Introduction
Punctuation marks are the little symbols used to make writing understandable.
Some marks give natural breaks to the flow of reading, providing an opportunity to make sure that we understand what we have just read. Others offer information without affecting the flow of reading. Once we know what to do when we see a particular mark in a text, we can use this knowledge to experience greater comprehension in our reading. Mastery of punctuation is an important step in the literacy process. Knowing that there is a purpose to punctuation makes it more relevant to the learner.
Objective
Mastery of the effect of punctuation marks on one’s reading (stop, pause, short stop, or keep reading) and what the marks are telling the reader.
Preparation
Assemble the following materials: punctuation cards, worksheets, punctuation reference materials, magazines, scissors, glue sticks, CD player and “Punctuation Rap”.
Procedure
Introduce the definition of “punctuation”: marks used in writing and printing to help make the meaning clear. This can be illustrated by asking students about sports they may play, the rules that exist in that sport and why the rules are necessary (for safety, fairness, determining a winner, etc.). Explain that punctuation plays just as important role in reading and writing.
Review with students any of the following examples to illustrate the importance of accurate punctuation.
Example 1:
Read the book Punctuation Takes a Vacation, by Robin Pulver. It is suitable for the youngest students.
Example 2:
A panda bear goes into a restaurant, orders a meal, eats it, pulls out a gun, fires 3 shots in the air and then leaves. When asked why he did this he said, “I’m a panda bear”. Puzzled, people asked him to explain. He showed them a copy of a dictionary definition of the word panda in the dictionary. It reads: “panda, a large bear-like mammal with characteristic white and black markings that eats shoots and leaves”.
Compare:
Eats, shoots, and leaves.
Eats shoots and leaves.
Example 3:
Compare:
Woman, without her, man is nothing.
Woman without her man is nothing.
Example 4:
Activity: Have students write out passages for each other with no or inaccurate punctuation. Have them read the inaccurate passages out loud, following the rules they know about the marks, e.g. stop at periods, use a loud voice for exclamation marks, etc.
Punctuation Card Procedure
- Have the students write or copy the name of the mark on the worksheets. Prepare the students by having them close their eyes and see their clay alphabet so that their brain is sure about what the letters look like. Note: watch out for accuracy with the letter “k”, as this letter can be difficult for some students.
- Beginning with the period, have the student make the period with clay.
- Point out the placement of the mark in relation to the words, and have the students place the clay model of the mark on the paper in correct relationship to what they have written.
- Have the students touch and say the name of the mark. Make sure they are pronouncing it correctly.
- Have the students say, “This is a (name of mark). When I see it when I’m reading, I (stop, pause, or keep reading)”.
- Continue this process until all of the marks are covered. Note: for younger children cover only period, comma, exclamation mark, question mark, and possibly quotation marks.
- Look for all (if more than one) uses of the marks in magazines. Ask the students how they know that it is for the particular use. They may also cut out the passage in the magazine and glue it onto the worksheet.
- Sing the appropriate verse of the punctuation rap after completing each mark.
A stop sign
Review when a period is used: at the end of a sentence.
Ask: “What do you do when you see it when you are reading?”
Discuss the use of periods for abbreviations, and that they are not stop signs.
Recite together: “This is a period, when I see it at the end of a sentence when I am reading I stop”.
Note: Students know that a period belongs at the end of a sentence, but do they know what a sentence is? Silly sentence starters are a fun way to reinforce that a sentence is “a complete thought”:
- Have one student begin a sentence, e.g. “Baboons like to…”
- Have the next student complete the sentence, e.g. “…hang upside-down from their toes.”
- Encourage silliness by modeling some funny examples first.
- Pay attention to confusion when a student includes a complete short sentence in his or her starter, giving the student an opportunity to correct it by removing some words (usually the verb).
A stop sign
Ask, “When do you use a question mark?” Answer: At the end of a question.
Notice how often it is used in magazine advertisements, and ask why that might be so? (To engage the reader.)
