Comma Use StAIR (Stand Alone Instructional Resource)
This Stand Alone Instructional Resource (StAIR) was designed to help students better understand how to use commas in writing. The resource was created with PowerPoint and will appear like a typical slideshow upon opening. However, users are not able to manually navigate through the show. Instead they must use the provided prompts to progress through the learning material. This forces students to answer all questions provided regarding commas. When answer prompts students will not simply correct...
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This Stand Alone Instructional Resource (StAIR) was designed to help students better understand how to use commas in writing. The resource was created with PowerPoint and will appear like a typical slideshow upon opening. However, users are not able to manually navigate through the show. Instead they must use the provided prompts to progress through the learning material. This forces students to answer all questions provided regarding commas. When answer prompts students will not simply correct sentences, though. To successfully complete a question students must research comma rules and pick which rule would successfully answer the question. This encourages students to learn why commas are placed where they are. Overall, the assignment is about thirty slides long, as there is brief introduction, a explanation of comma rules, and twenty related questions.
Material Type:
Drill and Practice
Technical Format:
HTML/Text
Date Added to MERLOT:
December 11, 2010
Date Modified in MERLOT:
September 13, 2011
Author:
Submitter:
Joshua
Vander Meulen
Keywords:
writing,
comma,
StAIR,
English
Quality
- Editor Review (not reviewed)
-
User Rating:
- Discussion (3 Comments)
- Learning Exercises (none)
- Personal Collections (2)
- Accessibility Info (none)
About
Primary Audience:
Middle School,
High School
Mobile Compatibility:
Not specified at this time
Technical Requirements:
In order to access this resource, users must have a internet browser and PowerPoint viewer software on their computer.
Language:
English
Material Version:
1.0
Cost Involved:
no
Source Code Available:
no
Accessiblity Information Available:
no
Copyright:
yes
Connections
Browse in Categories
- Humanities / English / Language / General
Discussion
Discussion for Comma Use StAIR (Stand Alone Instructional Resource)
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2 years ago
Micheal Pelt (Faculty)
The materials are presented in a format that is easy to read and understand. The lesson plan is thorough, detailed, and clear. Although the materials overall is correct and useful, there are a few issues that need to be addressed. The first issue, as a grammarian, is the "use a comma for pauses" statement. When students hear that, they seldom go much farther. The end result can be seen in many entry-level college students who will insert a comma almost at random. Having taught many sections of freshman composition at the college level, I have had the devil of a time helping students un-learn the "commas for pauses" idea.
The purpose of punctuation is to delineate the structure of a sentence, to separate items in lists, and to separate different parts or functions of speech. It has little, if anything, to do with breathe patterns.
In general, though, the rest of the materials were thorough, detailed, and correct. The rules were presented in a clear, well-organized manner. This would be a useful, usable tool for middle school, high school, and college freshmen.
Technical Remarks:
Although most of the links in the presentation worked correctly, there were a handful that did not work at all. Some cleaning up needs to be done.
Time spent reviewing site:
10
3 years ago
Andrell Williams (Teacher (K-12))
You clearly stated the objective and the standard. Sweet. I like the Offical Rule book. I can definitly use this in my classroom
3 years ago
Stacy Geiger (Teacher (K-12))
What a clever title for this StAIR project! The font and background both make this presentation easy to read. I also really appreciated how clear the objectives for the lesson were. Stating the objectives and/or GLCE standards makes the learner clear on what is expected throughout the lesson. This StAIR does meet UDL in many ways, however, a few simple changes could help make this plan meet even more of them. The part that I struggled with the most was remembering the rule “number” for each rule. It would have been helpful to have the rules listed out in the choices, rather than just the rules. I tried on many slides to go back to the rule book, but the link did not work. The links were also not working properly on many of the question slides. Eighteen rules are a lot for a middle or high school student to remember. To meet the needs of more learners, you may consider choosing the top ten rules, and then maybe have some additional or less common rules at the end of the presentation. Time spent reviewing 20 minutes
Time spent reviewing site:
20 minutes