Students become writing mechanics fixing up broken down sentences with the Greasy Grammar Writing Mechanics Writing Center! This center includes 20 fix-up sentences (Set 1 - Purple) and an answer key. Pick a colored car (six options) to use for your writing center or use the black and white version to print on colored paper. Print sentences and attach with a ring. Place a pair of work gloves, a bandana, and a grease rag (an old sock) in the center envelope so your students can dress the part while working on these broken down sentences! This center works best with a 10" x 13" manila envelope with a clasp to store all the contents.
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Greasy Grammar Writing Mechanics Writing Center
20 fix-up sentences (Set 1 - Purple)
Answer Key
Students pick a sentence card and, using the tools page as a form of reference, they decide on which tools to use to fix the sentence. They can use a vis-à-vis marker or black dry erase marker to mark up the sentence. For example, they can draw a picture of the tool above the incorrect word, circle the letter or draw a line under the letter that needs capitalizing, or even simply write the correct capital letter over the lower case letter. You could even get little tool stickers for them to place on their sentence cards. It’s really up to you how you want them to mark up their sentences (pick the way that works best for your students). Once the sentence has been marked up, students should count the number of tools they used and record it on the car. Then they can check their work by flipping over the card to see if they used the correct number of each tool (note that one set of quotation marks counts as one tool). Then students should rewrite the corrected sentence on the cover page and check their work using the answer key provided.
Mechanics can be a tricky subject for students to master, which is why I have simplified the rules (on the tools page) as much as possible. Because of this, my rules are not all inclusive of the English language. They follow the American English rules which may look a little different than the British English rules (such as a period inside the quotation marks vs. outside). These sentences include the Oxford comma (a comma before the word ‘and’ or ‘or’ in a list). However, I have included a separate file for those who do not teach the Oxford comma.
I used simplified terms to help students remember where certain punctuation marks are included within a sentence (i.e. “Upper Marks” to identify those punctuation marks found near the top of words like a quotation mark; “Middle Marks” to identify those found in the middle of a sentence such as a comma).
