Standard: 3.L.2a – Capitalize appropriate words in titles.
Grade level: Grade 3
Subject: English Language Arts
Domain: Language
Teacher Overview
This standard focuses on teaching students how to properly capitalize words in titles. It is important because it helps students understand and apply capitalization rules, which are essential for clear and professional writing. Students should have a solid understanding of basic capitalization rules, including capitalizing the first word in a sentence and proper nouns.
Students will move on to applying these capitalization rules to more complex writing scenarios, including proper nouns, titles of works, and specific places.
Common Misconception 1
A common misconception is that every word in a title should be capitalized. This is incorrect because only the first and last words, along with major words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), should be capitalized.
Intervention 1
Use examples and non-examples to illustrate the correct capitalization of titles. Provide students with sentences and have them identify which words should be capitalized.
Common Misconception 2
Another misconception is that students might forget to capitalize important words like ‘is’ and ‘the’. These words should be capitalized when they are major words in the title.
Intervention 2
Create practice worksheets that focus on identifying and capitalizing important words in titles. Use a variety of titles to reinforce the rules for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.
Prerequisite Knowledge
Students should understand basic capitalization rules, such as capitalizing the first word in a sentence and proper nouns.
Subsequent Knowledge
After mastering this standard, students will learn to apply capitalization rules to more complex writing scenarios, including proper nouns, titles of works, and specific places.
Instructional Activities
- Create a list of book and movie titles and have students identify which words should be capitalized.
- Have students write titles for their own stories or projects, focusing on correct capitalization.
- Use online games and quizzes to reinforce the rules for capitalizing titles.
- Create posters with examples of correctly capitalized titles for classroom display.
- Conduct peer review sessions where students check each other’s work for correct capitalization in titles.
