Virginia SOL 10.LU.1.C
The Standard
Recognize and use active and passive voice to convey a desired effect in speaking and writing.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Grammar
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify whether the subject performs an action or receives it. They choose active or passive voice to control emphasis, tone, or responsibility in speech and writing.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly identify active and passive voice in context. They can switch between them without changing the tense or meaning, then explain how each version shifts emphasis.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may confuse passive voice with past tense or assume every sentence with a form of “be” is passive. They may also think active voice is always the better choice.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Rewrite “The committee rejected the proposal” in passive voice, then explain which version better emphasizes the proposal and why.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups actor, action, and receiver sentence cards, then have them arrange each idea in active and passive voice.
Ask students to compare two versions of a sentence and write which one better hides responsibility, emphasizes action, or creates directness.
Play a voice-switch relay where teams rewrite active sentences as passive, and passive sentences as active, while keeping the original tense.
Collect news headlines and lab report sentences, then identify why each writer chose active or passive voice.
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Printable 10.LU.1.C Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 9.LU.1.C
Use and apply the active and passive voice as appropriate when speaking and writing.
- 9.LU.1.D
Use appositives and main and subordinate clauses to convey and clarify a message when speaking and writing.
- 11.LU.1.C
Differentiate and apply active and passive voice to convey a desired effect in speaking and writing.
- 7.LU.1.B
Recognize and use pronoun-antecedent agreement, including indefinite, reflexive, and relative pronouns, when speaking and writing.
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