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Conventions of Standard English

By the end of the third grade, students must gain control over many conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics as well as learn other ways to use language to convey meaning effectively. Early primary students learn to recognize upper and lower case letters and when to use capital letters in writing. They also demonstrate they can use basic punctuation marks, singular and plural nouns, and verbs in the past, present and future tense. More mature students gain control over proper use of pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and other parts of speech, produce simple, compound, and complex sentences, and demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Link to the Achieve.org website for additional information about the language common core standards. Page 2 provides an explanation of why vocabulary and conventions are treated in their own strand not because skills in these areas should be handled in isolation but because their use extends across reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Scaffolded Ideas

Students who gain control over standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics are better able to effectively communicate their ideas, knowledge, and opinions through oral discussions and written work.
Students who gain control over conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics can more easily master the use of digital texts than students who lack this control.
The ability to manipulate the language orally as well as the ability to decode words supports vocabulary development.

Questions to Focus Instruction

How does demonstrating command of the conventions of standard English grammar when writing and speaking strengthen language development?
What strategies can be used to help students incorporate and correctly use conventions, such as nouns and verbs, plurals, questions words, prepositions, and expanded complete sentences, in their oral and written language?
Have students mastered grade level expectations for the use of punctuation in reading and writing?
Do I model the use of spelling patterns during shared writing activities and then encourage students to use these and other language conventions as they write independently or when working in learning stations?
What are the most effective and efficient strategies and procedures to use with students who are struggling with mastery of conventions of English language at grade level?

Associated Standards

Kindergarten

L.K.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

a) Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
b) Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.
c) c Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/ (e.g., dog, dogs; wish, wishes).
d) Understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when,why, how).
e) Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).
f) Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities

L.K.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

a) Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I.
b) Recognize and name end punctuation.
c) Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).
d) Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships

L.K.3 (not applicable until grade 2)

First Grade

L.1.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

a) Print all upper- and lowercase letters.
b) Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.
c) Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He hops; We hop).
d) Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them, their; anyone, everything).
e) Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
f) Use frequently occurring adjectives.
g) Use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because).
h) Use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives).
i) Use frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward).
j) Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts

L.1.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

a) Capitalize dates and names of people.
b) Use end punctuation for sentences.
c) Use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.
d) Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words.
e) Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.

L.K.3 (not applicable until grade 2)

Second Grade

L2.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

a) Use collective nouns (e.g., group).
b) Form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., feet, children, teeth, mice, fish).
c) Use reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).
d) Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).
e) Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
f) Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences (e.g., The boy watched the movie; The little boy watched the movie; The action movie was watched by the little boy

L2.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

a) Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names.
b) Use commas in greetings and closings of letters.
c) Use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.
d) Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words (e.g., cage →?badge; boy →?boil).
e) Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings

L2.3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

a) Compare formal and informal uses of English.

Third Grade

L.3.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

a) Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
b) Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.
c) Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).
d) Form and use regular and irregular verbs.
e) Form and use the simple (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb tenses.
f) Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.*
g) Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
h) Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
i) Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences

L.3.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

a) Capitalize appropriate words in titles.
b) Use commas in addresses.
c) Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
d) Form and use possessives.
e) Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries, happiness).
f) Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.
g) Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check correct spelling

L.3.3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

a) Choose words and phrases for effect.*
b) Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English