(Part Two) Planning Patterns of Power for High School: Starting with Semicolons

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with my colleague Holly to continue our conversation about planning effective Patterns of Power lessons for high school students. This was actually part two of our discussion (if you missed part one, definitely check that out first!), and I have to say, the practical strategies Holly shared are worthy of your time investment to better understand the nuances of this process of grammar instruction.

Want to dive deeper? You can read the full transcript of our conversation [here] to catch every detail and teaching tip we discussed.

Travis: Hello and welcome back to Podcast Reboot. This episode is part two of Planning a Patterns of Power Lesson for high school. If you haven't yet listened to part one, you might wanna pop into that episode before listening to or viewing this episode. Now Holly and I are diving back into planning, starting with the invitation to notice, which we've taken from Leonard Pitts Jr's article in the Miami Herald titled, “Capture this: It’s wrong to play Pokémon at Auschwitz!”

Holly: Alright, so invitation to notice. We just pick a good sentence. And [00:01:00] so this is one that is of interest to kids. And again, we're getting them interested in this article. We're doing some teasers there. And so here: "My dad turned 37 in 1963; I cannot for the life of me picture him twirling a Hula Hoop at Arlington."

The nice thing here is you do have things for the kids who are a little more advanced, like the, I cannot comma for the life of me, comma; we've got a little more complex of a structure. There's a lot to talk about in this sentence, and there's a lot of things they may have questions about.

And there's things that are gonna interest them in the article. For our noticing, we would go back to our questions, go through the noticings here then we would share the focus phrase with the kids. And just a note on the focus phrase and the visual: when it's buried in a PowerPoint and you just post that PowerPoint somewhere, or you kids have to actually go back [00:02:00] online to look at it, they don't. So we've really started to either make these as little cards that sit on their table or we just print it at the top of things. When we need for them to refer back to it, it's physically on the table. We've had very few kids, even when we set it to where they'll log into Schoology, it'll pop up, they'll click past it and go to things.

So one thing we have noticed is if it is tactile as you can make this, if it's physically on the table. We would have the model sentence, the focus phrase, and then this visual. We wouldn't have this block of text. So just those three things to trigger this is the lesson that we did. And then kids will loop back around to that, like later on, if we've gone to three other PoP lessons, they'll still have that little card that reminds 'em of this lesson.

When we get to compare and contrast. These [00:03:00] again, need to be specific to your class. So if we're really looking at analyzing persuasion, this would probably be my compare and contrast. At this point, they would've read the article. We would've done our opener with noticing, and they'd have noticed the sentences they've done their pre-reading, and they would've read the article after we just did our noticing. And so this one right here, if we are really looking at just how writers create persuasion, we have two sentences from the same article. Now they can see how the one author connects two sentences from the same article, and they can talk through what that might look like. This'll get them actually talking about craft, but it'll also get them to start analyzing what they just read.

Where I said before, like sometimes if it's a little too hard and now you need to pair back and move a lot [00:04:00] slower and you really need to make it a lot more concrete for kids. Like we have classes where we'll have a lot of kids in there with modified curriculum. We might have some EBS in there. So if I really do have a class where they're not gonna be able to maneuver these two sentences, they need something a little simpler to understand the concept. We have this from Amal Unbound that's a lot more manageable.

So we're looking at "His forehead was slick with sweat; his dark glasses framed his worried expression." I've actually minimized that compare and contrast, and I've made it a lot more accessible to kids. What I've done is I've kept my noticing for everybody no matter what their level is. But if I need to pare down, I do this.

And then the other piece that we could do is say that I am having kids write a rhetorical analysis. So now my compare and contrast, I've got my sentence from the actual [00:05:00] article, but what I'm comparing it to is an analytical sentence. In capture this by Leonard Pitts, the author, urges respect for sacred places (semicolon); he uses Pokemon Go to show how common the problem is today.

