Punctuation really gains in importance as students progress through their studies. If you do not have a lot of experience teaching punctuation or are simply looking for creative ways to include it in your lessons, Busy Teacher has 40 worksheets that can help you. For instance, to review the rules of comma placement, take a look at this punctuation worksheet which you can use to structure one of your lessons or as a handy review sheet for students. If commas are not what you are interested in, browse the section for a free, printable worksheet that focuses on your target material.
Punctuation is often overlooked in ESL courses.
With beginners and even intermediate learners, structures are often too simple to really require special punctuation lessons but students should be made aware of the importance of punctuation early on. You can include short reviews on punctuation in your lessons to help students keep it in mind. For a lot of learners speaking is the most significant aspect of learning a language but writing and punctuation are important too especially for students who may have to write in English. Plan to devote some extra time to punctuation when teaching advanced learners and business students.
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Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud. In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, "woman, without her man, is nothing" and "woman: without her, man is nothing" have greatly different meanings, as do "eats shoots and leaves" and "eats, shoots and leaves". "King Charles walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off" is alarming; "King Charles walked and talked; half an hour after, his head was cut off", less so. (For English usage, see the articles on specific punctuation marks.) The rules of punctuation vary with language, location, register and time and are constantly evolving. Certain aspects of punctuation are stylistic and are thus the author's (or editor's) choice.
This short and easy creative writing exercise gives students a topic to start writing about. Students write a paragraph to explain how they or someone they know helps others.
This grammar-guide presents in a clear manner the most important punctuation marks in English, (full stop, comma, semi-colon, apostrophe, etc.), explaining their use and providing examples (page ...
This worksheet features a variety of punctuation quizzes including questions involving commas and colons. Students must fill in the correct punctuation marks. This resource features a va ...
This worksheet contains four illustrations that explain the importance of using hyphens. Research has shown that visuals boost engagement levels among students and help with better assimilation an ...
Editing and proofreading are essential aspects of effective writing. Students read the passages carefully and thoroughly and rewrite the passages correctly on the lines provided. This is great pra ...
Students are asked to read the facts about grizzly bears and rewrite the passage correctly on the lines. This exercise will really help improve a child's spelling and punctuation. It is also good ...
I use this crossword puzzle with my elementary to pre-intermediate classes to test how much they know about simple punctuation marks. I use this at the beginning of a lesson before revising or te ...
This is a worksheet I use with Channel One News. Before watching the news, students try to predict what the news will be about on that day in a classroom discussion. During the video, students fil ...
The following worksheet contains two exercises on the use of commas in English. The first one is a set of 20 sentences, and the second is a short text. The learner is supposed to put commas in the ...
This is a presentation for beginner-intermediate level students. As the title says, this is a guide for basic punctuation including example sentences. How to use a comma, colon, semi-colon and per ...
This is a detailed presentation about business writing. Including formal letters and emails; correct usage of punctuation, spelling, number usage, layout guidelines, salutations and valedictions. ...
This is a comic made into an easy-to-use PowerPoint presentation. Be careful about your audience as some people may find it inappropriate. However, I teach English to young adult learner ...
The exercises present scrambbled sentences to work on text unity and connection of ideas plus work on pronoun consistency and conjunctions. The activities were thought to be worked on after the pr ...
This sheet can be used for peer-editing or self-editing an essay. It's designed for beginners so it covers indenting at the beginning of a paragraph, capital letters and periods for sentences, spe ...
This is a very simple worksheet for teaching the use of apostrophe at elementary level. There's a brief explanation at the top of the page followed by an activity in which students are asked ...
This is a colourful classroom poster which can also be used as a picture dictionary or a study sheet for teaching or revising punctuation related vocabulary at elementary level.
This is a 3-page worksheet for teaching clauses of reason and clauses of result. There's a complete grammar guide followed by 3 different activities in which students are asked to choose a su ...
This is a punctuation worksheet I found that I would like to share. It is for a senior phase level. Learners have to identify the types of sentences given. A sentence is given which the lear ...
This worksheet is all about missing punctuation and was created for children of 8 - 9 years old. There are 13 sentences for children to read. Some of the sentences are questions, others are statem ...
Add punctuation marks to the following poem named "The Pig" by Roald Dhal. Visit MagicPathshala.com to learn about sentences and for follow up activities and educational videos. Watch this video f ...
Two dice for revising punctuation marks. Recommended for elementary students who are asked to to roll both dice and then name the punctuation mark by using the picture clue provided.
Students can make cartoon characters (people, superheros, animals...) out of the punctuation marks on the cards. Playing games with the cards will reinforce both the name and shape of the mark. I ...
It was designed for intermediate students who have already learnt how to write several types of paragraph and are about to start to write essay types. It makes your ss understand how to write an e ...
This is a two page worksheet teaching May I vs. Can I. The first has ten sentences in which they must unscramble correctly. The second page has five sentences in which they must correct. We were e ...
This worksheet/poster will be a great way to challenge your learners to test their knowledge of apostrophes. Learners, students and adults alike, will love to take the challenge of identifying the ...
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