The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 185–187 · Part 1: Part First
55. Commas in a series
Goal: Your child puts commas between the items in a list.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Section 185 explains the comma in a series with John Jones's variety store and seven example sentences. Section 186 states the rule exactly and asks for more examples from books. Section 187 is a short paragraph about a picnic to study and write from dictation.
The lesson, step by step
Read about John Jones's store
Read the paragraph at the top of Section 185 aloud.
He sells butter, eggs, hammers, books, linen, cotton, small wares of all sorts, wash-tubs, stoves, carpets, and curtains.
Ask: What is a series? Where are the commas?
The rule (Section 186)
Every word in the series except the last is followed by a comma. Read the seven sentences in Section 185 and your child points to each series.
Make your own lists
Your child writes four sentences, each with a series: things in a lunch box, animals at a farm, colors in a sunset, people at dinner.
Dictation (Section 187)
Your child studies the picnic paragraph for a few minutes. Close the book. Read it aloud slowly, and your child writes it.
Check it gently
Your child compares with the book and checks only the commas in each series. They fix any missing ones themselves.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
In my lunch box I have a sandwich, an apple, two cookies, and a pickle.
Afterwards
Section 186: find sentences with a series in a book you are reading and copy two of them.