So now I'm having them compare and contrast how to use it when writing persuasion and how do you use it when writing an analytical essay about persuasion. So what I'm doing here is I'm setting them up when we get to that imitation. So what's that gonna look like and where am I going to be for the imitate?

Travis: So here, can I just give you a quick Absolutely. Yeah, let me just pop in real quick and just highlight for listeners or viewers that an efficiency hack that you can put into practice. If you've already gathered or curated this model sentence and you are looking for compare and contrast options, a great place to look would be in the high school Patterns [00:06:00] of Power resource, or depend if you want some more choice and you have access to the middle school resource as well. Thinking about just lifting the invitation to notice example from either of these resources.

So the example in Le lesson 4.8 in the high school book, on page 145 in the high school book is the all inbound example of his forehead was slick with sweat, semi semicolon, his dark glasses framed, his worried expression.

There's another great example in the middle school book. It's less than 10.5. It is "A banana tree, isn't a tree at all (semicolon) It's the world's largest herb." The fruit itself is actually a giant berry. How about that? The more you know Yeah. Here goes the star swipe. 

Holly: Absolutely. And also in the high school book, at the end of each lesson you have other sentences.

Yes. So you actually, like with the Amal Unbound at the [00:07:00] end of that lesson and the high school one, you'll, I think there's three or four other sentences that you can use. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Travis. 

Travis: Yeah. Efficiency hacks when necessary, if it's, if you're struggling to find it in another text, we've already done some of that, that is hard work for you. Let's talk about imitation. What do you got? Yeah. For us, yeah.

Holly: One of, one of the things that I do a lot of times with the imitation, and so here we're looking at persuasion. So something that's very accessible to kids a lot of times is a visual. If you can produce or provide visuals and allow students to write about that visual a lot of times you don't, the imitation there's a catalyst there. And so I know a lot of times when I just try to get them to imitate something, they need something that allows them to have a jumping off point.

So if you're following along on the PowerPoint you can see that here we have [00:08:00] the movie poster from Shrek. There's a little direction here that movie posters are designed to attract viewers by evoking an emotion and creating intrigue.

And so we asked them to consider the movie poster and how it uses images and texts to attract an audience. And so I gave them a little boost. Remember that sometimes the text is the name of a popular actor, and so they will have actors' names there as a persuasive technique. I'll give them an easy little table, just what words might attract the audience, what pictures might attract the audience, and then how do they pull in our viewers?

So for Shrek, and this we did with one of the classes, they noted that across the top are all the movie stars: Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, which the kids didn't know who that was, but that's okay. I did.

One of the things that they noticed was that the stars' names are at the top and they're the [00:09:00] same size. They noticed there was text that says the greatest fairytale never told so that people would understand that this was maybe a different spin . And of course they said they may just watch it 'cause they like one of the stars that's in it, which is great. And then when they think about the pictures, there's a big s and it's about Shrek, so they know he's important.

They listed, we can see the main characters there. They note that the prince and princess aren't smiling, but Shrek and the donkey are, and then the prince looks like he's plotting. So they're like, okay. So I think from the pictures there may be a plot twist.

When we pulled it together they said, it doesn't seem really serious, but they think it's gonna be funny and there's famous people in it. And then since I knew who John Lithgow was, they said, "Oh adults know some of these actors and kids know some of the others. Oh, so that would be a bigger audience that would [00:10:00] make adults and kids like it." And they said like Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers, who they thought were ancient adults would like.

They said kids would like the pictures, adults would like the people. We really just did this thinking. And when they did this on their own, they didn't write as much. This was really, I was just typing what they were saying as they were saying it. So what we did is, wait, are you telling 

Travis: me, are you telling me that their kids aren't like big conclave viewers now?

They were not. 

Holly: No, I don't. They didn't seem to see the enclave with No, they're not, they weren't on it. No, 

Travis: on that John Lithgow train. 

Holly: They were not. They were not. 

Travis: That's fair. Sure. 

Holly: So disappointing 

Travis: But fair. 

