3.11.D.ix
The Standard
capitalization of official titles of people, holidays, and geographical names and places
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading · The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate conventions.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students find names of people’s official roles, holidays, and specific locations in their drafts. They capitalize those names correctly while leaving general words lowercase.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly write names such as Mayor Garcia, Memorial Day, and Lake Travis. They can edit a draft and explain why a specific name is capitalized while a general noun is not.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may capitalize every job title, even when it is used generally, as in “the mayor.” They may also leave small words lowercase inside place names or capitalize generic words such as “river” when no specific river is named.
How to Assess It
- Give this exit ticket: “mayor garcia visited lake travis on memorial day. Later, the mayor spoke.” Students rewrite it with correct capitalization.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs word cards such as mayor, Mayor Chen, river, and Rio Grande, then have them sort and correct capitalization.
Ask students why President Washington is capitalized but the president is not, then have them write two matching examples.
Play Capitalization Relay with sentence strips containing errors in holiday, title, and place names for teams to correct.
Have students edit a mock community calendar listing local leaders, holidays, parks, streets, and nearby cities.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- 6.10.D.vii
capitalization of proper nouns, including abbreviations, initials, acronyms, and organizations;
- 5.11.D.ix
capitalization of abbreviations, initials, acronyms, and organizations;
- 2.11.D.ix
capitalization of months, days of the week, and the salutation and conclusion of a letter;
- 4.11.D.ix
capitalization of historical periods, events, and documents; titles of books; stories and essays; and languages, races, and nationalities;
Turn this exact standard into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.