Punctuation saves lives.

Recently a joke about punctuation circulated online. “Let’s eat Grandpa!” and “Let’s eat, Grandpa!” have different meanings. The latter invites Grandpa to join the meal. The former, grammatically speaking, causes Grandpa to be the meal.

Punctuation saves lives.
When I searched the WritingFix site, the pickings were slim for mentor texts to teach “conventions,” especially beyond early elementary grades. I recalled Lynn Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves and wondered whether I could adapt it to create “conventions” lessons for middle school students. I found something even better: her children’s version of the book.

This book focuses exclusively and humorously on comma usage, juxtaposing several sets of illustrated sentences that differ only in comma usage. The preview picture above, for example, shows “Look at that huge hot dog!” (left side) and “Look at that huge, hot dog!” (right side).

The Scholastic Book Wizard™ site prognosticates that the book will hold the attention of students in third through fifth grades. As with the lesson I highlighted in my previous post, however, this lesson can apply to older students, as well – especially because of the book’s humor.

Let’s face it: The grammar sticklers among us (you know who you are) have cringed even at adults’ comma misusage. Lynne Truss’s children’s book makes correct comma usage more accessible to all of us.

Mini-lesson:

This mini-lesson is designed with middle school students in mind, although it could work with students who are on either side of this age range.

1. Open the mini-lesson with the “Let’s eat Grandpa!” joke and/or the “Panda eats, shoots and leaves!” joke. Truss’s book makes serious points about grammar through humor – something we, her mentees, should also do. This mini-lesson should stand out as a time when students had fun learning grammar.
2. Read Eats, Shoots and Leaves with students. While the book is small enough to read in its entirety during one mini-lesson, the key to this mini-lesson is helping students to understand the connection between the sentences and their illustrations.
3. Make sure to perform some form of assessment to determine whether students understand correct comma usage. Teachers can take a differentiated approach to assessing students here, permitting students a few options for demonstrating mastery of this mini-lesson. Students could select a pair of sentences in the book and write explanations for why the left and right pages are illustrated as they are. My preferred option is for students to write their own pair of sentences and to illustrate each of these. Yet another option for demonstrating comprehension is for students to create short skits that portray how commas can yield dramatic differences in meaning.
4. Teachers should ask students to review comma usage in their own writing. Is their comma usage correct? Does their writing include correct sentences that, with a change in comma usage, could result in a funny meaning? Give students opportunities to share insights from their writing.

Connection to Ohio ELA Standards:

Writing Processes – Benchmark F (End of 5-7 Program)

Edit to improve fluency, grammar and usage.

Writing Conventions – Benchmark B (End of 5-7 Program)

Use conventions of punctuation and capitalization in written work.

Writing Conventions – Benchmark C (End of 5-7 Program)

Use grammatical structures to effectively communicate ideas in writing.

Postscript: Is anyone else troubled to see a split infinitive in the preceding Ohio ELA benchmark on grammatical structures?