Georgia 7.L.GC.1.51

ELA7th GradeGrammar, Usage, & Mechanics

The Standard

Mechanics: Use hyphens with appropriate affixes and compound words. (Continue)

Georgia's K-12 English Language Arts Standards · Language (L) · Grammar Conventions

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students decide when an affix needs a hyphen, as in self-aware and ex-president. They also hyphenate compound words and modifiers when the mark shows how words work together.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can correctly edit hyphenated affixes and compound words in sentences. The student can explain how a hyphen prevents confusion or shows that words work together.
Common Misconceptions: Students often add a hyphen to every prefix or leave hyphens out of compound modifiers before nouns. They may also add one after an adverb ending in ly, as in carefully-written.
How to Assess It: Edit this sentence: “The well known ex mayor gave a carefully written speech at the all school meeting.” Write the corrected sentence and explain each change.

Lesson moves

Give pairs sentence strips to sort into Hyphen, One Word, or Two Words: self-control, pretest, and ice cream.
Ask students to explain how a man eating shark differs from a man-eating shark, then write another ambiguity pair.
Play Hyphen Relay with cards such as ex-president, rewrite, well-known actor, and carefully written essay. Teams correct and justify each.
Have students photograph three hyphenated compounds on signs, menus, or packages, then verify each spelling in a dictionary.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 7.L.GC.1.51, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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