Conventions Facilitated by

Dawn Pruszynski

Ext.5719

A person who edits is one who has been taught

how to edit.

Oh, ya… be sure to make a LARGE 8-page book and create the

first foldable – hot pink & glue it in the 8-pager.

The Trait of Conventions is all About…

• Helping the reader• CONVENTIONS are like the

mechanical correctness of the piece – spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing, punctuation, and use of capitals

• Conventions, like sign posts, help you, the reader, enter familiar ground so you can concentrate on the information without distraction.

• “The secret in assessing (and teaching) conventions is to notice what the student does know and to build on that. Remember that nothing is automatic-even writing from left to right. All must be learned.”

– Vicki Spandel

How Students Acquire Conventional Skills – V. Spandel

1. Recognize a convention on sight2. Name the convention3. Use convention at random4. Use conventions appropriately5. Explain/teach conventions to others6. Identify errors in others’ text7. Identify errors in own text8. Edit own text9. Experiment with conventions to add nuances

of voice and meaning10. Invent own conventions

Questions for young readers

• Did I use a TITLE?

• Did I use any CAPITAL letters? Why?

• Did I use PERIODS? How about QUESTION MARKS?

• Did I do my BEST on spelling?

• Could another person read this?

A definition for primary students

• Imitation and real letters• Upper- and lowercase letters• Phonetic spelling• The conventional spelling of simple words• End punctuation• Capital letters at the beginning of sentences, on

proper nouns, and in titles• “s” for plurals or possessives• Contractions• Indenting

Conventions Song

You put your periods in,You pull some spelling out.You put your capitals in,And you shake them all about.You make your paper better When you edit it just right.That’s what it’s all about.

-Sung to tune of “The Hokey Pokey” song

Why of Conventions

• Editing: rules of language– Spelling, grammar/usage, paragraphing,

punctuation, capitalization – Editing is fixing – making sure text is as error-free

as possible– Purpose: Make paper readable to someone else– Develop a proofreader’s eye

• Check everything and then check again

One of the hardest tasks of the writer is to read what is on the page, not what the writer hoped would be on the page.

-Donald Murray

Primary (think differentiation)

• Begin simply (name on paper…)• Encourage young writers to think like editors

– Ask “Why” they put in periods, etc.• Encourage experimentation, trying something new,

for noticing…• Teach copy editor’s marks (age appropriate)• Bring it to closure

– Post work, take it home, put in portfolio, reflect on work and set goals

• Group spelling– Have small group of students choose a word and “sound it

out” together• PLAY: “Touch a noun”, “Dramatize a verb”

Join a “Quotation Mark Seminar”

1. Discuss comic strips/how word balloons are used for exact words of character. Not feasible for use in story

2. Make statements for cartoon characters on board and punctuate together.

3. Student finds comic strip, paste it on paper, rewrite conversation using comic strip.

4. Teacher provide practice with direct and indirect quotations. Discuss & complete this guided practice.

5. Students identify a piece of their writing with conversation. Rewrite it with correct punctuation of direct quotations (Use dialogue from peer writing if none in own writing)

6. Teacher share a picture, students write dialogue using punctuation correctly.

7. Share a report card, progress report about Marvin Termite. Students write conversation that might take place between Marvin and his mom.

8. Provide additional practice as needed.

-Doris Masters

Teaching grammar and punctuation

• Exposure and incidental lessons often effective

• Repeated use of the terms for basic parts of speech helps students grasp the concept in much the same way they have learned what a sweater is, or a cat or car..

• Imitating syntactic constructions can teach use of grammatical patterns incidentally– Bears in the Night– Rosie’s Walk (prepositional phrases)

Learn Grammatical Structures by Imitating Literature

Show don’t tell lesson (Bears in the Night) • Tell: The night was scary!• Show: I walked outside of the house. It was pitch black

and the only thing you could see is the bright yellow full moon above you. I felt the wind going through the trees like ice cram meltting in the summer. Then I stepped on a branch and fell into a crinchy pile of leaves that sounded like someone eatting chips. I herd the dogs barking like a broken rechord. I looked behind me and eyes as big as the moon, the owl, was hootting at me I herd foostep of an animal and I ran through the dark and was locked out of my house untill morning.

• -grade 4

Grammar and punctuation lessons

Inductive lessons• Students notice patterns and derive generalizations

for themselves.• Sometimes… teacher may end up pointing out

pattern so becomes deductiveMini-lessons• Direct & to point• Students practice concept on authentic piece of

writing – No test in isolation, no isolated practice

• Practice is to clarify concepts, not to ensure mastery

Conventions

• Talk about what “conventions” are– Conventions of school lunch room, school day– Why do we have conventions

• Take it out – Use, Yo! Yes? Without conventions to see need

• Have students help decide what conventions they will held accountable for

Editing for capital letters

• Bouncing ball – peer conferencing– Give each student a super ball (establish conventions for

use• One student reads paragraph aloud – bounce ball when need

capital letter. If both bounce, go on. If not, resolve.

• Context capitals– Share rules for capitalization (age appropriate) – can use

“What the Writer Does” if you’re looking for guidance.• Have students look for environmental print – incorrect

capitalization– Why do some businesses do that?

• Being e. e. cummings– Have a day with NO capitals

Edit for punctuation

• Punctuation walkabout– Stop & go editing for periods, capital letters– Devise different signs for question marks,

exclamation point.

