Conventions
K-1
Spelling
Paragraphing
• Students recognize and reproduce a
reasonable facsimile of all letters of the
alphabet
• Students write numerous sight words
correctly and use phonetic spelling for
less familiar words
• Students write left to right and top to
bottom
• Students use spaces between words
Punctuation
• Students use periods and exclamation
points at the end of sentence
Capitalization
• Students begin sentences with a capital
letter
• Students capitalize the word “I”
• Students write complete sentences
• Students can distinguish between nouns
and verbs
Grammar and
Usage
2-3
4-5
• Students use conventional spelling for
high frequency words and reasonably
phonetic spelling for more difficult
words
• Students spell all sight words correctly
and content words phonetically
• Students use a new paragraph for a new
idea
• Students use paragraphs in their final
drafts, which include indentation
• Students use periods, exclamation
points, and question marks
appropriately to end sentences
• Students use apostrophes in
contractions
• Students use apostrophes in
contractions with pronouns
• Students use apostrophes to indicate
singular possessive
• Students use simple abbreviations
(including Mr., Mrs., Dr., St., Ave.,
U.S.A.)
• Students use quotation marks to denote
dialogue
• Students use commas in a simple series,
dates, addresses, and salutations and
closings in letters
• Students use capital letters for proper
nouns and key words in titles
• Students use a new paragraph for each
speaker in dialogue
• Students use a singular subject with a
singular verb and a plural subject with a
plural verb
• Student use consistent verb tense
throughout a piece
• Students use “I” as the subject of the
sentence and “me” as the object of the
sentence
• Students use adjectives to modify nouns
• Students use a singular pronoun with a
singular verb and a plural pronoun with
a plural verb
• Students use adverbs to modify verbs
• Students can identify the subject and
predicate in a sentence
• Students use correct adjectives for
comparative and superlative
comparisons
• Students include interjections when
appropriate
6
• Students use a dictionary to spell
unfamiliar words
• Students hyphenate words at syllable
breaks
• Students use apostrophes in
contractions with “have”
• Students use apostrophes to indicate
plural possessive
• Students use abbreviations for more
complex addresses
• Students use quotation marks for titles
of chapters, articles, songs, poems,
short stories
• Students use quotation marks to set
apart a word that is being discussed
• Students use commas in dialogue and
appositives
• Students use commas after
prepositional phrases
• Students use commas to set apart
clauses
• Students use colons to introduce a
series or list
• Students capitalize acronyms
• Students capitalize the first word of a
direct quotation if it is a complete
statement
• Students write sentences that include
conjunctions, prepositions and
prepositional phrases