CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.2a
The Standard
Capitalize dates and names of people.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify the first letters in people’s names, weekdays, and months that need uppercase forms. They use those capitals when writing and editing.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student writes names, weekdays, and months with correct first letters. The student can find and fix missing or incorrect capitals in a short sentence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often write names, weekdays, and months with lowercase first letters. Some capitalize ordinary nouns, such as girl or teacher, because they refer to people. Others place a capital inside a word instead of at its beginning.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Rewrite “We will see ava on monday, july 8.” with correct capitals. Circle each letter you changed.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs word cards for people, months, weekdays, and objects; students sort them, then add capitals where needed.
Ask students to write, “I will celebrate with ___ on ___,” using a person’s name and a weekday or month.
Play Capital Detective: Display five short sentences, and students earn a point for fixing each name, weekday, or month.
Read a classroom calendar and attendance list, then have students explain why selected words begin with uppercase letters.
Free download
Printable L.1.2a Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.2a, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetLearning progression
Where This Standard Sits
Before This Standard
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