Active & Passive Voice

Lesson Plan: Create a

Cartoon in Active or
Passive Voice
Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

In this lesson plan, adaptable for grades 3-12, students explore BrainPOP features and resources to
learn about active and passive voice, and the differences between the tone and focus of each. They
will use what they learn to identify active and passive voice in different types of writing and discuss
how voice makes writing effective.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Students will:

1. Construct sentences using active and passive voice.

2. Use the Make-a-Map tool to identify examples from the movie of active and passive voice.

3. Identify sentences as active or passive.

4. Rewrite sentences from active to passive and passive to active.

5. Analyze a comic for voice and write their own.

Materials:

 Internet access for BrainPOP

 Class sets of Active & Passive Voice activity and Sentence Diagram graphic organizer (or
individual computer access for students to type their responses on the online form)

Preparation:
 Preview the movie Active & Passive Voice to plan for any adaptations.
 Preview thePreview the Activity and Graphic Organizer to plan for any adaptations and print them
out if students will be working offline.

Lesson Procedure:
1. Bounce a ball on the floor. Then ask students to describe what happened. Tell them to start
the sentence with your name (e.g., “Ms. Jones bounced a ball.”). Write the sentence on the
board. Then have students identify the subject (Ms. Jones) and the verb (bounced). Now,
bounce the ball again, but this time, ask students to describe what happened starting with
“The ball…”. Students should say, “The ball was bounced by Ms. Jones.” Write this sentence
on the board and ask them to identify the subject in this sentence (the ball) and the verb
(was bounced).

2. Guide students to compare and contrast the two sentences. Ask them which the think is
active and which is passive. Confirm that they understand that the first sentence is in the
active voice because the subject, the teacher, actively bounced the ball. Contrast this with
the second sentence, which is in the passive voice because the subject (the ball) is NOT
actively doing anything. Instead something is happening to it by someone else.
There are tons of uses for the passive voice. But rather than
reading 30 pages on the matter or listen to a lecturer profess its
values, students need practice and application; how to identify,
practice, and produce the passive voice.

But before we move on, let’s review some basic rules and terms:

What are active and passive sentences?

Here’s a quick refresher:

Active sentence Passive sentence

Ieatdinner. Dinner is eaten by me.

[Subject / Object] [Object / Subject]

An active verb is one that A passive verb is one that follows an

follows a subject pronoun, abstract noun or a noun to which an
i.e. a doing verb. action is being done.

“Me” is the agent, the doer of the action.

The passive tense “formula”

Remember:

 The action verb is in the past participle. This is standard for

all use of the passive voice.
 The be verb can be modified to change tense. For example:

Dinner was eaten / has been eaten / had been eaten etc.
  However, the action verb must remain in the past
participle form. It cannot be expressed in the present
participle.
 Thus the rule for the passive voice is:

Object + be + past participle ( + agent )

Activity 1: Error-spotting

Write these sentences on the whiteboard and ask students to

explain why they’re wrong.

✓/
Sentence Explanation
X
The lesson is
✓ taught by the Adequate [object / agent] agreement
teacher.
He is taught the Passive constructions [be + past participle]
X
lesson. cannot follow subject pronouns [he]
They is eaten No [subject / verb] agreement; same error as
X
dinner. above
[Object / agent] agreement
Dinner is eaten by
X is almost correct, but the agent must be an
they.
object pronoun [they]
X They ate dinner. This is an active sentence.
Dinner is eaten by Adequate passive sentence, if a bit odd.
✓
them. Better clarify who is [them].

Activity 2: BINGO – for language accuracy

Warm up:

 Ask students to draw a table of 9 cells. Tell the students that

they are going to practice using the verb eat. Ask them to
write the verb on top of the table. Then ask them to pick
a random cell into which they will write the following
phrases; teacher reads passive sentences using:
 Past simple Present simple

Past continuous Present continuous

Past perfect Present perfect

 Students can place Xs in the unused cells. The students’

cells should all be filled with different tenses. It should look
something like this:

Eat

Has/have been eaten Is eaten Was eaten

Is being eaten X Had been eaten
Was being eaten X X

 Now the teacher will read the tenses (eg: past perfect).
Students will cross out the box that contains this form.
Teacher continues to read tense names until one student
earns BINGO. Cells filled with Xs count as completed cells (it
should happen quite fast). Elicit how to create a continuous
form – where does the -ing go? Answer is on the be verb.

Play:

 It’s time to play for real. Ask students to draw a 9 cell table
again. Tell them that all cells will be filled now with the
following (not all) tenses (write on the whiteboard):

Past simple Present simple Future simple

Past continuous Present continuous Future continuous
Past perfect Present perfect Future perfect
Past perfect Present perfect Future perfect
continuous continuous continuous

 Students will select whichever ones they want; they cannot

choose all of them as they only have 9 cells to fill. Students
must write the verb in the passive voice according to the
tense, such that the future perfect passive for “eat” is will
have been eaten (make sure that students remember to
include the be verb – been in this case).
 Again, make sure (monitor) that students are writing the
sentences in a random order. Once students are finished,
explain that BINGO should only be called for horizontal,
vertical, or diagonal streaks.
 Play the game with the whole class. Teacher reads the tense
and calls on a student to say the phrase. Eg:

Teacher: “Past perfect – drive.”

Student: “Had been driven.”

 Play until a winner shouts BINGO. Clap for the winner.