Holly: I know. You can't expect miracles there, Travis. So when they imitate it, they really just take text from their brainstorming. And so here I just have, this is what we landed with as a class. The poster lists the names of popular movie [00:11:00] stars at the top and also features fun cartoon characters below (semicolon) this will attract adult audiences as well as children. So we talked through why these two things are connected and why we would have that.

We modeled that after the semicolon we don't use a capital letter. And it was really pretty simple after we had the conversation. After that, they actually have the choice. And so I gave them four different movie posters. And they're all very different. We have hard truths about the Lord of War, which is a very famous movie poster where he's made out of bullets.

Audio Only - All Participants: Yes. So good. 

Holly: Yeah. And then the Memory Thief, which I haven't seen, but I love this poster. Super fascinating. And then the assassin, which is really interesting too. And a lot of kids chose that one. And of course they're like she's wearing this big dress. She's Asian, she's gonna kick butt, and so it, 

Audio Only - All Participants: yeah, it was 

Holly: Interesting. So they [00:12:00] chose one and they created theirs, and they, I let them work in pairs or in threes. I don't usually let them work in more than three. I usually make them work in pairs, just 'cause it's just not that much work; it doesn't take that many people to do it, and they end up jacking around and only one of them does it.

Then what they did is they all shared which takes us to our invitation to share, which is just a high school hack: I always do the invitation to imitate and the invitation to share together. So we imitate. We share. We're done.

We move on the next day. Our classes I think are like 48 minutes long. So I usually try to be as efficient with time as I can. The thing is they are analyzing, they're analyzing an image. They're talking about symbols, they're talking about the audience. So they really are doing things that connect nicely to the reading and what we're doing.

They can do a variety of things. A super easy one is once you have your thing written on a sticky note, [00:13:00] stick it to your desk, walk around, read three other people's imitations, come back, have a couple people share, we move on. It can be super easy.

Travis: This would be a great opportunity if you have the time during planning if you know that you have other team members who are ultra creative, always have these ideas that you would love to gather and just have access to.

This is a great place and a great opportunity. If you're thinking about maybe the start or the end of a grading period Hey, can we just maybe gather up five to 10 sharing protocols that we've used that we felt were solid, we could put, throw it on a dock, throw it in a slideshow, and then we all have access to it.

Holly: That's a great way for people 'cause we, in our teams, like everybody does it differently. And we have a few younger team members that love to do all kinds of stuff and they'll come in with all kinds of new ideas that everybody else didn't think about.

Travis: That's okay. If I [00:14:00] could just, can I whip back just real quick? Of course. I'll change this over maybe into that area, but I really just wanted to elevate. For the listeners or for the audience, that idea of the invitation to imitate that we set up a shared imitation, so a scaffolded imitation protocol to be able to support students that might be its own standalone, five to 10 minutes that we then might do a second, that second round of imitation could be that student solo imitation analyzing the movie posters or paired up or in trios.

Our ultimate goal for the invitation to imitate is that kids can successfully at least attempt to use this pattern effectively. Even if they have misconceptions that bubble up from that, it's gonna be helpful for us as we think about next teaching steps.

But this idea I, really love that you have it set up scaffolded. So we have some visual imagery already connected to it that they can look at [00:15:00] to be able to analyze. We have some kind of a protocol, this graphic organizer for them to organize their thinking, and then we're gonna create one together so that they get the gist of what it's about before we move into them doing it on their own. Just wanted to tip the cap to you to on that.

Holly: A lot of times people are like, we didn't finish it, I rushed it. But especially if if you're trying to do that, if you're trying to get through that whole class model and everyone's struggling a lot, that tells you probably need two days to do it. They're not ready to apply.

Rushing it or thinking I have to go to the next thing, or I have to do this or that there's nothing wrong. There's been times where we did compare and contrast for two days 'cause they just needed a little more practice with it. Or they just needed to consume more before we could really move forward.

