Peer Review

Comma Use StAIR (Stand Alone Instructional Resource)

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Aug 27, 2018 by English

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This Stand Alone Instructional Resource (StAIR) was designed to help students better understand how to use commas in writing. The resource was created with PowerPoint and will appear like a typical slideshow upon opening. However, users are not able to manually navigate through the show. Instead they must use the provided prompts to progress through the learning material. This forces students to answer all questions provided regarding commas. Students will not simply correct sentences, though. To successfully complete a question students must research comma rules and pick which rule would successfully answer the question. This encourages students to learn why commas are placed where they are. Overall, the assignment is about thirty slides long, as there is brief introduction, a explanation of comma rules, and twenty related questions.

Type of Material:

Grammar reference, Drill, and Practice

Recommended Uses:

In-class, homework, individual, team, lecture, self-paced, etc.

Technical Requirements:

In order to access this resource, users must have a internet browser and PowerPoint viewer software on their computer.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Students will understand how to properly use commas in writing.
Students will be able to explain why commas are used in certain spots.

Target Student Population:

Middle School, High School, Dev College

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Basic English

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The content about using the comma in English language is detailed, as it covers all the syntactic cases where commas should be utilized in English sentences. This is a solid lesson that is explained well.
Concerns:: Some content needs more elaboration. As an exampl, the Independent/Dependent clause section is weak. Vocabulary usage is weak.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

This self-paced learning resource will help users to improve English writing skills. It encourages users to learn why commas are placed where they are which should lead to composing better sentences on their own.

Concerns:

Limited, though clear examples come with each rule. If this resource is used as a self-paced reference, the users are advised to ask for further explanation from a teacher/instructor.

The tool is not very interactive.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The target information in this resource can be spotted easily when it is opened, since it is presented in PowerPoint slides and not a Word Document or PDF document. So users can save time when they seek a specific piece of information in this resource.

Concerns:

Users are not able to manually navigate through the Slideshow. Instead, they have to use the provided prompts to progress through the content. So the users are compeled to answer all questions provided regarding commas. To successfully complete a question, the users should research comma rules, and pick the rule that would successfully answer the question.

Awkward, impracticable-- cannot print out rules. Could open in two browsers.

Other Issues and Comments:: The rules presented in this resource are solely for American English grammar.
Creative Commons: