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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 3 of 12

Grammar & Style

Punctuation, agreement and register

What your child practices

Semicolons, colons, dashes, commas and apostrophes, subject-verb agreement, pronoun case, misplaced modifiers, run-ons and fragments, and choosing a formal or informal register.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 9-10.L.1; 9-10.L.2; 9-10.L.3 · punctuation, agreement and register

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A semicolon joins two complete, related sentences. A colon introduces a list or explanation. Dashes add emphasis.
  2. A fragment can’t stand alone, even if it starts with a capital. Subjects and verbs must agree.
  3. Prefer active voice, keep modifiers next to what they describe and match register (formal or informal) to the audience.

Example: Which uses active voice: “The plan was approved by the committee.” or “The committee approved the plan.”? In active voice, the subject does the action. The committee does the approving. Answer: The committee approved the plan.

Grammar & Style in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 3 of 12 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Literary Elements and before Word Detective.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which sentence has parallel structure?

    • She enjoys painting, hiking and to cook.
    • She enjoys painting, to hike and cooking.
    • She enjoys to paint, hiking and cook.
    • She enjoys painting, hiking and cooking.

  2. Question 2

    Which is a complete sentence?

    • When the rain stopped, and we.
    • Although the rain stopped.
    • Because we stayed inside.
    • Although the rain stopped, we stayed inside.

  3. Question 3

    Complete sentence or fragment? Sort each group of words.

    Sort into: ✅ Complete sentence · ✂️ Fragment

    • 🧊Because the road was icy.
    • 🎵She hummed while she worked.
    • 🧥The tall man in the red coat.
    • 🏃Running across the field.
    • 🔔The bell rang.
    • 💪Although we tried our best.
    • 🚪Close the door!
    • 🏟️After the game ended, we went home.

  4. Question 4

    Which sentence has a misplaced modifier?

    • Walking down the street, the trees looked beautiful.
    • Walking down the street, I thought the trees looked beautiful.
    • The trees looked beautiful as I walked down the street.
    • I walked down the street and admired the trees.

  5. Question 5

    Which sentence is written in a formal register?

    • I would appreciate your reply by Friday.
    • Reply whenever, no biggie.
    • Lemme know ASAP, ok?
    • Hit me back by Friday.

  6. Question 6

    Which sentence uses a dash correctly for emphasis?

    • She — had only one goal to win.
    • She had — only one goal to win.
    • She had only one goal — to win.
    • She had only — one goal to win.

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