Showing posts with label grammar and conventions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grammar and conventions. Show all posts

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Grammar & Conventions - Common Core (Part 2)

In part I, our blog covered Capitalization, Complete Sentences and  End Punctuation. Now to the second part of our Grammar & Conventions series...

4. Nouns

Common nouns are general (not specific) words for people, places, things, and ideas. Unless they begin a sentence, common nouns do not begin with a capital letter.

Examples of common nouns:
people: woman places: river
things: pencil ideas: dream

5. Phonemes

Phonemes are small units of speech sounds that are created by letters and letter pairs. They are useful in learning how to sound out words in reading and writing. They refer to only what you hear, not to what you see.

The \n\ and \t\ in "pin" and "pit" are different phonemes.
The \er\ in “turn” and “flirt” are the same phoneme.

6. Prepositions

Prepositions give information about the position of something or someone. They are usually placed before nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns in a sentence. In the following examples, prepositions are underlined and nouns/pronouns are in italic font.

Examples of prepositions:
  • I read a book during my visit to the library.
  • They waited for him beyond the bathroom.
  • I looked toward the sky and into the clouds.
Prepositions: Direction/position words—
to, from, with, for, into, in, between, beyond, by, during, down, under, off, across, out, above, before, on, of, toward

Friday, 24 January 2014

Grammar & Conventions - Common Core (Part 1)

California is currently considering requiring schools to offer pre-k or transitional kindergarten to an expanded age group to better prepare them, particularly those who are disadvantaged, for the rigors of early education.  A glimpse at the new Common Core Standards for Kindergarten Grammar may help this decision.

Since this is going to be a somewhat long resource, we'll be having this as a four-part series of blog posts.

1. Capitalization

Capital letters, or uppercase letters, make words stand out on a page. In general writing, a capital letter is used for the first word of every sentence. Certain words are always capitalized: the personal pronouns I, and I’m; and proper nouns (days of the week, months, holidays; and names of people, places, and things).

Examples of capitalization:
  • I’m going shopping the day after Thanksgiving with Antoine.
  • I am excited to go to the movies with Sandra.
  • This year Christmas is on Sunday, December 25th.

2. Complete Sentences

A complete sentence contains a subject and a predicate that work together to express a complete thought.

Examples of complete sentences:
  • John spent his afternoon coloring and reading.
  • Chelsea goes to the doctor today.
  • I love to swim at the lake.
  • Keshav likes to ride his bike.

3. End Punctuation

A period (.) is used to end a sentence. It may also be used in initials, abbreviations, or as a decimal point. A question mark (?) is used at the end of a sentence when a direct question is asked. An exclamation point (!) is used at the end of a sentence to express strong feeling.

Examples of end punctuation:
  • Period: Ashton won the pie eating contest.
  • Period and Decimal Point: The pizza was $5.00.
  • Question Mark: Are you coming over today?
  • Exclamation Point: Happy Birthday!

Stay tuned!