Practicing can help students understand the difference between linking verbs and action verbs. Prepare a worksheet for your students to complete. Write 20 to 30 sentences, and include two possible modifiers that can follow the verb -- an adjective that modifies the subject, or an adverb that modifies the verb. One example sentence might read, "Kelly grew cold / coldly during the night because she had only one blanket." Have students identify the correct modifier. Make it a timed exercise to motivate students further, and offer a small reward for the person who completes the worksheet correctly first.
Have students sit or arrange their desks in a circle. Explain to them that you're going to tell an improvised story as a group, one sentence at a time. Only the person holding the ball can speak. Begin the story with the beginning of a sentence, such as, "Yesterday, I was..." and toss the ball to a random student for them to complete the sentence, and begin another sentence of their own creation. For example, the student could say something like "... tired because I didn't get much sleep. But today Sheila asked..." and then toss the ball to the next student to complete the sentence and continue the story. The students will have to choose whether they use an adjective or adverb, and a linking verb or action verb. Continue until every student has participated at least once.
Prepare a set of flashcards on cardstock or index cards. Each flashcard has either an adverb or adjective written on it. Divide students into small working groups of three or four and give each group a stack of 10 to 15 flashcards. Have each group come up with a story that uses each of the modifiers written on their set of flashcards. The students will need to use linking verbs or action verbs depending on the modifier. When completed, have each student group share their story. Next, distribute the students' stories so that each group has a story other than the one they wrote. Have each student group divide the story's linking verbs from its action verbs, and submit for a score or grade.
Prepare excerpts from books or other reading passages appropriate to your students' age and reading level. Have each student, or small groups of three or four students, identify the linking verbs and action verbs in the passage they have been given. Have them explain why each verb-modifier combination is a linking or action combination. For example, students could rearrange the words in the verb-modifier combination so that it's more obvious which part of the sentence is being modified. If a sentence says, "Lucy read the play dramatically," students could rearrange that combination to "dramatically read"; if a sentence says, "Kyle felt small," students could rearrange the combination to read "small Kyle." This will reinforce the relationship between the modifier, the verb and the object modified, making the lesson more concrete for students.