And I've done two days of application, two days of imitation. Sometimes it's not working, [00:16:00] so we're gonna go back to noticing we're gonna revamp. The idea is that it's always linear and you have to spend one day on each thing. You really don't need to, you really need to respond to where your kids are, but you also don't wanna drag it out so long that your kids who get it are bored. It's a little tricky, but don't be afraid to slow down if you need to. 

Travis: There's some flexibility built in. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate you highlighting that. 

Holly: Invitation to apply, I'm gonna look at two different ones. And so the first application is really where they revise.

So if they've written something, and really by this time. They've done the pre-reading of the article. They've read the article, they've done some annotations and looked at what the article's about. And they've talked a little bit about the evidence that he uses. 'cause that's usually where we start. What evidence does he use? So [00:17:00] at this point they probably have a little writing, and it might actually be in journal form. It's probably not a formal writing.

So for this I would use that. I would use what they had written in class. If not though, they can use anything at all. So like for our kids, each quarter they write like they have a district test, and they do a short constructed response and they do an extended constructed response at least once a quarter. So they usually have some type of writing that they could go to, so we could use something like that as well. There are also times where we don't have writing to use, which is where we'll go to the reading application in a second.

But for this, basically they look back, they think about, okay I've, looked at semicolons, I've compared and contrasted the use of semicolons. I created one just the other day for an imitation, and now I'm going to look at my own writing and make some decisions [00:18:00] about is there a place where a semicolon is the best choice? That's where they're going to, that's where they do this writing application. I will usually, when they do that if I'm walking around and I see some really good ones, I might ask if you kids to just share that. I also might ask them to just highlight where they did something and let me see that, and they can do that online or on paper. We're starting to move a lot more towards paper just 'cause they cheat. AI makes it. Yeah, so we've had kids like get around the lockdown browser and that sort of stuff and so we, we go old school sometimes. But either way, that would be our writing application and that would be very appropriate.

However, sometimes we don't have writing or I'm really focusing more on analysis. If I really am trying to get them to analyze rhetorical structures or analyze persuasive structures, I would very likely [00:19:00] do my reading application. The reading application is where I give them a new text so they get something a little cold. We've talked about this in the article that we're reading, but now I have a short piece where an author has used semicolons in two instances. It's also something that ties to it. So we've got this concept of herd behavior where people do what everybody else is doing. This is a nice, conversational tie in to the article that we've been reading where people do inappropriate things in sacred spaces.

A reading application usually takes a little longer than 10 minutes. But what it's doing is it should 100% just tie right into your reading and any analytical thing that you're doing in class. So I'll let this go a little bit longer because I'm gonna ask them to do this in the other article in just a second. They're likely going to be working in pairs or they'll work [00:20:00] independently, then consult with a partner prior to sharing anything. So we do it that way. But then what they're doing there, that analytical piece, they may verbally have that conversation. They may jot some things down together, but then they're gonna move that to actually looking at the piece that we are reading and working on in that portion of the lesson. And apply it there as well.

I do this frequently, especially if I don't really have a meaty piece of writing at the time for them to apply it to, or if they're just a little worn out on writing, which happens sometimes 'cause we'll have spent quite a bit of time writing. But I bounce back and forth. I don't usually do both just because I think that wears the kids out. I've had teachers try to do it where they do the reading, then they apply it to writing and they try to do all the things, but it ends up taking about seven days. And kids do get pretty sick of it towards the end.

So that's just my 2 cents on that one. But the reading [00:21:00] application is always nice, even if it doesn't get to a writing piece, it's really good conversation. And so it really pushes that discourse around purpose. How do these things connect? One of the questions I'll ask is, why does the author use semicolons in some places, but periods in others? Why do some sentences connect better than others and have them think through that? That's just solidifying that concept. We're still thinking about it.

So we wrap with our invitation to edit. And so a lot of my teachers, they run out of time, so they don't wanna do the edit or they skip the edit. They also assume that the invitation to edit, the purpose of it is to answer multiple choice questions and to do a process of elimination. But that's where there's a real switch.