Recite together: “This is a question mark, when I see it when I am reading, I stop”. Also discuss what happens to the voice at the end of a question.
The reinforce the concept of questions and the use of inflection in the voice for questions, play Make it a Question as follows:
- Discuss the words that usually create questions when used to begin a sentence: who, what, where, how, when, why, did, does, is, etc.
- Have one student say any word. (It can be one of the above words, or any word they choose.)
- Have the next student use the word to begin a question.
- Students will learn that any statement can become a question in the right context and with the appropriate inflection in the voice. This will assist them when they are reading and encounter question marks.
A stop sign
Describe it as an “excitement mark” to signify high emotion.
When looking for magazine examples together, note that it is also frequently used in advertising.
Recite together: “This is an exclamation mark, when I see it when I am reading, I stop”.
Discuss the types of emotions that could be indicated with exclamation marks. Reinforce the concept by playing The Emotion Game:
- Have one student make a statement (that would normally be said with high energy) without displaying any emotion, e.g. “We rode the roller coaster ten times today.”
- Have the next student repeat the statement with full emotion.
A stop sign
Uses:
Review the way that colons usually lead into something that is to follow:
- Lists
- Long direct quotations (quote is indented rather than surrounded by quotation marks)
- Titles, e.g. Coming next month: Surprise your friends in an unusual way…
- The greeting in a business letter
Colons are also used in digital time, separating the hours and minutes, e.g. 10:30 a.m.
Recite together: “This is a colon, when I see it when I am reading I stop”.
Ask if there is anything the same in all reading stop signs?
Answer: they all have a period at the bottom.
Indicates a pause
Main Uses:
- Separating items in a list and ideas in a sentence: birds, cats, dogs, and fish
- Between a city and province in an address: Toronto, Ontario
- Between the day and year in a date: January 1, 2006
- After the greeting and closing of a friendly letter: Dear Mom, Yours Truly,
- Before a direct quote in the middle of a sentence: Jeff said, “The tribe has spoken.”
Ask someone to read and have everyone listen to the difference in his/her voice compared to a period. (For commas, the voice goes up and for periods the voice goes down to indicate the end of a sentence).
Recite together: “This is a comma, when I see it when I am reading, I pause”.
Three Uses:
-
Around a direct quotation
-
To set off words or phrases that are special for any reason. Note for example, how in the Austin Powers movies, he often puts fingers around certain words when speaking.
-
To indicate shorter written works (i.e. smaller than an entire book or an entire movie) such as magazine articles, book chapters, songs, poems, and television episodes. Look for examples of magazine articles in Letters to the Editor.
Recite together: “These are quotation marks, when I see them when reading, I keep reading”.
Uses:
- When you run out of space at the end of a line, you split up the word by syllables
- In two-part numbers (e.g. twenty-one)
- In fractions when written as words (e.g. one-quarter)
- Groups of words (e.g. know-it-all).
Distinguish from a dash, which is twice as long.
Recite together: “This is a hyphen, when I see it when I am reading, I keep reading”.
A short stop sign
Point out that it is not a hyphen; it is at least twice as long.
Uses:
- One dash is used for a break in thought, to prepare for another view.
- Two dashes are used around extra information (similar to parentheses).
It sometimes behaves like a colon or like parentheses.
Recite together: “This is a dash. When I see it when I am reading, I make a short stop”.
Make sure they say it properly.
Uses:
-
To give the reader extra information
-
Around an abbreviation or acronym of an organization or company after you have written its full name.
-
To put information that is not really part of the sentence into the sentence for extra effect.
Recite together: “These are parentheses, when I see them when I am reading I keep reading”.
Note: There has been a recent shift in our use of punctuation. It is less formal now, and more of a “fashion statement”. Writers have their own style and use of punctuation. For instance, commas, parentheses and dashes are all interchangeable. Look through magazines together to find examples.
Note: They look like parentheses but are straight/square, not curved/round.
Uses:
- to add information in your own words
- around your own words that fill in missing words when you shorten a quote
- to show that you are quoting someone else’s mistake without correcting it
- Around stage directions in a script
Recite together: “These are brackets, when I see them when I am reading, I keep reading”.
A short stop sign
Uses:
Recite together: “This is a semicolon, when I see it when I am reading I make a short stop”.
’ Apostrophe
Uses:
-
In contractions: I don’t like eating chocolate.
-
In possessive nouns: Vince’s slam-dunk was awesome.
-
When you refer to the plural of letters and words (e.g. There are four s’s in Mississauga)
Recite together: “This is an apostrophe, when I see it when I am reading, I keep reading”.
. . . Ellipsis
Uses:
The plural of ellipsis is ellipses.
Recite together: “This is an ellipsis, when I see it when I am reading, I keep reading”.
Uses:
-
Between words used in pairs: either/or, he/she
-
Between numbers in a fraction: 1/2, 1/3
-
To separate parts of an Internet address: http://TheLearningForce.com
Recite together: “This is a slash, when I see it when I am reading, I keep reading”.
Underlining
Uses:
-
In handwritten or typed work, use for names of books, magazines and newspapers, movies, musicals, operas, and television shows
-
Recite together: “This is underlining, when I see it when I am reading I keep reading”.
Italicization
Uses:
-
For naming books or other printed works, italics are sometimes used instead of underlining.
-
Italics can also be used to set off special words, as quotation marks can.
Recite together: “This italicization, when I see it when I am reading, I keep reading”.
Capitalization
To capitalize means to begin a word with a capital or uppercase letter.
Uses:
- The first word in a sentence
- The pronoun I
- Proper nouns (e.g. Aliza, Canada)
- Proper adjectives (e.g. American)
- Titles that show the rank or position of people when used with their names
- A person’s title when it is used in place of the person’s name
- Family members (e.g. Uncle Pete, Grandma)
- Days of the week and months of the year (e.g. Wednesday, January)
- The first word in the greeting of a friendly letter (e.g. Dear Sue,)
- The first word in the closing of a letter (e.g. Yours truly)
- All the words in the greeting of a business letter (e.g. To Whom It May Concern)
- The first, last and all the main words in the title of a book, movie, song, play or musical, magazine, newspaper, television show
- School subjects when they are the names of languages or specific courses
- Geographic locations when they refer to specific areas on the map (e.g. North, Middle East, the Far East) but not for directions (We drove north.)
- National and local holidays (e.g. Canada Day, Simcoe Day)
- Religious holidays (e.g. Christmas, Ramadan, Passover)
Recite together: “This is capitalization, when I see it when I am reading, I keep reading”.
PUNCTUATION POWER RAP
CLASS PERFORMANCE OF RAP
Assign verses to individuals or groups who will perform them for the class. (Verses can be assigned by cutting up the lyrics into verses and placing them into a bag from which the students will draw their verse).
Costumes and/or props can be used.
Students can sing or lip sync their parts, and choose to split main and backup parts.
They can choose to perform it themselves during a school-wide assembly.
Variation: Have your class organize a school-wide punctuation rally where each class performs one verse.
Organize committees to announce the rally to the school, make posters and props, assist classes, invite parents, etc.
RAP MIXERS
Play the rap and have students mill around the room together.
Pause the music and have them find an immediate partner with whom they will share everything they know about a punctuation mark that you announce.
Give pairs an opportunity to share their knowledge with the class, focusing on the uses of the marks.
Ask for information until you have covered all uses.
Or
Play the rap and have students mill around the room.
Pause the music and call out the name of a punctuation mark.
Have students run to one side of the room if the mark is a stop sign, and the other if it is not.
PUNCTUATION IDENTIFICATION GAME
Have each student prepare sample punctuation marks or cut them out of magazines or newspapers.
Play the Punctuation Power Rap and have students hold up the appropriate mark as it is heard.
Have fun,
Be creative!
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