Conventions Continuum
Conventions:
Level 1
Spelling
- Notices and discusses letter/
sound correspondence.
- Writes own name.
Capitalization
- Begins to use both upper
and lower case letters, notices
and discusses the difference.
(ex. letter investigation)
Punctuation
- Notices and discusses
punctuation with teacher (eg.
in morning message).
- Plays with punctuation in
own writing.
Level 2
- Uses spaces between letters
and words.
- Attempts semi-phonetic
spelling, uses beginning and
ending sounds.
(mstr = monster)
- Begins to capitalize name,
first word of a sentence, the
pronoun “I” and people’s
names.
- Uses both upper and lower
case letters.
- Experiments with
endmarks: periods, question
marks, and exclamation
points.
Level 3
- Spells fry words 1-300
correctly in final drafts.
- Experiments with expanded
vocabulary words (phonetic
spelling).
- Correctly capitalizes
sentence beginnings, proper
nouns (cities and states), and
the pronoun “I.”
- Capitalizes the greeting and
closing in letters, holidays,
titles, and personal titles (Dr.,
Mrs., Mr., etc.).
Level 4
- Spells fry words 1-400
correctly in final drafts.
- Difficult words may be
phonetically spelled.
- Begins to recognize and
spell common homophones
correctly (eg. their, there,
they're, your, you're, to, too,
two)
- Uses capitalization
correctly.
- Correctly uses endmarks:
periods, question marks, and
exclamation points.
- Correctly uses commas for
the following: in a series,
dates, cities and states, and
the greeting and closing of
letters.
- Uses periods at the end of
abbreviations.
- Uses apostrophes correctly
in contractions and singular
possessives.
- Knows and applies the rules
for simple quotation marks.
- Begins to punctuate
compound sentences.
- Uses apostrophes correctly
in plural possessives.
- Experiments with more
complex punctuation;
semicolons, dashes, colons,
hyphens, parentheses, and
underlining.
- Continues to use correct
punctuation from level 3.
Grammar/Usage
- Notices and discusses correct
grammar in oral language and
print (eg. complete sentences,
subject-verb agreement, and
pronouns).
- Nonstandard grammar is
common.
- Begins to identify complete
sentences.
- Begins to use sentences with
subject-verb agreement orally and
in writing.
Paragraphing
- Attempts to write left to
right, and top to bottom.
- Identifies and writes complete
sentences.
- Identifies adjectives and
adverbs in a sentence, and begins
to use them in own sentences.
- Writes complete sentences
using irregular plurals or nouns.
- Uses the correct verb tense
including past, present, and
future.
- Generally consistent point of
view.
- Correct subject/verb agreement
in simple sentences.
- Consistently indents
paragraphs.
- Writes a complete sentence
using appropriate forms of
irregular verbs.
- Correctly uses adjectives in
sentences.
- Basic control of subject/verb
agreement in all types of
sentences.
- Generally correct verb tense.
- Generally consistent point of
view (first, second, and third
person).
- Combines sentences by using
a coordinate conjunction.
- Consistently indents
paragraphs.
- Consistently writes left
to right, and top to
bottom.
- Recognizes paragraphs
in books.
Level 5
- Spells fry words 1-500
correctly in final drafts.
- Spells common
homophones correctly.
- Uses capitalization
correctly.
- Correctly punctuates
compound and compoundcomplex sentences.
- Uses more complex
punctuation; semicolons,
dashes, colons, hyphens,
parentheses, and underlining.
Level 6
- Spells correctly in final draft
except for stylistic effect.
- Spells common
homophones correctly.
- Uses capitalization
correctly inside quotations.
- Correctly uses more
complex punctuation;
semicolons, dashes, colons,
hyphens, parentheses,
quotation marks, and
underlining.
Level 7
- Spells correctly in final draft
except for stylistic effect.
- Begins to manipulate
capitalization for emphasis
and stylistic effect.
- Begins to manipulate
punctuation for emphasis and
stylistic effect.
- Continues to use complex
punctuation.
Levels 8, 9
- Spells correctly in final draft
except for stylistic effect.
- Manipulates capitalization
for emphasis and stylistic
effect.
- Manipulates punctuation
for emphasis and stylistic
effect.
- Correctly uses adjectives and
adverbs in sentences.
- Combines sentences by using a
coordinate conjunction.
- Uses effective transitions in
writing including pronoun
referents.
- With few exceptions uses
correct subject/verb agreement,
correct verb tense, and point of
view in writing.
- Recognizes and fixes sentence
fragments and run-ons.
- Combines sentences using
subordinate conjunctions.
-With few exceptions uses correct
subject/verb agreement, correct
verb tense, possessives,
pronouns, adjectives, adverbs,
sentence structure, and a
consistent point of view in
writing.
- Recognizes and fixes sentence
fragments and run-ons.
- Begins to eliminate or
manipulate sentence fragments
for emphasis and stylistic effect.
- Solid control of the following:
subject/verb agreement,
noun/pronoun agreement,
consistent verb tense, consistent
point of view.
- Eliminates or manipulates
sentence fragments for emphasis
and stylistic effect.
- Consistently indents
paragraphs.
- Experiments with
dialogue paragraphing.
- Consistently indents
paragraphs.
- Begins to use stanza,
divisions and other textual
markers.
- Sound paragraph breaks
including when speaker
changes in dialogue.
- Uses correct
paragraphing divisions
and other textual markers
to enhance meaning.
- Paragraph breaks
reinforce organizational
structure.
- Uses correct
paragraphing divisions
and other textual markers
to enhance meaning.
- Paragraph breaks
reinforce organizational
structure.