Study unusual punctuation marks in this punctuation activity. Young grammarians work in small groups to research one of the unusual punctuation marks (semi-colon, colon, dash, comma, ellipses, or quotation marks) and discuss how the mark...

Be sure to click "Download this Activity" to view the plan in its formatted version. The first worksheet has learners review what types of titles are italicized, underlined, or placed in quotation marks. The second page contains the...

Dander from the show Twisted Whiskers and characters from My Little Pony are featured in this three part lesson that explores using story pyramids to scaffold ideas, adding sensory details to enrich writing, and editing using common...

Familiarize your class with commonly used editing marks. They apply the use of editing marks to a letter and examine different types of literary tools before making a note card resource for the tools. They add their own examples for each...

Students identify when and why quotations are used. Using comic strips and speech bubbles, they read and discuss examples of quotation marks, and in pairs write text for a cartoon on a piece of paper using quotation marks around the...

Students receive instruction to punctuation marks in the appropriate places using provided examples. They then place the correct punctuation in the sentences on the worksheet noting that there are some punctuation marks in the...

Students read in class the novel The Adventures of Tom Sayer by Mark Twain. They can choose to find song lyrics from any artist that they feel define one of the characters in the book, illustrate a scene from the book or create their own...

Introduce your middle and high schoolers to the correct use of quotation marks. They identify examples of correct and incorrect quotations in magazines and edit a paragraph in groups. Use this lesson as a way to reinforce proofreading...

Learners get in groups, take a list of words, put them into story form, and punctuate them. They present their story to the class and consider how punctuation changes meaning. Great excercise. 

Your class participates in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book Julian Secret Agent. They complete a class story chart, examine how to use punctuation for dialogue, write an alternative...

Students complete punctuation activities. In this punctuation lesson, students write and analyze an unpunctuated sentence, and then discuss what is wrong with the sentence. Students rewrite the sentence using the correct punctuation....

Students identify quotation marks and demonstrate the uses of quotation marks. They rewrite sentences without quotation marks and discuss how the meanings can change without the use of quotation marks. In addition, they make their own...

Are you working on a research and citation unit? Have your young writers listen to a lecture on how to cite research sources correctly and how to distinguish new information that requires citing. They compile a list of works cited from...

An interesting article on editors helps young writers understand the conventions of written English. They read a news article about an editor traveling America correcting spelling and punctuation errors on signs.  They discuss...

Students will read through a transcript. They then brainstorm words that demonstrate that people are talking. Students then rewrite the transcript report as a description of the actual conversation.

Students stop their sentences with the correct punctuation marks. They choose which punctuation mark is needed to write sentences in their journals.

Candy conversation hearts make writing a sweet pastime. Fifth graders write narratives demonstrating a complete thought and correct punctuation. The trick here is that they must use the words on five candy conversation hearts as part of...

Second graders listen to a read aloud of Eric Carle's, The Grouchy Ladybug and do a rewrite using a software program. They create an original graphic, insert text boxes, keyboard sentences and set time on a clock face while writing a...

Students practice editing for conventions, focusing on one element at a time after reviewing conventions poster. They examine how to use proofreader's marks and discuss how to edit using them.

Learners observe and demonstrate how to read with expression. They discuss the types of emotions and expressions to use while reading, and identify the appropriate punctuation for a variety of sentences. Students then write a sentence...

Fifth graders discuss interjections reviewing them to be words or phrases that express excitement or strong emotion. In this language arts activity, 5th graders understand that commas or exclamation marks are used to separate...

Students relate certain questions to certain types of answers. Students write suitable questions to given answers. Students show ending a question with a question mark. Students recap on the main functions and punctuation of questions....

Young scholars explore writing techniques by analyzing their own families. In this family values lesson, students view the film "The Incredibles" in class and discuss the different types of modern-day families. Young scholars write about...

Here is a great way to have your students make audio postcards to share by recording a message on the computer. They write and revise an appropriate message about an object from home, choose a background, and font colors for the...