Students read and compare two sample passages (#1 and #2) aloud, and passage #2 includes a dash used to set off the parenthetical phrase "all of us wondering what adventures lay before us." Students are asked to discuss which passage is better and why, giving them exposure to an example where a dash offsets additional commentary. Students also write responses to prompts in the "Your Voice" activity, which gives them opportunities to produce sentences that could include parenthetical elements.

Students encounter a clear parenthetical example in the Skills section where motives are listed with parentheses and an explicit abbreviation: "(e.g., loyalty, selfishness, conscientiousness)". Students also read multiple sentences that use commas to separate items in a series (for example, "they were excited, relieved, and thankful") and see punctuation used throughout the text in context.

The rubric's Mechanics section asks students whether they "use commas and apostrophes when needed," and the editing checklist directs students to check spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Students are instructed to refer to a "Handy Guide to Grammar and Writing" and parents are prompted to review comma and other punctuation rules with the student. The activities require students to edit and revise their drafts for correct punctuation before producing a final copy.

The lesson includes the sentence pair: "The People of Sparks is a fascinating book. It was written by Jeanne DuPrau, who is a well-known author," which uses a comma to set off the nonrestrictive clause "who is a well-known author." The answer key highlights the pronoun/antecedent and the relative pronoun "who," implicitly showing comma punctuation in the example. Students also read and rewrite sentences on the activity page, which exposes them to sentence structures that include parenthetical/nonrestrictive material.

Students are taught proofreading symbols that include a caret for inserting commas and are asked to rewrite and correct paragraphs using those symbols. Activities require students to correct punctuation and to identify/insert commas on Student Activity Pages and in journal rewrites. The Skills list and directions also instruct students to recognize and use punctuation marks, including commas in compound sentences and quotation punctuation.

The Expository Rubric lists mechanics criteria including "Correct punctuation" and "Correct usage of commas and apostrophes," which directs students to attend to comma use. The Editing Symbols student page includes symbols and examples such as "Insert comma," indicating students will mark and correct comma placement when proofreading. Students are also told to refer to the Handy Guide to Writing for grammar or punctuation rules and to use proofreading symbols during editing, which supports practice with punctuation in their own writing.

The lesson explicitly notes that "Sometimes adjectives appear in phrases after the noun" and gives the example sentence: "The players, weary and hungry, dragged their feet," which uses commas to set off a parenthetical adjective phrase. The parts-of-speech activities and answer keys label predicate adjectives and include sentences with commas around intervening adjective phrases. The parent suggestions ask students to label linking verbs and predicate adjectives, which draws attention to adjective phrases that can be set off with punctuation.

Students receive focused instruction on comma placement when combining independent clauses, after introductory dependent clauses, after initial prepositional phrases, and between coordinate adjectives in the "Don't Forget the Commas" explanation. Students practice by inserting commas where needed and deleting incorrect commas on the provided Student Activity Page with eight example sentences and an answer key showing corrected comma placement.

The lesson instructs students to "look for problems with grammar and punctuation, especially commas" and to edit drafts for grammar and mechanics. The editing activity gives explicit practice correcting run-ons by using a comma plus a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS). Students are directed to revise and edit passages, combining sentences and correcting punctuation errors on provided sample paragraphs.

Students are asked in Activity 2 to "look out for sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma errors," and to use the editing symbols page to correct their paper. The Student Activity Page explicitly lists an "Insert comma" proofreading symbol and shows an example sentence demonstrating comma insertion. The materials instruct students to read through their rough draft and make changes to correct mistakes, which includes correcting comma usage.

The lesson explains that commas are used around an adjective clause when the clause gives extra information and demonstrates this with the example: "The restaurant, which is open all night, serves great pancakes." It teaches the remove-the-clause test to decide if a clause is nonessential. Activities ask students to put commas around adjective clauses that provide extra information, and the answer key shows edited sentences with commas added to set off nonrestrictive clauses.

Students are asked to edit and revise their writing, with explicit directions to "correct any mistakes in spelling, sentences structure, or grammar." The materials include an "editing symbols" reference that shows common punctuation marks and gives an example of inserting a comma. The storyboard rubric lists "Correct grammar and spelling," and the project instructions for Option 1 require students to use editing symbols and make punctuation corrections during revision.

