Teacher notes for this lesson. Two sides of A4, not for pupils.Mild sheetMedium sheetSpicy sheetAnswers
Teacher notes · not for pupils Punctuation sequence

The Extra Bit

Brackets, dashes or commas for parenthesis

Lesson 12 of 16
Year 5 45 min

Objective

Use brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis, and use the lift-out test to check the sentence still works without the extra bit.

Board title: Marking off the extra bit  ·  Say it: “Today we're tucking an extra bit into a sentence with two commas, two brackets or two dashes, and checking the sentence still stands when we lift it out.”

Curriculum

  • Y5: brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis
  • Y2: commas to separate items in a list (revisited, a different job for the same mark)
  • Terminology: parenthesis · bracket · dash
  • STA domain: G5.9

Success criteria

  • spot the extra bit a sentence could live without
  • wrap it in two commas, two brackets or two dashes
  • lift it out and check what is left still stands
  • close every pair I open

Key vocabulary

parenthesis · bracket · dash · comma · pair · lift out

Run of the lesson

5 min
Starter: Polpetta made the soup beside Polpetta, our best chef, made the soup. Which is a complete sentence? Both are, but don't resolve it yet.
10 min
Model the lift-out test with a hand over the middle: The soup, made this morning, was cold, lift it out and what is left still stands. Same sentence with brackets, then dashes: brackets whisper, dashes point, and today the win is closing the pair at all.
8 min
On the Side, Mild band, commas only, the right start for everyone. Class votes before you tap; say the lift-out test aloud each round, and move up to Medium mid-game when the votes come fast.
5 min
Trap and votes: the pair that never closes, The soup, made this morning was cold. Ask where the extra bit ENDS. Four votes, a child says where it starts and ends before each reveal (answers: a-left, b-right, c-right, d-left).
14 min
Worksheet, independent. Circulate on Task 3: the two tells are pairs that open and never close, and extra bits the sentence cannot live without, so make each writer lift their middle out and read what is left aloud.
3 min
Plenary: two children read a Task 3 sentence whole, then lifted out, and the class checks it still stands. Then the class quiz: what is missing from Polpetta's Our soup, made fresh daily is the best in Rome?
On screenSPAGhetti → On the Side → Mild. One screen only; no pupil devices needed. Mild is commas only, the right first band for the whole class. When the votes come fast, move up to Medium mid-game: it adds brackets, then dashes, then mixes all three. ~8 items in 10 minutes with discussion.
SPAGhetti · Punctuation sequence · Lesson 12 of 16  ·  Teacher notes 1 of 2
Teacher notes · not for pupils The Extra Bit · side 2

On the day

If the tech failsSkip the game entirely. Task 1 is the same content on paper, read the four pairs aloud and vote with thumbs. Then write one sentence on the board and lift the extra bit in and out with a hand over it. The lesson still works.
If they're on devicesLesson code EXTRE (on the worksheet footer) opens the right game, locks the café until 10 items are done, then unlocks it as the reward.

Misconceptions to watch for

The pair that never closes. The soup, made this morning was cold. They hear the opening comma as a breath and never come back. Ask where the extra bit ENDS, every time. This is the single most common error on the sheet.

Marking off a bit the sentence needs. Polpetta, made the soup. A subject or a verb is not an extra bit. If lifting it out leaves rubble, it was never a parenthesis. Taught fully with relative clauses in the next grammar lesson.

Wrong boundaries. The cake, still warm sat, on the rack. The pair is closed but in the wrong place. The fix is the lift-out test read ALOUD: The cake on the rack is fine; The cake sat mid-list is not what they wrote.

A dash is not a hyphen. The dash is long, has space around it, and comes in pairs here; the hyphen glues words like well-known. Name the difference once now, the hyphen gets its own lesson later.

The three sheets

Same four tasks on every sheet, in the same order, with the same look. Only the demand changes. Print the one each child needs; nobody does two.

Mild

Same four tasks as every other sheet, same order, same look, the demand is lower, not the dignity. Shorter passage in Task 2, and in Task 3 a word bank or words to tick, with printed sentence starters. Give it to anyone who needs a way in, and expect them to move up.

Medium

The core sheet. Give this to most of the class. No word bank; in Task 3 pupils choose from a few close options, then use one in a sentence of their own.

Spicy

Same four tasks, more demand, a longer passage with a subtler error, and Task 3 asks for two things at once. Not extra work; harder work. Nobody should be doing Spicy and the Medium sheet.

Adaptive teaching

  • Support: commas only, all lesson. Task 1, then Task 3 orally with a scribe. Game stays on Mild.
  • SEN: gentle mode on; read Task 2 aloud before they edit, pausing at each pair.
  • Stretch: Task 3 extension, the same sentence three times: commas, brackets, dashes, and a line on which they would print.
  • EAL: pre-teach lift out. Model the test physically with a strip of paper over the extra bit.

Play it

Lesson code EXTRE at playspaghetti.com. The code is printed on the bottom of every pupil sheet with a QR, and Class Quiz in your dashboard opens the plenary quiz for this lesson pre-picked.

SPAGhetti · Punctuation sequence · Lesson 12 of 16  ·  Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2  ·  Ludora