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

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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?

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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. Questions?