Burning the Midnight Oil

This worksheet helps students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 strengthen grammar accuracy, paragraph comprehension, and editing skills by revising a passage that misuses the time prepositions for and during. Learners carefully read a full paragraph, analyze the meaning of each sentence, and rewrite the passage using precise language that clearly communicates duration or timing within an event.

Learning Goals

• Revising & Editing (Grades 4-6): Identify and correct grammar errors within an extended piece of writing.
• Grammar: Prepositions of Time: Apply for to show how long something lasted and during to show when something occurred.
• Paragraph Structure & Meaning: Understand how sentences connect and how grammar choices affect overall clarity.
• Writing for Clarity: Produce a polished paragraph with smooth flow and accurate time relationships.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource: Designed by educators to align with upper elementary ELA grammar and writing standards.
• Deep Contextual Practice: Requires students to interpret meaning before making corrections, not just spot errors.
• Editing with Purpose: Emphasizes improving coherence and fluency, not just fixing isolated mistakes.
• Flexible Classroom Use: Suitable for grammar lessons, writing workshops, assessments, homework, or small groups.
• Low-Prep Printable: Easy to use in both classroom and homeschool settings.

This printable worksheet helps students build confidence with time-related grammar while strengthening their editing and revision skills. By correcting and rewriting a paragraph that uses for and during incorrectly, learners gain a clearer understanding of how grammar shapes meaning, clarity, and flow in written English. Whether used in a classroom language arts block or a homeschool lesson, this resource supports careful reading, precise word choice, and polished writing.

This worksheet is part of our For vs. During worksheets collection.