Dashes Presentation

The "Dashes Presentation" is an educational resource designed for Key Stage 2 grammar, specifically aimed at Year 6 students learning to use dashes in their writing. The presentation, created by Anne Pillar, serves as a comprehensive bank of resources that teachers can adapt to fit the needs of their class. It is structured to be used in sections, each containing whole-class input, group and paired activities, and independent tasks. The teacher has the freedom to decide the level of support required for the class, ensuring the lesson is tailored to the students' abilities.

The presentation covers several key aspects of using dashes, including their definition as a punctuation mark longer than a hyphen and their use to separate groups of words. It educates students on the various applications of dashes, such as adding extra information (parenthesis), indicating interruptions or repetitions in speech, and introducing a final comment in a sentence. The teaching material includes examples to illustrate each use, practice sentences for students to insert dashes correctly, and answers for self-assessment. Additionally, there are reading and writing challenges that encourage students to find examples of dash usage in texts and to compose short paragraphs incorporating dashes, enhancing their understanding and application of this punctuation mark.