Plath
Lorraine Hansberry
Maya Angelou
Toni Morrison
Joan Didion
Octavia Butler
Ursula Le Guin
Raymond Carver
Annie Dillard
Sandra Cisneros
N. Scott Momaday
Alice Walker
Tsitsi Dangarembga
Isabel Allende
Tony Kushner
Naomi Shihab Nye
Lois Lowry
Mitch Albom
David Sedaris
John McPhee
Mary Oliver
Jonathan Safran Foer
David Foster Wallace
Haruki Murakami
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Ottessa Moshfegh
Hanif Abdurraqib
Jason Reynolds
Tommy Orange
Gabrielle Zevin
Delia Owens
Clint Smith
Celeste Ng
and many others...
Thus, in addition to being filled with great writing prompts, this resource is a compendium of inspiring quotes and insightful wisdom by a diverse group of exceptionally talented writers. It will introduce your students to dozens of books that they might want to pick up for pleasure reading. And it will help them to cultivate something that most grammar guides neglect: a writerly “ear” and an appreciation for beautifully crafted sentences.
The bundle will come to you in 6 resource packets that feature 72 pages of double-sided worksheets. The bundle includes answer keys for every single worksheet — adding up to 144 pages of top-quality teaching resources!
You will have 2 options for how to use each worksheet in your classroom:
Option #1) Entire Worksheet: You could have students complete an entire worksheet in a single class period. In fact, since each worksheet takes about 20-25 minutes to complete, you could have students complete 2-3 worksheets per class period — depending on the length of the periods at your school.
Option #2) Bell Ringers: Because each worksheet is divided in to 5 color-coded sections, each of which takes about 5 minutes to complete, you could have students complete one section of a worksheet per day at the beginning of class. In other words, you could use each worksheet as a set of daily "bell ringers" — a.k.a. "do-nows" or "warm-up prompts" — which students complete over the 5 days of each week.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I love hearing from fellow teachers who share a passion for great literature!
Happy teaching,
Rigorous Resources
