Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver

May Theme:  Conventions

For the first half of 2011, I will take time to focus on picture books that you can use with each of the Six Traits of Writing.  Each month will be dedicated to a new trait.

December 2010 – Ideas

January 2011 – Organization

February 2011 – Voice

March 2011 – Word Choice

April 2011 – Sentence Fluency

This month's theme is Conventions.  What would a copy editor need to do to prepare the piece for publication?

Recommended Grades: 3-5

Punctuation Takes a Vacation is the companion book to Nouns and Verbs Have a Field Day.  In this book, 

punctuation takes a vacation and the students can't read anything properly.  The students realize how important punctuation is and asks them to return.  But, will they return or stay on vacation?

Lesson idea:  Read aloud this book and discuss the purpose of the specific punctuation used in the book.  Find a paragraph in a well-known book and retype it, removing the punctuation.  Present it for the whole class to see and think aloud as you model how to determine what punctuation is missing and how you would fix it.  Then provide students with the opportunity to do the same.  Have students take a paragraph from a book they are reading and re-type it without punctuation.  Then they should trade with a partner and both students should determine which punctuation is missing.  Eventually have students edit a partner's writing piece for missing punctuation.     

**Note** I provide these lesson ideas under the assumption that you are familiar with The Six Traits of Writing.  If you are not, and would like more information on teaching students about sentence fluency or any other six traits component, please feel free to contact me at Dlittle[at]linkstoliteracy[dot]com.  I am happy to provide more specific lessons or resources if necessary.

©2011 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.

Filed under: conventions, six traits of writing, writers workshop Tagged: conventions, Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver, six traits of writing, writers workshop