The lesson repeatedly teaches comma use around dialogue tags, with explicit examples: "Mama," Esperanza said, "we cannot leave Abuelita." and "Mama, we cannot leave Abuelita," Esperanza said, explaining that a comma separates the tag from the quotation. Students practice inserting commas in Part 2 (rewriting dialogue) and are directed to use commas when a tag appears in the middle or end of a sentence. The answer key models commas setting off tag lines (e.g., "Yes," said the lawyer).

The lesson explicitly states: "In a script, you do not use quotation marks, and the actions of the characters are described in parentheses." The readers' theater activity instructs students to write stage directions in parentheses and to format scripts without quotation marks, indicating use of parentheses to set off parenthetical actions.

The lesson explicitly defines a dash and lists its main uses, including "set off information from the rest of the sentence," and provides model sentences (e.g., "The boy--with his hair sticking up and his shirt wrinkled--had clearly just gotten out of bed"). Students are given practice pages where they must insert dashes (for example, "Jenny—the only real friend I ever had—moved to Paris last month") and are asked to find and explain dashes used in poems. The wrap-up asks students to write two sentences that contain dashes and to explain how the dashes are used.

Students are given a definition of parentheses and explicit examples showing how to set off extra information (times/locations, brief comments, afterthoughts). Students are told how to punctuate a complete sentence inside parentheses (capital letter and period inside). Activity 2 directs students to practice using parentheses and compares parentheses with dashes and commas, and the answer key asks students to choose among dashes, commas, or parentheses for given sentences.

The Parent Plan skills list explicitly includes using parentheses and ellipses, and Activity 2 provides a definition of the ellipsis and guided practice inserting ellipses into a paragraph. The Student Activity Page asks students to insert an ellipsis in a polar bear paragraph and to explain why poets used ellipses in selected poems, giving direct student practice with ellipsis use. The lesson also mentions parentheses in the skills list and suggests helping students identify how punctuation is used in poems.

Students are directed to review punctuation marks in the unit and to refer to pp. 34-35 of the Handy Guide to Writing for a quick reference about punctuation. The poetry test includes multiple-choice items that address punctuation choices (e.g., question 9 asks which punctuation—colons, hyphens, or dashes—would replace commas to emphasize a portion; questions 10 and 11 ask about hyphen/dash/ellipsis usage). The unit repeatedly tells students to study the punctuation marks covered in the unit for the poetry test.

Several example sentences include commas used around phrases, most clearly: "This would make chuño, their favorite boiled supper dish," which uses commas to set off an appositive. Other sample sentences show commas in dialogue (e.g., "Chuto answered simply, 'I do not want to go.'"), so students see commas in context.

The lesson explicitly tells students that when a verbal phrase comes at the beginning or near the middle of a sentence it is almost always set off by commas and gives examples (e.g., "To enjoy the frosting even longer, some children lick the mixing bowl." and "Jane, annoyed by the crowds and noise, left the party early."). Students are asked to underline verbal phrases in sentences and to write five sentences using verbal phrases from a list, which provides opportunities to apply comma usage with participial and infinitive phrases.

Students are asked to combine sentences using participial (verbal) phrases and are shown example sentences that use commas to set off those phrases (e.g., "Walking down the path, the man met a stranger." and "Bored with the movie, she decided to read a book instead."). The activity directions and answer key require students to rewrite sentences using participial phrases and include model answers that place commas around introductory and mid-sentence participial phrases (e.g., "Sitting in the meadow, Cusi carefully watched his flock." and "Cusi, admiring the colors of the rocks around him, climbed the ladder."). Students have multiple prompts and blank lines to produce their own participial constructions, which practices comma placement for those parenthetical constructions.

The lesson provides an example sentence that uses commas to set off an appositive: "In the still of the morning, Cusi, the chosen Incan boy, quietly followed the stubborn black llama..." The finishing-touches step tells students to "Check spelling and punctuation," and Special Notes says you can "go back and discuss punctuation" after expanding sentences.

The rubric and mechanics checklist explicitly ask students to attend to punctuation and capitalization, and the editing symbols page includes marks for inserting commas and other punctuation. Students are instructed to use the Handy Guide to Writing for questions about grammar or punctuation and to use editing symbols when revising their drafts. Multiple activities require students to edit and produce a final copy, which involves checking punctuation correctness.