3.2.B.iii
The Standard
spelling compound words, contractions, and abbreviations
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading · The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students join two familiar words and spell the new word as one unit when appropriate. They show missing letters with an apostrophe and use capitals and periods in common shortened forms.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can correctly write common joined words such as raincoat and toothbrush. The student changes do not to don't and writes shortened forms such as Mr. and Jan. with correct capitals and periods. The student can find and fix these errors in a sentence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may leave spaces inside closed compounds or combine any two nearby words. They often place apostrophes where two words meet instead of where letters were removed. They may omit periods or write shortened titles and month names in lowercase.
How to Assess It
- Give an exit ticket with three items: rain + coat, do not, and Mister Lee. Students write raincoat, don't, and Mr. Lee with correct spelling and punctuation.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs word cards to join into closed compounds, then have students write each new word on a mini whiteboard.
Ask students to write how cannot becomes can't and explain which letters the apostrophe replaces.
Play a three-column relay where teams spell a called compound, contraction, or shortened title in the correct column.
Have students find shortened words on mail, calendars, and street signs, then copy three examples with correct capitals and punctuation.
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