Grade 10 ESL Grading Rubric: Passive Voice — Forms, Use, Organization, Accuracy

Learning Objectives

• Explain when and why we use the passive voice.
• Form the passive with be + past participle in the present simple, past simple, present perfect and future, and with modal verbs.
• Use the past participles of common regular and irregular verbs correctly.
• Change active sentences into the passive and decide when to include "by + agent".
• Use the passive to describe a process and to write a short news report.

How to Use This Resource

• Share the rubric with students before the task so they know what success looks like.
• Circle one level per skill for each student; add the points (maximum 16).
• Record scores on the record sheet.

Differentiation

Support: Give a list of past participles on the desk. Challenge: Passive with continuous tenses: "The road is being repaired." English language learners: Color-code: be (blue) + past participle (orange).

Teacher Tips

Real labels ("Made in Vietnam") are a great hook for the present simple passive. News headlines are full of passives — use the day's news in lesson 4.

What's Included

• 4 skills × 4 levels (Excellent, Good, Developing, Beginning)
• Task: Writing task: a process description ("How ___ is made") or a short news report, 100–120 words, with at least 6 passive verbs.
• Class record sheet
• Score bands: 14–16 = Excellent, 10–13 = Good, 6–9 = Developing, 4–5 = Beginning.

Additional Files

• Grade 10 ESL Grading Rubric: Passive Voice — Forms, Use, Organization, Accuracy (DOCX)

Teacher Reviews