Summary
A dash of this and a dash of that works in cooking, but does it work in writing? In this lesson, students will explore the use of em and en dashes. Through reading the short story “Cooking Time,” students will get to explore the use of dashes. Students will also have the opportunity to write a response to the story correctly using dashes.
Essential Question(s)
How do dashes impact writing?
Snapshot
Engage
Students add punctuation to unique recipes and discuss punctuation that is missing.
Explore
Students read the story “Cooking Time,” highlighting the dashes found in the story, then exploring the purpose of the dashes.
Explain
In small groups, students formalize their understanding of dashes.
Extend
Students examine sentences from the story and rewrite the sentences, omitting the dashes without changing the meaning of the sentences.
Evaluate
Students demonstrate their understanding by writing a response to the story using dashes appropriately.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Recipes handout (attached; one per 12 students)
Recipes handout (Sample Responses) (attached; one per class)
Note Catcher handout (attached; one per student)
The Weirdest Sentence I’d Ever Heard handout (attached; one per 5 students)
CommonLit account (for teacher use)
Highlighters (optional; one per student)
Engage
10 Minute(s)
Introduce the lesson by displaying the title slide 2 from the attached Lesson Slides.
Transition through slides 3-4. Review the essential question and the learning objectives.
Have students find an Elbow Partner. Display slide 5 and give each pair one page of the attached Recipes handout; each page has a different recipe. Explain to the class that they are to work with their elbow partner to add punctuation to their given recipe.
Move to slide 6 and show students the pictures of the different dishes they will be reading about: Sarson ka Saag, Makki ki Roti, Langues de Chat, and Quail Consommé. These are recipes in the story that they will read during the Explore portion of the lesson. Let students know that they will have 5 minutes to work on this activity, then start the 5-minute timer on the slide. Encourage students to try their best to add punctuation but not to stress to “find them all.”
While students are working, place each page of the Recipes (Sample Responses) document in each corner of the classroom. When the timer expires, have groups go to the page that matches their recipe. Have the four groups compare the punctuation they added to that of the sample responses and see how many they found or missed. Direct students to discuss in their groups how accurate they were in finding the punctuation errors. Let students know that there is often more than one correct answer.
If time allows, consider facilitating a brief discussion on how these recipes are similar or different to dishes that students eat in their own homes or what the dish reminds them of.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Distribute to each student a copy of the short story “Cooking Time.” Then display slide 7 and instruct students to highlight or circle all the dashes they see in the reading. Encourage students to look for a pattern in the dashes: What are they noticing? What patterns are they noticing?
Introduce students to the Inverted Pyramid strategy and display slide 8. Direct students to find a partner and discuss what they think the purpose of the different dashes is. Use the guiding questions on the slide to direct student conversations:
What, if anything, are they replacing?
How do they add to the meaning of the sentence or story?
Was there anything predictable about how they were used?
Explain
20 Minute(s)
Show slide 9 and give students the vocabulary, but not the definitions of hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes. Have each pair find another pair to create a small group to attempt to “whip up” some rules for how to use hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes. As students are working, remind them to look back at the following paragraphs from Cooking Time: 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 30, 34, 40, 42, 51, 55, 56, 60, which all have dashes in them. They do not need to explain every dash but encourage them to elaborate on the ones they know and discuss with their partner the ones they have lingering questions on.
Display slide 10. As a whole class, discuss and write out on the board some of the generated rules.
Move to slide 11 and distribute the attached Note Catcher handout to each student. Facilitate a whole class discussion and confirm the correct uses of dashes throughout the reading.
Display slide 12 and explain to students that the width of the en dash is the width of an “N,” while the width of the em dash is the width of an “M.” This will also help them remember which is which.
Transition through slides 13-19 asking the class which dash: en or em would be the best for each given situation.
Extend
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 20 and distribute the attached The Weirdest Sentence I’d Ever Heard handout to students. There are five different pages with a variety of sentences from the short story. Distribute one page to each student so that each of the five different pages is basically even amongst the class. In preparation for the following activity, work together as a class to rewrite the sentence on the slide without any dashes. Consider showing students multiple correct answers. Have students write this example on the back of their handout.
Move to slide 21. Have students practice rewriting their sentences independently (on the front of their handout) without dashes. Once students have completed their own work, direct them to find a partner who had different sentences than they did. Have students share and talk about why they made those stylistic choices in rewriting their sentences.
As a whole group, ask for volunteers to share out orally or by writing their sentences on the board.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 22 and ask students to write a paragraph using at least four dashes correctly to answer one of the questions:
What do you think led up to this situation in “Cooking Time?”
What would come after the end of “Cooking Time?”
After completing their paragraph, have students use the Fist to Five strategy by writing a number 0–5 on the top of their paper. Here zero indicates that they are still confused about the use of and difference between en dashes and em dashes.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow Partners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Fist to Five. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/68
K20 Center. (n.d.). Google Docs. Tech Tool. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2327
K20 Center. (n.d.). Inverted Pyramid. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/173
K20 Center. (2021, September 21). K20 Center 5-minute timer. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/EVS_yYQoLJg?si=fJvuvFWH3vJ3B0z9
TheGoodocs. (2022, April 27). How to create long dash EM dash in google docs. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/yLwY4y5lHU0?si=q_bUO9sG12IaDtzh