How to Teach Sentence Variety

Your students have written essays, but their sentence structure could use some more variety. This activity will help them realize the same thing.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Colored pencils
• A rough draft of an essay

How to Teach Sentence Variety

1. Have students reread a rough draft of an essay they've previously written.
2. Have students underline all sentences that begin with adjectives or adverbs in orange pencil.
3. Have students underline all sentences that begin with prepositional phrases in blue pencil.
4. Have students underline all sentences that begin with articles in red pencil.
5. Have students underline sentences that begin with a pronoun in green pencil.
6. Have students underline sentences that begin with verbs in purple pencil.
7. Have students look at their colored papers. If they have too much of the same color, have them go back and rewrite those sentences in different ways.