Punctuation fan Teaching ideas

Punctuation fan
Teaching ideas
Each piece of the fan has a different punctuation mark on it, although the last piece has
been left blank for any additional punctuation marks you might want to add (hyphen etc.).
Cut them out and fasten them together with a paper fastener, making a fan. You may want
to print the pieces on card and laminate them.
 Using the coloured cone section of each punctuation mark, ask students to write a
definition of how and when you use each mark, with an example sentence. (Enlarge
and laminate, and you have a ready-made wall display.)
 Working in pairs, ask students to write a set of punctuation rules for five punctuation
marks each. They can then peer teach each other, and make notes.
 Set students the task of writing tips, suggestions and activities to help another
student learn each punctuation rule on the reverse side of each mark. Swap these
around, or select the most useful as a class and give a copy to everyone.
 Alternatively, ask students to imagine they are teaching primary children how to use
punctuation marks, using the fan. What games or ideas do they have?
 Give students a blank set of cards – they have to add the punctuation marks and
design whatever content they think would be helpful.
 Encourage students to write a sentence using every punctuation mark. Set a time
limit, and award points for most inventive or most engaging sentence etc.
 Ask students to write a tweet, FB post or a flash fiction story in 100-150 words, using
some or all of the punctuation marks. For a variation on this theme, can students
write a poem entirely in punctuation marks (inspired by poet Koos Kombuis’ ‘Tipp-ex
Sonate’: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27680904)?
 Give students definitions for each punctuation mark. Can they match them up?
 Read out example sentences, and ask students to hold up their choice of end of
sentence punctuation (full stop, question mark, exclamation etc.).
 Go supersized. Enlarge the punctuation marks, and print sample (unpunctuated)
sentences, with each word on a separate A4 sheet. Ask students to experiment by
inserting the punctuation marks in different places to see how the meaning might
change.
 Try a punctuation auction. Students/teams bid for the right to say whether a sample
punctuated sentence is right or wrong and/or correct it, doubling the money they bid if
they are right and losing that money if they are wrong.
 Play a game of ‘Just a minute’ for consolidation – students have just one minute to
explain how each punctuation mark is used, without hesitation, repetition or
deviation.
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