Earth Day Punctuation

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• State the objective of today’s lesson and have students repeat it.
• Explain to students that punctuation is marks, like periods and commas, in a piece of writing that make its meaning clear and that separate it into sentences and clauses.
• Review punctuation rules and give examples of each by displaying them on the document camera: For example, "When we create the possessive form of a noun, we use an apostrophe, which is the punctuation mark that is used to show possession," etc.
• Explain that today’s lesson will be include sentences that teach us a little about Earth Day, which is a day that brings awareness and appreciation about the environment.

Guided Practice

• Divide students into small groups of 3-4 students. Distribute a copy of the Punctuate the Story: Earth Day worksheet to each student.
• Read the passage aloud to the class, purposely making it sound funny with the lack of correct punctuation.
• Instruct students to fix the paragraph using all of the different types of punctuation reviewed earlier in the lesson. Encourage students to look at the example sentences as a reference as they complete the group work.
• Circulate while the groups work and listen to conversations about why certain punctuation is needed. Prompt students to discuss why the punctuation belongs there.
• Go over the worksheet as a class and have students defend their answers. Call on non-volunteers to either agree or disagree and explain.

Independent working time

• Give each student a copy of the Earth Day Sentence Editing worksheet.
• Instruct students to edit the sentences using the punctuation rules that were reviewed and practiced in today’s lesson.