6.10.D.vii
The Standard
capitalization of proper nouns, including abbreviations, initials, acronyms, and organizations
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 locate proper names in their drafts and check each one for correct capitalization. They edit people’s names, initials, abbreviations, acronyms, and official organization names.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly capitalize names, initials, abbreviations, acronyms, and official organization names. They can find and fix these errors in a draft without changing words that are already correct.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may capitalize every noun or every word in an organization’s name. They may leave initials, titles, abbreviations, or acronyms lowercase, especially when editing their own drafts.
How to Assess It
- Use this exit ticket: Correct all capitalization errors in “dr. maya j. chen spoke to the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa).”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs word cards with names, initials, acronyms, and organizations, then have them sort and rewrite each item with correct capitalization.
Ask students to explain why “National Junior Honor Society” is capitalized but “our school club” is not.
Play Capitalization Relay by having teams correct one sentence at a time on the board, then justify each change.
Have students examine a school website or local news page and record five correctly capitalized names, abbreviations, acronyms, or organizations.
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