Continue playing until SUPER BINGO is called. Clap again.
 Tell students to form groups of 3 and create another table of
9 cells. Students should use the remaining tenses that they
did not use in the last round. The new verb could be “write”.
They will continue playing for another 10 minutes (adding up
the time to create the table, writing down the phrases, etc).
Teacher will call out the tenses and will write down the
names of the first winners of each group on the whiteboard,
the first group to earn BINGO, and the first student to earn
SUPER BINGO.

BINGO assessed students’ language accuracy, now it’s time for a

more independent group task, a way to assess students’ fluency:

Activity 3: Production Task – for language fluency

 Create a news report (fictional or real) about an

environmental event such as a fire, earthquake, tornado,
 hurricane, tsunami, blizzard etc. Select a location (city or
country) and present it to the class, pointing out your use of
the passive tense throughout.

Now, it’s the students’ turn. Here are the “specs” for this project:

 Two paragraph limit (dialogue / interview / report).

 1-2 minute presentation limit (video / audio format).
 More than 6 passive sentences.
 3 students per group.
 Record your news report with your smartphone and send the
file to your teacher.
 20 mins to complete report (writing & recording).
 Use passive voice to deliver information and conditionals to
present situations that could have happened given different
circumstances.

Passive eg: The rabbit was rescued by the man.

BONUS: Conditional eg: If the wind hadn’t changed so rapidly , the

fire wouldn’t have spread so quickly .

Remember, your students will need to experience several different

approaches to the passive tense before they are able to reproduce
it easily and naturally. The great thing about these activities—
particularly BINGO—is that they can be returned to (with added
complexity) once students’ confidence increases and they are able
to produce more interesting, complex passive voice sentences.
Good luck!

Active vs. Passive Voice

 Catherine Traffis

BASICS

Active voice means that a sentence has a subject that acts upon its verb. Passive
voice means that a subject is a recipient of a verb’s action. You may have learned that
the passive voice is weak and incorrect, but it isn’t that simple. When used correctly
and in moderation, the passive voice is fine.

In English grammar, verbs have five properties: voice, mood, tense, person, and
number; here, we are concerned with voice. The two grammatical voices are active
and passive.

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What’s the difference between active and passive voice?

Active voice
When the subject of a sentence performs the verb’s action, we say that the sentence is
in the active voice. Sentences in the active voice have a strong, direct, and clear tone.
Here are some short and straightforward examples of active voice.

Active voice examples

Monkeys adore bananas.

The cashier counted the money.

The dog chased the squirrel.

All three sentences have a basic active voice construction: subject, verb, and object.
The subject monkey performs the action described by adore. The subject the
cashier performs the action described by counted. The subject the dog performs the
action described by chased. The subjects are doing, doing, doing—they take action in
their sentences. The active voice reminds us of the popular Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”

Passive voice

A sentence is in the passive voice, on the other hand, when the subject is acted on by
the verb. The passive voice is always constructed with a conjugated form of to be plus
the verb’s past participle. Doing this usually generates a preposition as well. That
sounds much more complicated than it is—passive voice is actually quite easy to
detect. For these examples of passive voice, we will transform the three active
sentences above to illustrate the difference.

Passive voice examples

Bananas are adored by monkeys.
The money was counted by the cashier.

The squirrel was chased by the dog.

Let’s take a closer look at the first pair of sentences, “Monkeys adore bananas” and
“Bananas are adored by monkeys.” The active sentence consists of monkeys (subject)
+ adore (verb) + bananas (object). The passive sentence consists of bananas (object)
+ are adored (a form of to be plus the past participle adored) + by (preposition)
+ monkeys (subject). Making the sentence passive flipped the structure and
necessitated the preposition by. In fact, all three of the transformed sentences above
required the addition of by.

When to use active and passive voice

Using the active voice conveys a strong, clear tone and the passive voice is subtler and
weaker. Here’s some good advice: don’t use the passive voice just because you think
it sounds a bit fancier than the active voice.

That said, there are times the passive voice is useful and called for. Take “The squirrel
was chased by the dog,” for example. That sentence construction would be helpful if
the squirrel were the focus of your writing and not the dog.

A good rule of thumb is to try to put the majority of your sentences in the active
voice, unless you truly can’t write your sentence in any other way.

Here’s a tip: Grammarly catches instances of passive voice in your writing so you know when you need
to switch it up.

Your writing, at its best.

Be the best writer in the office.

GET GRAMMARLY

How to change a sentence in passive voice to active voice

Here is an example of a business communication that could be strengthened by

abandoning the passive voice.

An error has occurred with your account, but every attempt was made to remedy it.

That sentence is not incorrect, but it does sound a bit stiff and dishonest. It sounds less
trustworthy than it could—almost evasive. Who wants to do business with a company
that avoids taking full responsibility by slipping into formal passive voice territory?
Face the responsibility head on instead. Own it.

We made an error with your account, but we have made every attempt to remedy it.

To make that sentence active rather than passive, I identified the subject: we. It was
“our company” that was responsible.

If there are any questions, I can be reached at the number below.

Here’s a tip: What to remember: to change a sentence from passive voice into active voice, identify the
subject.

The structure of this sentence is weak because it doesn’t identify the subjects in either
clause. Let’s unveil them. Who might have questions to ask? The person being
addressed: you. Who will be doing the reaching (by calling the number below)? It is
still the communication’s recipient.

If you have any questions, call me at the number below.