Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Re: Participle/comma help

I take a lower-tech approach to this challenge. I often take two identical =
objects and put them in front of the students. Then I add some distinguishi=
ng feature to one of them. We then write sentences about each one, and we d=
iscuss why the distinguishing information is an essential element and thus =
shouldn't be set off by commas. I take away one of the objects and the info=
rmation often then becomes non-essential. This process can go through vario=
us configurations. It doesn't help everyone, but I see some light bulbs goi=
ng on.

Mark Crotty
Director of Curricular Programs Pre-K--12
Greenhill School
4141 Spring Valley Rd.
Addison, TX 75001
(P) 972-628-5437
(F) 972-628-5237
________________________________________
From: A forum for independent school educators [ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On=
Behalf Of Mac Jackson [Mac_Jackson@indianmountain.org]
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:52 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Participle/comma help

All you English teachers out there! My eighth graders are having a hard
time distinguishing the difference between essential and non-essential
participle phrases, and they can't nail down when they should use commas.
I'm can't figure out the simplest way to explain it to them? Any ideas?
Reasources? You can reply to:

mac_jackson@indianmountain.org

Thanks!

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