remember mr. wright's classroom in punctuation takes a vacation?  well, robin pulver takes us there again in the case of the incapacitated capitals, where mr. wright tries to teach his students the proper use of capital letters.  he succeeds but not without the help of an emergency team. (Wow, this paragraph desperately needs that team, too!)

Possible activities for students to do with this book:

• The students in Mr. Wright's class write a letter to the principal without a single uppercase letter. Before reading the book together, ask your students to highlight any lowercase letters which should be uppercase. You can find the letter here in pdf format.  After you've read and discussed the book, have them do it again, if the exercise was troublesome the first time.
  
• On various pages of the book, Pulver mentions words which should be capitalized.  Invite your students to make a list with each one.  Once the list is complete, have them make a table, adding examples for each category. Or they can use index cards, one for each category.
• Mr. Wright's students write a letter. Have your students write one, too, using words from as many categories as they can, emphasizing each capital letter with color.

So I walked into the library to be inspired, and what was the first book that beckoned me?  A book with a smiling exclamation mark posing on the front cover!  I was immediately attracted to the book because, well, I majored in English. But it didn't take long to identify with this precious mark who begins the story, trying to fit in with the periods, and ends the book-- after a memorable encounter with a question mark--celebrating his newfound voice and purpose.

While your students are enjoying the witty text and celebrating !'s personal victory, they can absorb the roles of three important punctuation marks whom they may never see the same way again. (Did I just say "whom"?  Yikes. Personification is a powerful tool!)

Possible writing connection:
Ask your children to imagine and write a sequel to the book. Begin by encouraging them to brainstorm.  If they need guidance, ask questions, such as when and where do the punctuation marks meet again? What do they discuss? Who is the main character in the sequel? Once they have some ideas they like, writing may happily begin.

If your students do this assignment, please consider including it in the comments or submitting it to the Showcase.

To help students become better editors, consider using Jeff Anderson's idea--Invitation to Edit--from Everyday Editing.

Begin by looking at the first sentence, the mentor text, with your student.  What does she notice about it?  She can comment on anything--content, diction, syntax, punctuation, anything.

Once she has studied it and made her observations, cover it and show her the subsequent sentences, one by one, allowing her to point out what is different (i.e. incorrect) about each one.

Tom and Nana, Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their grocery store.                                                                         The Art Lesson by Tomie DePaola


Tom and Nana Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother had his pictures in their grocery store.    

Tom and Nana, Tommy's irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their grocery store.    

Tom and Nana, Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their Grocery Store.   

Tom and Nana, Tommys Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their grocery store.    

Tom and Nana, Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in they're grocery store. 

Commas are important! 

If you question that statement, read Lynn Truss's picture book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Each two-page spread has the same sentence. Well, each sentence has the same words, but the meanings are very different, depending on whether there are commas or not.

Here is one example:

"Look at that huge hot dog!"
"Look at that huge, hot dog!"

See the change in meaning just because of one seemingly inconsequential mark?

This book is simple, but it makes you think. In case you need a nudge to see the difference between the two sentences, the humorous illustrations and the explanations at the back of the book will help you.

Hand this book to your kids. Let it subtly convince them that commas really are important in conveying meaning.

Following the same pattern:

If you want to give your student practice with vocabulary and grammar while earning rice for hungry people around the world, go to Freerice.com and begin answering multiple choice questions.

Type an excerpt—a paragraph or two, double-spaced—from any literature, excluding a
specific punctuation mark you want to review or, if your student is ready for more extensive editing, removing all punctuation marks.  Instruct your student to be the editor, inserting the proper punctuation marks where appropriate. Compare with the
original.

An Example from Johnny Tremain, page 43, without punctuation:

Weeks wore on September was ending a large part of every day Johnny spent doing

what he called ‘looking for work’ he did not really want to follow any trade but his own

he looked down on soap-boilers leather-dressers ropemakers and such he did not begin

his hunt along Hancock’s Wharf and Fish Street where he and his story were well known

and the masters would have been apt to employ him from pity he went to the far ends

of Boston

An Example from Johnny Tremain, page 43, with punctuation:

Weeks wore on. September was ending.  A large part of every day Johnny spent doing

what he called ‘looking for work.’ He did not really want to follow any trade but his

own. He looked down on soap-boilers, leather-dressers, ropemakers, and such. He did

not begin his hunt along Hancock’s Wharf and Fish Street, where he and his story were

well known and the masters would have been apt to employ him from pity. He went to

the far ends of Boston.

Take a published sentence and break it into simple sentences. Instruct your student to combine the sentences into one complete sentence. Compare his sentence with the original one. Which one does he prefer? Better yet, do this with several students to compare the different results.

We'll start with an easy one and work our way to more difficult ones.

The original sentence:
"The path was rough and covered with small stones" (Island of the Blue Dolphins 89).

Simple sentences:
The path was rough.
The path was covered with small stones.

***

The original sentence:
"When a week had gone by and still no results from my traps, I gave up" (Where the Red Fern Grows 60).

Simple sentences:
A week had gone by.
There were still no results from my traps.
I gave up.

***

The original sentence:
Johnny had always thought her a shy girl, but she stood up straight before the Judge, speaking in her clear, low voice" (Johnny Tremain 83).

Simple sentences:
Johnny had always thought her a shy girl.
She stood up straight.
She stood before the Judge.
She spoke in her clear voice.
Her voice was low.

***

The original sentence:
"High in a tree, at the swampy edge of the pond they had called Loon Pond, the bees were buzzing in and out of an old woodpecker hole" (Sign of the Beaver 22).

Simple sentences:
The bees were high in a tree.
They were at the edge of the pond.
The edge of the pond was swampy.
The pond was called Loon Pond.
The bees were buzzing.
They were buzzing in and out of a hole.
The hole was an old woodpecker hole.

When you make your own exercises, browse a favorite book for a sentence you like. Break it into as few or as many sentences as you like, depending on the ability of your student. Ask her to do the same thing, giving you simple sentences to combine.

Benefits of this activity:

• Students must play with language, putting all of the pieces into a puzzle.
• As the sentences become more difficult, students won't immediately see a solution. They will have to try different possibilities--aka revising--always an excellent skill to develop.
• Students will strengthen their understanding of what makes a sentence. It will be tempting to use comma splices and run-ons to incorporate all of the information from the simple sentences. If this happens, they will have to revise until they have a legitimate sentence.
  

How well can your students morph words from one part of speech to another?  Give them a word and ask them to identify its part of speech.  Then have them transform it into other parts of speech.

Let's take cheer, for example.  What part of speech is it?  It can be a noun or a verb.
Now ask your student to make it into an adjective: cheerful.
How about a participle: cheering.
An adverb?  cheerily.

Do this for any words that pop into your mind. Here are some that popped into mine.

Retire (v)   
noun: retirement  
adjective: retired

Exhaustion (n)   
verb: exhaust  
adjective: exhausting

Celebrate (v)    
noun: celebration
adjective: celebrative, celebratory

Excite (v)  
noun: excitement   
adjective: excited, excitable

Intense (adj)   
adverb: intensely
noun: intenseness

Another idea is to let your students think of the words, morphing them in as many ways as possible.  Then ask them to check a source, such as www. dictionary.reference.com to see what others there may be. 

In addition to becoming more savvy with parts of speech, they will see the versatility of words and build their reservoir of vocabulary!

I remember being introduced to Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" in junior high. With its nonsensical vocabulary that still manages to tell a story, it is sort of hard to forget.  Are your students familiar with it?

In addition to reading this poem aloud, enjoying it for its genius, use it to generate discussion about parts of speech.  What do you think about the words in the first stanza?  Brillig?  Slithy toves? Gyre and gimble?  Are there clues to show us the function of these and the other words in the poem? Look for them with your students and figure out as many as you can.

Learn or review parts of speech by writing structured poetry.

The Structure

Line 1 – one article (a, and, the) + one noun
Line 2 – one adjective + one conjunction + one adjective
Line 3 – one verb + one conjunction + one verb
Line 4 – one adverb
Line 5 – one noun that relates to the noun in the first line

An Example

An athlete *
Strong and sweaty
Pivots and shoots
Swiftly
Competitor

* This would be an excellent opportunity to talk about when to use "a" and when to use "an"  before a noun.

The Structure

Line 1: NOUN – whatever the poem is going to be about

Line 2: Three ADJECTIVES separated with commas that describe line 1.

Line 3: (3x) VERB ending in “–ing” and ADVERB describing what line 1 does, separated with commas.

Example: running quickly, jumping fluidly, racing urgently

Line 4: Three PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES, separated with commas

Line 5: INTERJECTION written with either an (!) or nothing if not as strong

Line 6: Free line with at least one PRONOUN in it

Line 7: Free line with at least one CONJUNCTION in it

Line 8: NOUN – write a synonym (word that means the same thing) for the noun in line 1.

If your student wants to write a synonym diamante, the nouns at the beginning and end of the poem should be synonyms.

The Synonym Structure

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

An Example

Mother
caring, kind
nursing , assisting, guiding
teacher, adviser, counselor, caregiver,
leading, molding, supervising
tender, understanding
friend

If your student wants to write an antonym poem, the nouns at the beginning and end of the poem should be opposites, all the words in regular font referring to the first noun, all of the words in italics referring to the second noun. (Of course, the difference in font is only for clarity; the final poem will not have italics.)

The Antonym Structure

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

An Example

square
symmetrical, conventional
shaping, measuring, balancing
boxes, rooms, clocks, halos
encircling, circumnavigating, enclosing
round, continuous
circle

For a change of pace, you may want to let your student use this online tool for writing the poem.

The Structure

a one-word title (a noun)
two adjectives
three -ing participles
a phrase
a synonym for your title (another noun)

****

An Example

dessert
cold, creamy
eating, giggling, licking
cone with three scoops
ice cream

A graphic organizer and sample poems, including the one above, can be found here.