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Passive Voice: Busy Pictures

This document provides instructions for an activity where students write sentences or a paragraph describing a picture using passive voice. Students are given a picture with a lot of activity and asked to generate passive sentences about what is happening. For an advanced class, students write a paragraph mixing passive and active sentences. The teacher then analyzes common mistakes in passive voice constructions and has students work in groups to correct sample errors before returning their own work.

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Alexis Cerquera Ortiz
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171 views2 pages

Passive Voice: Busy Pictures

This document provides instructions for an activity where students write sentences or a paragraph describing a picture using passive voice. Students are given a picture with a lot of activity and asked to generate passive sentences about what is happening. For an advanced class, students write a paragraph mixing passive and active sentences. The teacher then analyzes common mistakes in passive voice constructions and has students work in groups to correct sample errors before returning their own work.

Uploaded by

Alexis Cerquera Ortiz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PASSIVE VOICE

BUSY PICTURES
Materials: Picture for each student (see Worksheet for example)
Dynamic: Individuals/Groups
Time: 25 minutes
Procedure: 1. Choose a picture with a lot of activity. Be sure that students will be
able to generate some passive sentences about the picture you have chosen. A
funny or strange picture works well. Good sources for pictures are magazine ads,
certain comics, and pictures from lower-level writing books.
2. Have students write a specific number of sentences in the passive based on the
picture. Have an advanced class write a paragraph that contains both passive and
active sentences. Tell them not to limit themselves to what they see in the
picture. Encourage them to stretch their imagination and be creative. The funnier
and more outrageous the situations or sentences, the more fun the activity will
be. Give them some help to get started. For example: Last weekend I was at a
very elegant restaurant where the food was being served by a sophisticated-
looking waitress when . . . I had dinner with my girlfriend’s parents for the first
time. As the menu selections were being discussed, I leaned back to drink my
water and suddenly . . . If you are asking for a paragraph, make sure the students
understand that it is impossible to write every sentence in the passive, so their
paragraphs will be a mixture of passive and active sentences. You may want to tell
them approximately how many passive sentences you would like them to
produce.
3. Collect and correct the students’ sentences, then prepare an error analysis
page focusing on mistakes in the passive taken from their writing (see worksheet).
Different types of mistakes may be included, such as The painter is painted the
picture. The gifts are being carrying by the old woman. The meal is being serving.
4. Before handing back the students’ work, arrange the students in small groups
and have them try to correct the errors on the error analysis page. The individual
students can use these corrections to help with their own papers when they are
returned.
BUSY PICTURES
Write a paragraph describing the scene below. Use the passive voice as
appropriate.

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