The purpose of the invitation to edit is for when students [00:22:00] encounter a multiple choice question, they have to go back to what they know. Often they're like I've got the multiple choice question. I don't know. I'm just gonna pick C because the two in front of it I picked B, so I need a C. Right? Where they're not actually thinking, I actually know this. The conversation here and where a lot of times people get rushed and they don't wanna do it is the first thing they really need to do is they need to talk about what all have we learned this week about semicolons? What is everything we know about semicolons?

What do we learn from all of our authors, all of our texts? What do we know about semicolons? And they have access to everything in front of them, but really having them talk to your neighbor. Now tell me, and I'm gonna list everything we know about semicolons. Even if it's stupid, I'm still gonna list it because everything we have to say is important. And if you are saying something that's way off, that's where I [00:23:00] can fix misunderstandings. And so we really need to go back through that.

A lot of my teachers will skip that piece and they'll just quickly do it and they'll say, okay, just answer the questions and see which one is right.

But that's not really its purpose. So since the purpose here is for them to really think about what they know and apply it to each of the answer choices, we go through that process. And I don't ever let them loose on this part. I always talk them through it and I make them go back to the focus phrase for each thing.

So when I do this in class, we will have each one pop up, but for the sake of our time today, we'll just talk through them. So I'll ask them, what do we learn? And I'll have them kind of list what they remember, and then we'll pop up the sentence, say, is there anything we wanna add? We'll go back through it. I might add some things. And then we go through each one of these.

I'll pop up and I'll read it to them and I'll [00:24:00] say, what changed? And what's the effect of that change? And so they'll really think about what changed. In the patterns of power books, there's only A, B and C. They need that 

Travis: fourth option. They need the fourth option. This feels, yeah, 

Holly: It feels wrong. And so the first time we did it, they were like, why are there only three? I just, why is there only three?

So my D is almost always a comma splice. Because they do it so often. And so what I notice is, since we talk about it every week we talk about a comma splice. I always go back to that if you've got two sentences, what are the ways you can connect them? You can use a period, you can use a semicolon.

You can use a common conjunction. If you're, you can use a dash, but we don't usually get that far. But it's, if it's not those three, is it? No. And so that's a lot of what I add. Another thing I'll [00:25:00] add a lot of the time for high school is I'll randomly capitalize something or I'll not capitalize the first word of the sentence because they do that frequently, especially since they test online.

And so I'll do things like that, like I'll have typos that I tend to see in their answers when they test in the lockdown browser. And I go through each of these. We discuss each of these. This is what we actually do in PLC. So we'll walk through these things. We see that, the semicolons replaced, we see all these different things that they do.

And we talk through this and make our notes prior to teaching it, but going through here, for each one I read it. I let them talk about it. What changed, what, how does it impact things? You'll also notice that for B here, I flip flopped where actual phrases are. A lot of times kids do that where they'll [00:26:00] put a phrase in the wrong place, like it's too far from what it's describing or what it's connected to, or it's just awkward. So a lot of times I'll do that as well where I'll flip flop phrasing. And one of the conversations we're able to have there is logical progression. A lot of times they leave out pieces, their gaps and things are not necessarily in order. So that's another one that I add. I usually create these based on what I see my kids struggling with the most. 

Travis: I think that's really helpful to be responsive to your own student writing. Also another hack back into for efficiency, if you go back into that specific lesson from the book, you're gonna see examples in the invitation to edit. You probably already know there's the teacher facing first that talks about a change that has been made and the effect of that change.

So you are welcome to borrow that idea and put that [00:27:00] same idea in. For example, in lesson 4.8, that first change, the semicolon is replaced by a comma and a coordinating conjunction. So flipping that over. Okay. That's another way that we can really highlight the two sentences, how we connect them together and talk about the effect of that change.

