CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.1b
The Standard
Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
What This Standard Means
Students need to recognize whether the subject is doing the action or receiving it. They also need to write both active and passive sentences correctly, using the right form of be plus a past participle when passive voice is needed.
Mastery means students can switch a sentence from active to passive and explain how the focus changes. They should choose active voice for clear, direct writing and passive voice when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or meant to be less emphasized. Students often confuse passive voice with past tense, or they leave out the helping verb.
Ways to Teach It
- Give pairs sentence strips with subjects, verbs, and objects, then have them build active sentences and convert each one to passive voice.
- Ask students to answer: When would a writer choose to hide who did the action in a sentence?
- Show five sentences and have students label each active or passive, then rewrite two in the opposite voice.
- Use headlines from news articles and have students identify who acts, who receives the action, and why the writer chose that voice.
Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.1b
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.1c
Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.1d
Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.3a
Use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action; ...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.1d
Form and use regular and irregular verbs.