Revise a Paragraph to Cut Extra Words

Read a paragraph aloud before and after each fix so your child hears the change. Accept more than one correct way to combine sentences. Then ask your child to try one method on their own draft.

Revise a paragraph to cut extra words by crossing out six sets and rewriting it. A wordy sentence has extra words that say an idea twice or add nothing. The directions on the page read: Read the paragraph and the clue. Then, cross out the 6 sets of extra words, and write the paragraph again without them. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 5th Grade writing process, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with sentence variety. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Sentence variety is mixing sentence lengths and structures so writing does not sound the same from line to line. L.5.3.A asks 5th graders to expand, combine and reduce sentences for meaning, reader interest and style.

Look for two short sentences about the same thing. Join them with a word like and, but or because, or tuck one into the other, as in My dog, a beagle, barks at birds. The combining page shows each method before the practice.

Extra words slow a reader down without adding meaning, like in my opinion I think. The paragraph page has children cross out six sets of extra words, then rewrite the shorter paragraph.

Yes. All three sentence variety sheets have an answer key.

Fifth graders plan, revise, edit and rewrite with some guidance from adults and peers (CCSS W.5.5). The work shifts toward research and argument: taking notes, paraphrasing, listing sources and answering a counterclaim. These sheets give each of those steps its own page.

Have your child read the passage, cover it, and say the idea out loud in their own words before writing. Then compare with the source and change any long string of the same words. The paraphrase page shows a source with choices first, so your child sees what a good paraphrase looks like.

19 of the 28 sheets have an answer key, including every editing and sentence variety page. The 9 planners and open writing pages, such as the argument planner, the story lead page and the setting builder, have no key, since each child writes their own piece.