For me, planning wise, this could be, has the potential of being one of the longest or maybe most intensive if we're thinking about all the options that exist. So some hacks for efficiency, I think are important. 

Holly: Absolutely. With this invitation, a lot of teachers view it more as performance, not as conversation. Because the whole goal is having a conversation around these options, and so when you have kids arguing about whether that tense will work or that tense won't work, that's a good conversation. That's one that you want them to have because they're gonna remember that conversation they had with another kid and haggling over it.[00:28:00] 

More so than a worksheet or just what you told them one day. And again all of these invitations are designed to foster conversation around purpose . And so if you think about going through this whole lesson by the time we're done with this lesson, the kids really understand what a semicolon is. They really understand why you use it and why you would not use it. And at the same time, they're doing a deep dive into a persuasive article that we're teaching them with concepts that are new. 'cause a lot of them didn't know what Arlington Cemetery was. 

and so they're learning content, they're learning persuasion, they're learning conventions all at the same time. And so I think just I would encourage, as you think through planning, what are you working on for this unit? What are you working on for this or that? And how do you make this super tight where it connects very nicely to the reading.

And I also Travis, are you gonna [00:29:00] put our emails and everything and our websites on there? Or at the bottom? I absolutely could. Okay. Yeah. Because I do have people reach out and say, Holly, do you have something on blank? And a lot of times I do. 

Travis: Yeah. If we're already, we're living with that little piece in our brain already always turned on. That switch is already on for me. Every time I'm looking at text Ooh, 

Holly: Yeah. And what is the author doing? What can we elevate? Ooh, we got forced. Somebody was like, how do you do that? And it was just a year of training. 

Travis: Now I do it all the time. Yep. Of course. Holly, appreciate you taking the lead on this and sharing some of the experiences that you've had on your campus. This is a really impactful way to ground semicolons. This idea of connecting sentences purposefully within the context of something that we're already gonna be studying in class and giving kids even more of an [00:30:00] idea of using it effectively in their own writing. That target couldn't be clearer to be able to hit now, always appreciate learning together with you. 

Holly: Awesome. Yeah, it's nice to chat and yeah, good luck to everybody out there. 

Travis: All right, y'all, we hope you enjoy this lesson and again, check the show notes for all of the connected resources. Listeners, thank you so much for learning together through season one of Podcast Reboot. We're taking a summer break before gearing back up to share content related to reading and writing with you for the next school year. Happy fleeting days of summer and we look forward to connecting with you again soon.

The Power of Purposeful Text Selection

Holly and I focused our planning around Leonard Pitts Jr.'s compelling article "Capture this: It's wrong to play Pokémon at Auschwitz!" from the Miami Herald. What I love about this choice is how it grabs students' attention right from the title while providing rich opportunities for analyzing persuasive writing techniques.

The beauty of using a text like this is that students are naturally curious about the topic, which makes every part of the lesson more engaging. As Holly pointed out, when kids are interested in the article from the start, everything else flows more smoothly.

Making the Invitation to Notice Stick

One of the biggest revelations from our conversation was Holly's insight about making focus phrases and model sentences physically accessible to students. She's discovered that when these elements are buried in a PowerPoint or posted online, students simply don't refer back to them.

Her solution? Print everything out. Put it on their desks as physical cards. Make it tactile.

"We've really started to either make these as little cards that sit on their table," Holly explained. "When we need them to refer back to it, it's physically on the table." This simple change has made a huge difference in how students engage with and remember the lesson content.

For our semicolon lesson, Holly chose this model sentence: "My dad turned 37 in 1963; I cannot for the life of me picture him twirling a Hula Hoop at Arlington." What makes this sentence perfect is that it offers complexity for advanced students (with that embedded phrase "for the life of me") while remaining accessible to all learners.

Flexible Compare and Contrast Options

This is where Holly's expertise really shines. She doesn't just plan one compare-and-contrast option—she plans multiple versions based on her students' needs:

Option 1: For Advanced Analysis When focusing on persuasive writing techniques, she uses two sentences from the same article, allowing students to see how one author connects ideas purposefully.

