Mini-Lesson Capital Letters Please note: you may want to change some of the proper nouns to match the names in your school!

The No’s and Yes’s of Capitalization doctor, general, mother, nun, king my uncle, her aunt, a mother mountain, building, baseball field war, day, month Yes Dr. Martin Luther King, Gen. Patton, Mother Teresa, King George Uncle Doug, Aunt Marilyn, Mom Rocky Mountains, World Trade Center, Yankee Field Civil War, Tuesday, December Have students make generalizations to create a rule based on the examples. These skills are listed on Oral and Written Conventions section of the TEKS starting in 1st grade. It covers titles, names, proper nouns, historical events, dates, organizations, and acronyms. What do you notice?

The No’s and Yes’s of Capitalization high school basketball team grocery store award, prize sports car the people of Rome school district, test club, organization Yes Richardson High School Dallas Mavericks Kroger’s Academy Award, Nobel Peace Prize Ferrari, Corvette Romans RISD, SAT Eaglettes, National Honor Society Ask students to further clarify the rule on capitalization. What do you notice?

Rule of Thumb Use capital letters for proper nouns/specifics; use lower case letters for general things. Craft and share the basic rule of capitals. Have studnents write the rule in their complostion books, along with examples that they were no familiar with.

And Always Capitalize… I (do we have to tell you this???) First and last names Cities, states, oceans, mountains, continents Titles of movies, books, and songs (Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games, “Shake It Off” ) First word of a sentence In dialogue These are reviews, but worth mentioning.

Capitalization in Dialogue “Dave Mathews Band is my favorite group,” Mrs. D said. “I’d love to see them in concert.” “Who is that? Jeez, you are old,” said her ignorant 15-year-old student. Point out that if the sentence continues after the tag, it’s lowercase. If a new sentence begins after the dialogue tag, it’s capitalized. What’s the difference? Why?

Rule of Thumb If a new sentence starts after the dialogue tag, it should be capitalized.

What will you capitalize? So To Review…. What will you capitalize? the long june twilight faded into night. on a roof-top near o’connel bridge, a republican sniper lay watching. around the beleaguered four courts, the heavy guns roared. republicans and free staters were waging civil war.

Answers The long June twilight faded into night. On a roof-top near O’Connel Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Around the beleaguered Four Courts, the heavy guns roared. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.

Questions?