Blogs September 24th is National Punctuation Day. Do you know your Oxford comma from your semi-colon? Or does even thinking about past participles give you a headache? Whether you’re a grammar fiend or u txt lk this, here are six ways for you and your students to celebrate and learn.
1. Flip a lesson with TedEd’s Lesson Worth Sharing about the Clever Comma.
2. Join a twitter chat (#PuncDay) on September 24th at 2 pm EDT with @Copyediting and @MadamGrammar to celebrate #PunctuationDay with fellow grammar lovers from around the world.
3. Chalkdust has some clever ideas to celebrate National Punctuation Day: have teachers wear T-shirts with different punctuation marks or students can invent a new punctuation mark. Have students write a story with as much (or as little) punctuation as they possibly can and read both aloud!
4. Head to Imagine Learning for even more ways to celebrate with your students, like creating a punctuation rap or bringing in food shaped as punctuation marks.
5. Create time to go over students’ individual pieces of writing and give them very specific and direct feedback. Watch Ms. Noonan’s one-on-one conference with a student. See how she celebrates specific strengths and focuses on areas for improvement.
6. Finally, introduce your students to some useful sites where they can go when they are stuck and need some help:
- Top Ten Punctuation Tips
- How to Use English Punctuation Correctly
- The Punctuation Guide
- Grammar Girl, for all things grammar related
P.S. A big THANK YOU from the Teaching Channel Team to our copy editor Sherri who checks and double-checks all of our punctuation.
