Everyday Editing
By: Jeff Anderson

This article used the example of using commas for list sentences and I immediately said to myself (no one else was around), “ah ha!” I covered that topic very well last year. I will say my students really took to that rule of the comma and I found lists all through out their writing and it was wonderful. But, even though it showed up in their writing, I only had one student who noticed it (or at least verbalized his observation) that it was found in what he was reading as well. I will say that when he called me over to show me the lists he found in his books, I was ecstatic. It is such a treat for a teacher to see that something her kiddos learned traveled into the brain, through the arm and then back into the brain to make further connections. To help more of my students make this connection, I will be gleaning Jeff Anderson’s idea to discuss these writing mechanics in popular children’s books. I see this as the We Do for what my one student did on his own.