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Storyboards for Punctuation Lessons

Storyboards aren't just for reading comprehension. They can be utilized in the classroom to teach important grammar and punctuation lessons as well. By teaching punctuation using storyboards, students get the chance to write AND illustrate their meaning. This gives teachers a clear, fast way of assessing student understanding of the concept.

If you look at the following storyboards, they illustrate the types of punctuation (period, comma, exclamation point, colon, and semi-colon) and then provide great examples of using each.

Teaching Punctuation with StoryboardThat

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Understanding and correctly using all types of punctuation is a necessary skill. However, the complexities of the comma and the semicolon are difficult, even for high-school students. Often, these skills need to be reinforced in order for students to use them effectively in their work. By reviewing these types of punctuation and then having students complete a storyboard, teachers have a fast, effective way to reinforce the concepts.

But storyboards don’t have to just be for review. For more advanced students, teachers can use storyboards to explain or create assignments for concepts like the "oxford comma" or incorporate nonstandard punctuation like the interrobang (!?). One can even use storyboards to de-mystify punctuation that is misused more often than not, like the ellipsis.

Practicing Punctuation In Your Classroom

1. Have students define and illustrate each type of mark in its own cell.


2. Tell students to create their own story using storyboards and assign them to use a certain number of commas, semi-colons, exclamation points, etc.


3. Use the storyboard as a pre-test to assess students' current knowledge of the punctuation marks and direct topics for future lessons.


4. Using the sample storyboards, or creating one of your own, present it to the class as a simple, visual way to review punctuation concepts.



Common Core

Common Core Standards dictate that high school students be able to “use varied transitions and sentence structures to link the major sections of the text…” (ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2a) and “maintain a formal style” in their writing (ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2e and 11-12. 1d). All of these standards require a mastery of punctuation so students advancing through high school have a greater ability to alter and adjust syntax.




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