PUNCTUATION
SASS — ELA Lesson Plan
Unit: Unit 3-4 -Language: Punctuation
Text(s): Any class reading, Grammar
books/rule printouts
Standards
SASS Connection(s)
Common Core State Standards/Maryland State Curriculum
R.L.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
W6.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.
SL6.1.a: Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required
material; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on
the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.
SL6.1.b: Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and
deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.
SL6.1.d: Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate
understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and
paraphrasing.
SL6.3: Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims,
distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from
the claims that are not.
SL6.4: Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and
using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas
or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear
pronunciation.
SL6.6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating
command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
□ SASS 1 □ SASS 2 □ SASS 3
□ SASS 4 □ SASS 5
SASS Vocabulary
claim, warrant, counterargument, text
Big Questions
How are various types of punctuation
used?
What is the purpose of punctuation?
Objectives
Students will be able to articulate the uses of and evaluate various types of punctuation by participating in a
committee-style debate about the least useful type of punctuation.
Timing Notes
90 min lesson: Day 1
7 min – Do Now
1 min – Motivation
10 min – Mini-Lesson
5 min – Rubric review
5 min – Procedures review
45 min – Debate prep
5 min - Reflection
IT’S DEBATABLE!
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PUNCTUATION
90 min lesson: Day 2
5 min – Do Now
5 min – Rubric review
45 min – Debate
5 min – Reflection
15 min – Extension
5 min – Share and Closing
60 min: Day 1
7 min – Do Now
1 min – Motivation
10 min – Mini-Lesson
5 min – Rubric review
5 min – Procedures
review
30 min – Debate prep
60 min: Day 2
5 min – Do Now
5 min – Team preparation
45 min – Debate
5 min – Reflection & closing
30 min: Day 3 (½ Period)
5 min – Do Now
5 min – Reflection
20 min – Extension
5 min – Share and closing
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2012 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
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Materials
Assessment
• Texts (see above) (at least 1 per group)
• Team worksheet (1 per team of 4-5)
• Committee Member worksheet (1 per committee
• Committee Verdict sheet (1 for the entire committee)
• Committee Style Debate Grading Rubric (1 per person)
member. 3-4 committee members)
• Committee Verdict sheet (1 for the entire committee)
• Committee-Style Debate Grading Rubric (1 per person)
Do Now
Select one of the types of
punctuation that we have
covered and give an explanation
of its use and an example:
• Semicolon
• Colon
• Apostrophe
• Dash
• Quotation mark
Motivation
Modification & Differentiation
Modification & Differentiation
Over the next few days, we are going to have a full, committee-style
debate using what we’ve learned about punctuation. You’ll be placed
either on a team or as a part of the committee. The committee will
decide which type of punctuation is the least useful and should be taken
out of the rulebook. The teams will defend each type of punctuation to
ensure that it has a job next year and stays in the rulebook.
Punctuation Type
It’s Use
Example
Semicolon
Use a semicolon to join 2 independent clauses
when the second clause restates the first or when
the two clauses are of equal emphasis.
Road construction in Dallas has hindered
travel around town; streets have become
covered with bulldozers, trucks, and cones.
Colon
Use a colon after an independent clause when it is
followed by a list, a quotation, appositive, or other
idea directly related to the independent clause.
Julie went to the store for some groceries:
milk, bread, coffee, and cheese.
Apostrophe
Apostrophes are used to show that you have
left out letters in a contraction or to form the
possessive case of a noun.
The convertible’s engine has finally died.
You haven’t seen anything yet.
Dash
Dashes are used to set off or emphasize the
content enclosed within dashes or the content that
follows a dash. Dashes place more emphasis on
this content than parentheses.
The U.S.S. Constitution became known as
“Old Ironsides” during the War of 1812—
during which the cannonballs fired from the
British H.M.S. Guerriere merely bounced off
the sides of the Constitution.
Use quotation marks to enclose direct quotations.
Note that commas and periods are placed inside
the closing quotation mark, and colons and
semicolons are placed outside. The placement of
question and exclamation marks depends on the
situation.
He asked, “When will you be arriving?” I
answered, “Sometime after 6:30.”
Quotation Mark
*examples above and more available on http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/566/01/
IT’S DEBATABLE!
•
PUNCTUATION
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2012 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
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Mini-Lesson/Direct Instruction
Modification & Differentiation
First, let’s go back over the five types of punctuation that will come up
in our debate: the semicolon, the colon, the apostrophe, the dash, and
quotation marks.
1. Using answers from the “Do Now” create a chart of each of the 5 types
of punctuation, an explanation of its use, and an example.
2. Review:
-- What type of punctuation have we left out of our conversation?
(Comma, Hyphen, Ellipses, Parentheses)
Additional OPTIONAL punctuation review:
-- IN THE TEXT: find an example of each of the five types of punctuation
being used.
-- REVIEW your own writing from past assignments (student work or
writing portfolio?) and find examples of where you could have used
one of these types of punctuation.
Guided and Independent Practice
Modification & Differentiation
Now that we’ve reviewed our punctuation marks, we are going to get into
our teams and begin thinking about how to create arguments to ensure
that our committee keeps our team’s punctuation mark.
Committee Style Debate Preparation:
1. Review the grading rubric
-- What are two things you need to focus on doing well for this debate?
-- What is one thing you’re worried about on this rubric? What do you
think you can do to show progress?
2. Assign students to either a punctuation team (4-5 members per team,
5 teams) or to the committee (3-4 members)
3. Review the Team worksheet with the punctuation teams.
-- Read the task that’s at the top of the paper with your team.
