Helping Cleanup
About This Worksheet
This Grade 7 Language Arts worksheet helps students remove unnecessary helping verbs and simplify wordy verb phrases. Each sentence contains extra wording such as is going to be, was starting to, or has been starting to. Students rewrite the sentence so it is shorter and clearer while keeping the same tense and meaning. For example, “She is going to be running in the race” becomes “She is running in the race.”
Learning Goals
The main goal is to help students recognize when too many helping verbs make writing sound awkward or indirect. Students should already understand how helping verbs combine with main verbs to form verb phrases. This activity moves them toward editing those phrases for clarity, concision, and natural flow. It supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.1 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.3, which focus on correct verb use and effective style.
Student Tasks
On this worksheet, students will rewrite ten sentences containing unnecessary or overly complicated helping-verb combinations. They must remove extra words while preserving the original time and basic meaning. The examples involve quizzes, auditions, lessons, dogs, documentaries, music practice, projects, homework, competitions, and reading plans. Students should compare the original and revised versions to make sure the new sentence is more direct.
Common Challenges
Some students may remove too many words and accidentally change the tense. Others may keep an unnecessary phrase such as going to be even though a simpler future or progressive form would work. A revision can also become ungrammatical if the helping verb and main verb no longer match. Encourage students to identify the intended time first and then choose the shortest correct verb phrase.
Teaching Suggestions
A teacher can write the full verb phrase on the board and cross out one unnecessary layer at a time. Students can then discuss which words carry the real tense and meaning. At home, a parent can ask the child to say the sentence in the most natural way possible before writing it. Everyday speech often reveals a cleaner verb phrase.
Worksheet Features
The worksheet provides ten editing sentences that focus on inflated helping-verb constructions. The example at the top clearly shows how to shorten a phrase without changing the message. Each item requires a full rewrite, giving students practice with both grammar and style. This page works well for revision lessons, verb review, homework, or an end-of-unit editing check.