Kentucky Reading and Writing L.8.1.a
The Standard
- L.8.1
- In both written and oral expression:
Identify verbals correctly based on their intended function.
Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Conventions of General American English
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students find gerunds, participles, and infinitives in sentences. They use each form's job in the sentence to name it.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain why 'Running helps me' uses a gerund and 'the running dog' uses a participle. They can identify 'to rest' in 'I stopped to rest' as an infinitive that tells why.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call every -ing word a gerund, including 'running' in 'is running.' They may also call 'to school' an infinitive because it starts with 'to.'
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: In 'Swimming builds strength,' 'The swimming child waved,' and 'We stopped to swim,' label each swimming or to swim and explain its job.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs sentence strips with 'Reading relaxes me,' 'The sleeping dog twitched,' and 'I paused to read'; sort the verbals by job.
Write one sentence where 'smiling' names an activity and one where it describes a person, then explain the difference.
Give students a three-box bingo card labeled gerund, participle, infinitive; read 'Swimming helps,' 'The swimming duck splashed,' and 'I stopped to swim.'
Put 'Wash hands before eating' on a mock cafeteria sign and 'Sign up to learn chess' on a flyer; label the verbals.
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Printable L.8.1.a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- L.8.1.c
Demonstrate appropriate use of verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional and subjunctive mood, while recognizing and correcting inappropri...
- L.K.5.c
Demonstrate an understanding of verbs and adjectives and their synonyms.
- L.K.5.b
Demonstrate an understanding of verbs and adjectives and their antonyms.
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