I used this handout,Reforming Sentences, to try and review grammar in a way that demonstrates the purpose of grammar to my students. I have told them that I want their simple sentences to look more like middle schooler sentences and that grammar is the way to achieve better sentences.

This sheet’s instructions can be a little confusing at first, so do some with your students. On the second row, the instruction is “circle the nouns”. They need to circle the nouns of the sentence before then rewrite the sentence with adjectives added. The third row says “box the verb” – they do this to the sentence in the second row then rewrite the sentence with adverbs.

It was fun at the conclusion of this activity to have everyone read aloud his best sentence.