-- Then, make sure you write in your team number and the claim you’ll
be making. If I’m on Team Comma, for example, then I would say as
my claim: Team Comma believes that the comma is an important
punctuation mark and it should be included in the grammatical
rulebook next year. (POST on the board as a model.)
-- In your teams, you’ll need to figure out who is doing which job. Each
job will have different responsibilities and different times for speaking
and preparation, but you will all be responsible for working together
to make your case for your punctuation mark.
-- The debate will look like this (POST on the board for easy reference –
it will be used often)
-- Right now, your team will get a significant amount of time to prepare
for your 3-minute opening statement.
-- Review the requirements for the opening statement on the worksheet.
Work together to develop your opening argument and practice it.
IT’S DEBATABLE!
•
PUNCTUATION
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2012 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
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Debate Structure
STEP 1: Preparation time for all teams.
STEP 2: Opening Statement from Team 1 (3 mins)
STEP 3: Committee Questioning to Team 1 (2 mins)
STEP 4: Preparation time for questions to Team 1
STEP 5: Attacking questions to Team 1 (2 mins)
STEP 6: Team 2 completes steps 2-5
STEP 7: Team 3 completes steps 2-5
STEP 8: Team 4 completes steps 2-5
STEP 9: Team 5 completes steps 2-5
STEP 10: Preparation time for all teams.
STEP 11: Closing Statements from all the teams (1 min)
STEP 12: Committee determines the winning team.
4. Meet with the judges to review the judge task:
-- Read the task you’ve been assigned.
-- Review your responsibilities
-- Look back through your grammar texts / printouts and review some of
the additional uses of each type of punctuation
-- Review the grading rubric
5. Circulate the room and assist groups in the development of their
arguments. Be wary of some common problems:
-- students are unable to keep track of all of the requirements: Let’s
create a checklist to make sure that we include everything we need to
include in our opening round speech.
-- judges are idle: After reviewing your grammar rulebook, create a list of
questions you might have about a certain type of punctuation. Do you
understand all of the examples? If not, put an example on the board
that you can show one of the punctuation groups.
Committee Style Debate Procedure:
1. Seat each team together facing the committee. Teams should be able to
see each other and the committee, to whom they’ll address all speeches.
2. Ensure that students have the note-taking form and guide students
through filling it out:
-- Write in each group’s claim
-- During their opening statement, write down each of the team’s tag
lines, followed by a few bullet points of important information that fits
with their tag lines.
-- During the committee questioning round write down any key answers
to important questions that you hear.
-- During the attacking questions round also write down any key
answers to important questions that you hear. (If you ARE the
questioner, feel free to use this space to write in the questions that
you want answered.)
-- At the very end, when all teams are giving their closing statements,
bullet point any key information from the closing in the last section.
-- -Remember that this note-taking form is a part of your grade.
3. Review the debate procedure with the students.
IT’S DEBATABLE!
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PUNCTUATION
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4. Field questions from students before beginning.
5. Remind the committee that they are responsible for guiding students
through the debate procedures and that the teacher will be a fly on the wall.
6. Complete debate steps 1-9
7. Stop at step 10 and praise students. With time, reflect on steps 1-9:
-- What’s going well for you and your team?
-- What are some important arguments we’ve heard so far?
-- What will you need to do during the next preparation time so that you
are ready for your closing statements?
-- What’s one thing you want to make sure your teams does in the final
round?
8. Complete steps 10-12
9. If necessary, guide the committee through Step 12:
-- What was your task?
-- What teams did a good job convincing you to keep their punctuation
mark around? Why were their arguments better?
-- What teams are you thinking did not do such a convincing job? Why?
-- Talk out with the rest of the committee and make a decision about
which punctuation mark will be eliminated.
-- As a group, work together to write up your verdict sheet. Remember
that this is a big part of your grade. Make sure that you have a few
good warrants to support your claim.
Closing
Modification & Differentiation
Committee Style Debate Debrief and Reflection:
1. Ask students to use a half sheet of paper to debrief and reflect on the
debate. POST on the board:
• 3 – skills you worked on or things you learned during today’s debate
• 2 – goals you have for the next full class debate
• 1 – question that still remains about an element of poetry
2. Share out a few responses
Committee Style Debate Extension:
1. Guide students through how to complete the extension
-- Let’s read the directions at the top of the page together.
-- According to the directions, what do you need to do on this
assignment?
-- If you finish early, you can add in a picture and caption.
-- Any questions?
2. Allow students to share out their work with their classmates.
Homework
Use an independent reading text to locate and copy examples of the following punctuation marks in use: semicolon,
colon, quotation mark, dash, and apostrophe. After copying each example, write down a short argument for why each
punctuation mark is important to the English written language. (The extension activity could be given as a HW, as well.)
IT’S DEBATABLE!
•
PUNCTUATION
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2012 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
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Grade Modifications
6th - 7th grade
Check-ins: Provide frequent check-ins for students as they prepare for the debate.
Modeling: Give a model of what an opening round speech looks like. Use students, dramatic display, or computer
graphics to assist. Also, give models of how the committee functions and how students ask and respond to questions.
Additional Time: Spend more time with the lesson extension, ensuring that students understand the importance of each
punctuation mark discussed in the debate.
Debate modification: Substitute other punctuation marks.
7th - 8th grade
Visual directions: Provide students with all of the debate directions written on the board or on display so that students
may self-regulate their time preparing for the debate.
Extension within the debate: Provide students/teams who are preparing quickly with some additional “extra” options
during prep time:
• Brainstorm 2 questions that you think might be good to ask for each team.
• Use ALL of the vocabulary in your opening speech
• Create a picture of your client dressed nicely for our committee debate.
Debate modification: Substitute other punctuation marks.
IT’S DEBATABLE!
•
PUNCTUATION
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2012 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
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