CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.2
The Standard
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Language Standards
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students apply standard capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when they write. They use commas and quotation marks in dialogue, form possessives, and check uncertain spellings with reference tools.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students write complete sentences with correct capitals, commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, and end punctuation. They spell familiar words correctly and use a dictionary when unsure.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may capitalize every important-looking word or forget capitals in titles. They often confuse commas with quotation marks in dialogue, misuse apostrophes in possessives, and spell words only by sound.
How to Assess It
- Give students three sentences containing errors in capitalization, dialogue punctuation, possessives, and spelling. Ask them to rewrite each sentence correctly and circle every change.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs sentence strips with missing capitals and punctuation, then have them add marks with colored pencils and explain each choice.
Ask students to write a short conversation between two characters, using quotation marks, commas, capitals, and correct end punctuation.
Play an editing relay where teams correct one capitalization, punctuation, or spelling error before passing the paragraph to the next player.
Have students edit a pretend party invitation for names, dates, addresses, possessives, punctuation, and spelling before creating a corrected copy.
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Printable L.3.2 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.2, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
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