{"id":5694,"date":"2025-09-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itslitteaching.com\/?p=5694"},"modified":"2025-07-23T13:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T17:11:14","slug":"teach-hyphens-and-dashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itslitteaching.com\/teach-hyphens-and-dashes\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Teach Hyphens and Dashes in High School English"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you’re a high school English teacher who dreads the moment punctuation lessons roll around, you’re not alone—especially when you need to teach hyphens and dashes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To your students, these horizontal lines look similar. But their variety of uses, subtle rules, and even how to type them on standard keyboards are leaving your students totally confused!<\/p>\n\n\n

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This Hyphens and Dashes Lesson<\/a> includes everything you need: slideshow, worksheets, exit tickets, student handout, digital versions, and more!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The good news? With the right examples and a little clarity, you can teach hyphens and dashes with confidence—and even help your students master using them!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading if you’re ready to read essays with a little more sentence variety. In this post, I’ll go over hyphen and dash rules, common usage, and the different types of dashes. I’ll even cover tricky concepts like compound adjectives, numeric ranges, and word breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If, however, you’re not looking to DIY your lesson, you can save yourself a ton of time and skip to the good part with this Hyphens and Dashes Lesson<\/a>!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It includes everything you need to teach hyphens, dashes, and the differences between them. This lesson includes a slideshow presentation, worksheets, student handout, exit tickets, and more!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Blog post Pinterest pin that reads, \"How to Teach Hyphens & Dashes\" over the image of a clock and school supplies<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Before You Teach Hyphens and Dashes: Teaching Prerequisites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before diving into hyphens and dashes, you should make sure your students are ready for them. A random lesson on these punctuation marks won’t serve your students if they don’t have the necessary background knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

​Make sure your students already know foundational grammar concepts before teaching hyphens and dashes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n