LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

English II

Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.

Objective 6.02. Edit for:

  • subject-verb agreement, tense choice, pronoun usage, clear antecedents, correct case, and complete sentences.
  • appropriate and correct mechanics (commas, italics, underlining, semicolon, colon, apostrophe, quotation marks).
  • parallel structure.
  • clichés, trite expressions.
  • spelling.

Additional related resources

We’re in the process of aligning our content for students to the Standard Course of Study. As we do, you’ll find it here.

General resources

Aligned lesson plans

Sentence combining and decombining
Students will focus on stylistic choices and sentence fluency by combining, decombining, and recombining sentences in professional writing, peer writing, and their own writing.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
By Peter Bobbe.
Improving student essay writing
English II teachers are constantly searching for strategies to improve students' analytical responses to literature. This lesson is designed for all types of learners, offering various activities for all learning styles. Individual, small group, and whole class activities on essay writing culminate with the student writing his or her own formal response to literature.

This generic writing activity may be used with any literary unit and at any point in your students' development of the writing process.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts)
By Shawn Parker.
Highlighting revisions, glossing changes
By highlighting their revisions and explaining (i.e.,glossing) the changes they have made to a draft of their work, students will not only become more proficient writers but will also become more conscious of the process of revision and thus more reflective writers. Further, teachers will find it easier to monitor and evaluate student revisions.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts)
By Peter Bobbe.
A “defining moment” in editorial writing
Students will be introduced to the definition mode of writing. Students will learn to define a particular subject by responding in an editorial format. Students will first compose an editorial graphic organizer, which will aid in composing a completed editorial using the writing process. This lesson includes modifications for a Novice Low Limited English student.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts and English Language Development)
By Susan Brooks and Carrie Mabry.

Resources on the web

What's my subject? A subject-verb agreement mini-lesson
This mini-lesson provides opportunities for students to explore the grammatical rules of subject-verb agreement while determining when it may be appropriate to use ungrammatical language. Students discuss the difference between formal and informal language... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Avoiding sexist language by using gender-fair pronouns
This ReadWriteThink lesson plan engages students in a brief writing assignment that concretely illustrates how language and gender stereotyping interact causally. Students write a response to a short prompt that includes no information about the participants'... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink