This teaching sequence has been designed to help children revisit and recall a key grammatical concept from the National Curriculum programme of study for Year 6.
The session provides a motivating and memorable image to stimulate discussion, before introducing the grammar element, which is ‘passive voice’. Children have time to practise using this feature, before undertaking a short writing task to apply what they have learnt in the context of creative writing.
This resource includes
- Passive voice grammar writing challenge worksheets
Use the image as a stimulus to practise using the passive voice
- Teacher’s notes
What is passive voice?
The passive voice is when the object and verb (or action) is emphasised in a sentence over the subject. The subject is not performing the verb in the passive voice, but is rather being acted upon by it.
When the subject is emphasised, this is the active voice.
Passive voice examples
- The Beatles were adored by fans.
- Claire was chased by the angry wasp.
- The sheep were quickly rounded up by the dog.
- My car was left unlocked.
- The staffroom biscuits have all gone.
Active and passive voice example
- Active: The school arranged a visit.
- Passive: A visit was arranged by the school.
National Curriculum English programme of study links
Use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a sentence [for example, ‘I broke the window in the greenhouse’ versus ‘The window in the greenhouse was broken (by me)’].