What it is. When a sentence opens with a phrase, a comma marks where that part stops.
Why our test works. Children place commas where they PAUSE, which is a different thing and gives wandering punctuation. Asking where the opening part ends gives a structural answer instead of a breath-based one — and it is the same structure lesson 22 taught them to write.
Leans on. Lesson 22 — they write these openings already.
Watch for. This is Poodle and the Art of the Comma's own subject. Point at the book.
Write what you hear: sentences with a comma. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher says each item once at speaking pace, then again slowly. The comma marks where the The class reads the teaching page printed at the top of the sheet — our own writing, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U1 set 1, U2 set 1: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher says each item once at speaking pace, then again slowly. The comma marks where the opening part ends. The first is modeled on the board, sound by sound, nothing erased. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class writes one item together, then checks it against the board letter by letter before the next is given. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on the printed sheet instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They read the teaching page — printed at the top of today's sheet — with you, either read-aloud or FASE, never round robin. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Write each item the teacher says: After the rain, the field was wet.. Check every one against the board.
You close on the exit direction — Point to the one you had to fix. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: The comma shows where the opening part ends.
This is Poodle and the Art of the Comma's own subject. Point at the book.