A group of sixth-graders at Rowe Middle School hopes to go viral with a rap song, but what makes this song different is its topics: commas.

The song, titled "Comma Dance," features lines such as, "Then remember to use commas when you're writing a list // For example, 'When I went to the gathering last week, I brought a sleeping bag, pillows, pizza and fat beats.'"

A song expounding on the rules of grammar for commas may not seem the most obvious choice for a hoping-to-go-viral music video on YouTube. But teacher Lucas Dix, who's finishing his master's degree in education, said it's it a useful learning tool.

"For my final project in an adolescent literacy class, we had the option of creating a song that incorporated rhythm and rhyme to aid in memory as well as movement for our kinesthetic learning," Dix explained in an email. "As someone who's been rapping since I was 16 or 17, I decided to make a rap song."

Dix wrote the lyrics to the song in a day, and spent 7-8 hours editing the video, he said. All students from his morning and afternoon sixth-grade language arts and literacy class had a part in the video, too.

"When it came time to film, I wanted to make sure that everyone had something to do and was being utilized in the creation process," Dix wrote. "Students could choose between being a rapper, a dancer, a designer or a behind-the-scenes person."

Dix and his students then recorded audio and video for it over a few weeks' time, coming up with a social media blitz strategy to get the word out (under the hashtag #commadance).

Should the students' YouTube video reach 5,000 hits before June 1, they'll be celebrating with a pizza party.

--Byron Wilkes