Using capital letters II

Using capital letters II

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about when to use capital letters.
 
Email logo.png
Petra was given the name of a student from another country to write to as a pen pal.
She wrote a good email but she forgot to use capital letters in some places.

Read her email and put capital letters in all the places they are needed.
 
25/5/2021

Dear Aleki

My name is petra and I would like to be your pen pal. I am eight years old. I live with my mum and my brother tim. We have a cat called whiskers and a dog called spot. Do you have any pets? I was born in napier but now we live in wellington. It is the capital city of new zealand. It is very windy. What is the weather like in sāmoa? 
We used to live on pitt street but now we live on mairangi road right next door to my school. It only takes me about two minutes to get to school each morning. I go to rimu school. My teacher is mrs taitoko. She is cool. She lets us play games if we finish our work early. My best friend is anna. I am three days older than she is. My birthday is on the 31st of may and her birthday is on the 3rd of june. My birthday is only one week away. I am having a sleepover on friday night. When is your birthday? My hobbies are roller-blading, reading, and drawing. On saturday mornings I play softball at wadestown park. My softball coach is mr whittle. He is quite nice but sometimes he gets grumpy. My favourite book is "under the mountain". My favourite TV programme is "zena the warrior princess". What is your favourite programme?
 
I hope you write back to me soon. I can't wait to get a letter from you.

From Petra
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper.
Copyright: 
Public domain: Openclipart   Simple e-mail icon | Public domain vectors
Level:
3
Curriculum info: 
English, Creating meaning, Writing
Key Competencies: 
Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
punctuation, letter, email, capital letters, nouns
Description of task: 
A letter without capitals is the context of this punctuation assessment. Students insert capitals for a number of different purposes.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can be used to help to identify students’ ability to create texts to meet the writing demands of the New Zealand Curriculum.
 

Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • use basic punctuation correctly
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Writing meaningful text: text features, set 4
within the Writing Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
 

Y6 (11/2001)

All christian names of people (Petra, Tim, Anna) have capitals.

One christian name does not have a capital.

easy

very easy

Both the names of pets (Whiskers, Spot) have capitals.

One pet's name does not have a capital.

easy

very easy

Both cities (Napier, Wellington) have capitals.

Only one of the cities has a capital.

easy

very easy

Both countries (New Zealand, Sāmoa) have capitals.

Only one of the countries has a capital.

easy

very easy

The first part of both street names (Pitt, Mairangi) have capitals.
The first part of only one street name has a capital.

easy

 verry easy

The second part of both street names (Street, Road) have capitals.
The second part of only one street name has a capital.

very difficult

difficult

All parts of the school name (Rimu School) have capitals.

Only the first part of the school name has a capital.

very difficult

very easy

Both titles (Mrs, Mr) have capitals.

Only one of the titles has a capital.

easy

easy

Both surnames (Taitoko, Whittle) have capitals.

Only one surname has a capital.

very easy

very easy

Both months (May, June) have capitals.

Only one month has a capital.

easy

easy

Both days of the week (Friday, Saturday) have capitals.

Only one of the days of the week has a capital.

difficult

moderate

Both parts of the park name (Wadestown Park) have capitals.

Only one word in the park name has a capital.

very difficult

easy

The book title ("Under the Mountain") has all the necessary words capitalised. [Students who give the word "the" a capital letter have not been penalised in this item.]

Only one word in the book title has a capital.

difficult

easy
Diagnostic and formative information: 
  Common errors
Park name For the park name "Wadestown Park," 69% of students gave the word "Wadestown" a capital letter, while only 18% gave the word "park" a capital letter.
Book title For the title "Under the Mountain," 58% of students gave the word "Under" a capital letter, while only 41% gave the word "Mountain" a capital letter.