Georgia 9.L.GC.1.60
The Standard
Mechanics: Use dashes appropriately. (Continue)
Georgia's K-12 English Language Arts Standards · Language (L) · Grammar Conventions
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students choose when dashes can mark a sharp break, interruption, or added emphasis. They punctuate sentences consistently and distinguish dashes from hyphens, commas, and parentheses.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can place one dash before an emphasized ending or a pair around an inserted thought. The student can explain why dashes fit better than commas or parentheses in a sentence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often use a hyphen where a dash belongs, place only one mark around an inserted thought, or space marks inconsistently. Some treat every pause as a reason for a dash and create choppy prose.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Revise “The final clue the muddy footprint changed our theory” using dashes, then explain what the punctuation emphasizes.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs sentence strips and dash cards, then have students place one or two cards where interruptions or emphasis occur.
Ask students to compare dashes, commas, and parentheses in the same sentence, then write which choice creates the strongest emphasis.
Run a punctuation repair race where teams correct sentences with missing, misplaced, or overused dashes and explain each fix.
Collect dash examples from news headlines or advertisements, then identify what each dash emphasizes and rewrite one example with different punctuation.
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