Option 2: For More Accessibility She scales back to more manageable examples, like this sentence from Amal Unbound: "His forehead was slick with sweat; his dark glasses framed his worried expression." The concept remains the same, but the complexity is more accessible.

Option 3: For Analytical Writing She compares a sentence from the original article with an analytical sentence about the article, setting students up for their own analytical writing.

The key insight here? Holly keeps the noticing portion consistent for all students but adjusts the compare-and-contrast based on where her classes are academically.

Movie Posters as Catalysts for Imitation

Here's where things get really creative. Instead of asking students to imitate semicolon usage in a vacuum, Holly uses movie posters as visual catalysts. She starts with the movie poster for Shrek, having students analyze how movie posters use both images and text to attract audiences.

Students notice things like:

• Star names are positioned at the top and sized equally

• Text like "the greatest fairytale never told" creates intrigue

• Visual elements suggest plot dynamics (the prince looks like he's plotting)

After this shared analysis, students work in pairs or threes to analyze different movie posters, then write their own analytical sentences using semicolons.

What we love about this approach is how it gives students a concrete jumping-off point for their writing while still requiring them to think analytically about persuasive techniques.

Streamlined Sharing and Application

Here's an efficiency hack for high school: combine imitation and sharing into one seamless activity. Students create their analyses, then immediately share using protocols like sticky-note rotations around the room. "Our classes are like 48 minutes long," Holly noted, "so I usually try to be as efficient with time as I can."

For application, Holly offers two distinct paths:

Writing Application: Students revisit their own previous writing (journal entries, district assessments, etc.) and look for places where semicolons would be the best choice for connecting ideas.

Reading Application: Students get a fresh text that connects thematically to the original article (in this case, about herd behavior) and analyze how the author uses semicolons purposefully.

The key insight: Holly has learned that attempting both applications can stretch the lesson to seven days, and students could tire of the focus by then.

Rethinking the Invitation to Edit

Holly emphasized that many teachers rush through or skip the invitation to edit, thinking it's just about answering multiple choice questions. But that completely misses the point.

The real purpose is to help students access what they know when they encounter these questions on tests. Before looking at any answer choices, Holly has students talk through everything they've learned about semicolons during the week. This conversation reveals misconceptions she can address while building students' confidence in their knowledge.

When they do look at answer choices, Holly creates options based on actual student errors she sees: comma splices (her most common choice for a fourth option), random capitalization issues, awkward phrase placement, and logical progression problems.

The Bigger Picture

By the end of this lesson sequence, students understand semicolons deeply—not just the rule, but the purpose. They understand why authors choose semicolons over periods or coordinating conjunctions. And they're doing all this learning while engaging with persuasive writing and current social issues.

"They're learning content, they're learning persuasion, they're learning conventions all at the same time," Holly summarized perfectly.

Flexibility Is Key

Perhaps the most important lesson from our conversation is that these invitations don't have to be rigid. We suggest spending being responsive to student learning and being open to presenting another day of a specific invitation to help solidify or clarify understanding about a convention.

"Don't be afraid to slow down if you need to," Holly advised. "But you also don't want to drag it out so long that your kids who get it are bored."

Looking Forward

As we wrapped up our conversation, I found myself revisiting how this approach completely transforms grammar instruction. Instead of isolated skill practice, we're giving students authentic reasons to understand and use semicolons effectively. We're building their analytical thinking while strengthening their writing.

If you're looking to make your grammar instruction more meaningful and engaging, I can't recommend this approach highly enough. Start with a compelling text, make your materials physically accessible, plan for flexibility, and always keep the focus on purpose rather than just rules.

Holly and I are always happy to connect with fellow educators working on making grammar instruction more effective. Feel free to reach out if you want to share ideas or need resources for specific concepts—chances are, we've got something that might help!