20 teaching ideas for punctuation
Bucket list. If you want to teach the punctuation of lists, students could be asked
to write a list of everything they want to achieve in their lifetime, and then place
their ideas in a box. The teacher or class then reads the suggestions out to the
class, and from those ideas, students compile a collaborative ‘Bucket list,’
employing colons, semi-colons, commas and conjunctions as appropriate.
The usual suspects. Give students a sealed crime pack, in which there is an
identity parade of escaped criminals, all of whom are personified punctuation
marks. Students are told that a range of thefts have occurred from the text which
is included in their pack, but if they study the crime sheet and the ways that each
criminal works, they might be able to return the stolen punctuation to its rightful
owner (the text). The crime sheet could outline how commas, inverted commas,
question marks and semi-colons are used, so the students can locate the ones
that have been stolen. A Sherlock Holmes extract works well for this.
The tiptoe/tip top rule. Remind students that paragraphs are a part of
punctuation too, and that the tiptoe or tip top rule will guide them to know when to
begin a new paragraph. If they reach a new time, place, topic and event or
person in their story, then a new paragraph must begin. Ask them to design a
poster to help them remember the TI P TO E / TI P TO P rule.
Gallery. Ask students to decorate punctuation marks in an artistic way. For extra
challenge, invite them to make their decoration represent the way the punctuation
mark works in a sentence, or include a definition or set of rules.
Top trumps. Encourage students to make their own top trump character card for
a particular punctuation mark, using Teachit’s template (18171). Students can
then play the game in small groups.
Get up and go game. Working in groups, students have to find and copy six
hidden, numbered sentences around the classroom, each of which is missing a
particular punctuation mark. The winners are the first group to identify which
punctuation mark is missing from each sentence.
Mnemonic challenge. Ask students to come up with clever ways to remember
how to use each punctuation mark, and to share the best with each other.
Punctuation dice. Using Teachit’s cube template (15452) make a dice that
features different punctuation marks on each face. In pairs students roll the dice,
name the punctuation mark and race to come up with an example sentence.
Punctuation chaos. Take an extract from a novel/magazine and mix up all of
the punctuation – put the full stops where inverted commas should be and so on.
Challenge students to put the punctuation back in the right places.
Supersized sentences. Using a sentence from any text, place each word on a
separate sheet of paper in a large font, on the floor, or held up by students. Put a
variety of enlarged punctuation marks on separate sheets, and challenge
students to find as many ways as possible to punctuate the sentence.
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20 teaching ideas for punctuation
Mexican wave. Group students, and give each group a text (without punctuation)
to skim read and punctuate. Ask each member of the group to draw a different
punctuation mark on a mini whiteboard, which they should hold up at the
appropriate time as you read the text out loud, creating a Mexican wave effect.
Fun and games. Use the BBC’s Skillswise games to help your students master
punctuation rules. Beat The Clock is a timed, differentiated game on
apostrophes, or try Going to work with commas and Pin Bored for more.
Punctuation personalities. Display a copy of Carrie Keplinger’s punctuation
personalities poster on your classroom walls, or give students a copy
(http://keplingerpr.com/2012/10/a-semicolon-and-a-question-mark-went-to-aparty/). Ask them to read and then hide the definitions. How many can they
remember, or name? Can they write definitions for the punctuation marks which
are missing (hyphens, apostrophe etc.)?
Full action punctuation. Split the class into groups and allocate each group a
different punctuation mark. They should devise a sound effect and gesture to
match – for example, a punched fist and a ‘POW!’ sound might accompany a full
stop. Then hand out a paragraph with the punctuation removed. As you read it
aloud, students need to add in punctuation with their gesture and sound.
Making a drama out of a (punctuation) crisis. Students work in groups to write
and then perform a fifty word story to the class. One student should narrate,
while others mime the story. The rest of the group are punctuation performers.
Encourage them to take inspiration from the YMCA song dance, and create body
sculptures to represent each punctuation mark as it occurs in the story.
Punctuation charades. Ask students to act out the punctuation marks and work
in teams to guess which one is being presented!
Snap! Make cards with punctuation marks and matching cards with their names.
In order to claim ‘Snap!’, students must write a sentence using the punctuation
mark they want to claim.
Talking point. Encourage students to make their own mini animated videos on
punctuation rules. Use the fun YAKiT Kids app or www.blabberize.com to make
images of punctuation marks ‘talk’ by adding your own audio/animated mouths.
Punctuation pirates. Draw individual punctuation marks on A4 and spread
these across your classroom floor, as a ‘rope’ leading students from their pirate
ship to dry land. To make it across the sea, they need to step from one piece of
paper to the next, naming and explaining how to use each punctuation mark. If
they make a mistake, they are ‘overboard’ and have to start again. Add extra
challenge by asking students to write sentences using each punctuation mark.
Gaffes. Present students with a range of punctuation mistakes (e.g. on Twitter),
or sentences where the choice of punctuation dramatically changes the meaning
(e.g. Woman without her man is nothing), and ask them to suggest changes.
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