{"id":841,"date":"2019-03-27T12:57:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T16:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/?p=841"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:31:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:31:57","slug":"editing-sentences-and-paragraphs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/editing-sentences-and-paragraphs\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Edit Sentences and Paragraphs in the Elementary Grades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

We’ve all seen those run on sentences that never seem to end. It’s great when a student has a lot to say and can include many details in their writing, but sometimes they forget about structure. It is important to teach them how to use proper punctuation and capital letters in their writing. Editing sentences and paragraphs regularly is a good place to start. The more often students are writing, the more likely it is that they will remember to use proper form.<\/p>\n

Using Capitals and Punctuation Marks<\/h2>\n

Start teaching this skill by showing what a complete sentence looks like.\u00a0 It starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.\u00a0 Coming up with a list of when to use capital letters is a good idea.\u00a0 Be sure to hang the list somewhere in the room so students can refer to it when needed.<\/p>\n

\"capitalization<\/a><\/p>\n

Punctuation is equally as important.\u00a0 After teaching the punctuation marks, have students practice ending sentences with the correct punctuation!<\/p>\n

\"punctuation<\/a><\/p>\n

Correcting Sentences<\/h2>\n

Next the students correct sentences that are missing the capitals and periods.\u00a0 This helps them to clearly see the beginning and ending of each sentence.\u00a0 Review the different types of punctuation marks before beginning to edit sentences.<\/p>\n

\"sentence<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sentence<\/a><\/p>\n

If you haven’t yet taught your students about the 4 types of sentences<\/strong><\/a>, it might be a good idea to do this first.<\/p>\n

Students should know about declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative sentences<\/strong>.\u00a0 It will help them to know which punctuation marks to use at the end of each kind of sentence.<\/p>\n

\"types<\/a><\/p>\n

Practice, Practice, Practice!<\/h2>\n

Once students can edit simple sentences, you may want to have them work at a literacy center and practice their skills.\u00a0 For a hands-on activity, set out some task cards<\/a> and have students edit the sentences either on the laminated cards or in their notebooks.<\/p>\n

\"sentence<\/a><\/p>\n

When they have had enough practice correcting sentences, students can start to correct short paragraphs.\u00a0 They will develop the skill of seeing where one sentence ends and the next begins.<\/p>\n

This is a little harder, so you may have some students working on paragraphs while others are still working on single sentences.<\/p>\n

\"paragraph<\/a><\/p>\n

Go Back and Check<\/h2>\n

In addition to daily worksheets, students should also evaluate their own writing to see if they are using capitals and punctuation correctly.\u00a0 After the first draft of a writing piece, students can go back and revise and edit their work.\u00a0 This is where they may discover that they have missed some much needed punctuation.<\/p>\n

Students need to edit for C<\/strong>apitals, U<\/strong>nderstanding, P<\/strong>unctuation and S<\/strong>pelling.\u00a0 The acronym CUPS<\/strong> is often used as a helpful reminder.<\/p>\n

When they are finished writing, encourage students to switch papers with a partner and they can correct each others’ work.\u00a0 Maybe one student will see something that is missing where another student did not.<\/p>\n

\"sentence<\/a><\/p>\n

Many of the activities shown above are included in my Sentence Editing\/Correcting Worksheets & Activities<\/a>\u00a0resource.<\/p>\n

I also have this bundle of Correct the Sentences Worksheets<\/a> for each month of the year!\u00a0 Students fix up the sentences by adding proper punctuation and capitalization.\u00a0 Check it out!<\/p>\n

\"fix<\/a><\/p>\n

\"correct<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you are a second or third grade teacher, you may also want to check out my blog post about Paragraph Writing<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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We’ve all seen those run on sentences that never seem to end. It’s great when a student has a lot to say and can include […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,34,12],"tags":[70,56,55,54],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-primary","category-sentences","category-writing","tag-correcting-sentences","tag-editing-paragraphs","tag-editing-sentences","tag-sentence-editing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/editing-sentences-worksheet-1.jpg?fit=2016%2C1413","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3728,"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions\/3728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theteachingrabbit.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}