• Have students analyze a piece of literature for dialogue– Create posters “Rules for Writing Dialogue”

• Look who’s talking: use different color highlighters for each speaker– Put in paragraphs

Next Step Editing Checklist

• My name is on the paper.• The date is on the paper.• My title goes with the paper.• I used capitals to start sentences.• I used capital “I”.• I used my best spelling.• There are spaces between words • I use periods to end sentences.• I used question marks to end questions.

Here’s an editing conference resource

• Capitals:– Do all sentences start with capitals?– Are names capitalized?

• Sentences:– Are all the sentences complete?– Do sentence rhythms vary (sentence fluency)?

• Paragraph:– Is the piece written in paragraphs?– Does a new paragraph start with a new speaker?

• Voice:– Is the voice consistent?– Does it sound like the author?

• Comma:– Are commas used after the salutation of a letter, in a series list, to

divide a subordinate clause from an independent clause?

Good Dog Carl Lesson

• Review synonyms for words such as:– Fast, run, walk, mad, nice, bad, hot, cold, big, small– Create class lists

• Read story – assign students to be voice of Carl or baby– One writes and then passes paper to other student– Introduce dialogue (at appropriate level)– How could you adapt for youngest students?

Give students drafting sheet with “word choice” checklist first, then

conventions• I used a healthy dose of action verbs.• I used high quality adjectives (but not too

many) to describe important nouns.• My reader will easily know what all of my

pronouns refer to.• If possible I use precise nouns instead of

words like nothing, something, or stuff.• I took risks by using “new to me” words in

my rough draft.

Teaching subject, verb, concept of clause

• Explain sentences have subject & verb– Brian/waited.– Brian/is waiting.– Brian/has been waiting– Brian/might be waiting.– Brian/must have been waiting.– Brian/is going to be waiting.

• Verb – more than one word = verb phrase• Verb = Which words tell what is going on? = verb or

simple predicate• Subject-plus-complete-verb unit is clause.

– Sentence has at least one clause that stands alone.

Understanding subject –verb agreement

• Examples: – He wants to leave. Cinda blames you. – The players want to leave. The teachers think you did it.

• Point out:– When subject names just one person, verb carries the “-s”– When subject names more than one, subject carries “-s”

• More examples:– Harley has ripped the box apart. That guitarist is awesome.

Nobody blames you.– The girls have ripped the box apart. Those musicians are

awesome. People think you did it.

• Students go back and check their work.

Understanding subject-verb agreement when

prepositional phrase modifies subject • Identify prepositions

– Brian Cleary’s Under, Over, By the Clover– List of prepositions– Facts about prepositional phrases – Youtube- Grammar Rock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4jIC5HLBdM • Give students collection of cards

– Nouns (some singular pronouns – he, she, something, nobody, some plural-we, both, all) = green cards

– Verb phrases and predicates on another color– Create sentences– Give them different color prepositional phrases to add to sentences

• Share student sentences, explaining it doesn’t change what subject is

Connecting independent clauses

• On Smartboard - put simple sentences that can be joined by and, but, or or– Cindy brought a pizza over, and we had lots of

fun eating it.– Cindy brought a pizza over, but we didn’t like the

pepperoni.– Cindy will bring a pizza over, or Charles will bring

a submarine sandwich.

• introduce semicolon:– There wasn’t much else we could do; we were

trapped in that cave.

Understanding independent & dependent

clauses and concept of fragments • Give examples of independent clause turned into

“less than a sentence” by putting subordinating word in front of it.– I turned out the light. – when I turned out the light, until

I turned out the light, because I turned out the light– Have students turn them into complete sentence by

adding independent clause• When I turned out the light, I couldn’t see anything.• The house didn’t really become pitch black until I turned out

the light.

– Identify each clause as dependent or independent.

Verbs and Nouns Rule • Verbs are the engines of sentences, nouns are the

body. All other words are just the passengers. Strong writing has strong verbs.

• Revise sentences for strong verbs.– The scared boy walked slowly into the old falling down

house.– The boy crept one step at a time up the rotting stairs onto

the porch of the mansion.• ie - Jane was very happy to see her favorite cousin

Jimmy when he showed up in her living room that day.

• ie - Sally walked quickly down the stairs on Christmas morning to find a gigantic stuffed bear sitting under the tree.

Conventions • Publishing House

– Students work with parents or older students to edit published work

– Use computer technology to support this work

• Edit in a group1. Each student will edit

for one type of error

2. Pass paper to person on right

3. Edit for new error (and check last one)

4. Continue the process

Focused lessons for

CONVENTIONS • Hlp thm undrstnd nd

– Giv thm some unedted copie lik this thet let’s their sea what happns? Porlie riten Kippey helpsthem see the valeu; of Strong convenshons in Klewing. The reder?

• Recognize, read and use editing symbols• All students on way to become independent editors

– Even very young writers. Use copy editors’ symbols – one at a time.

• Editing lessons focus on needs of your class– Keep lesson focused – use large print, plenty of room

between lines and wrds for corrections, KISS.– Model, model, model

• One issue at a time

Conventions continued

• Respond to content first– Teach conventions of each

content area• Look for what’s done right• Use peer editing with

caution (Peer review is focused on revision strategies – more effective)

• Keep multiple resources available

What to tell parents about conventions 1. Ask your child to teach you the copy editor’s symbols, one

by one.2. Ask your child to also teach you the traits of writing, one

by one.3. Remind your child to skip every other line when writing a

rough draft so he or she will have plenty of room to revise and edit.

4. Give your child a pen or pencil he or she likes to work with to make editing more fun.

5. Provide a good dictionary or handbook to use at home.6. Practice together looking for mistakes in newspapers or

other print you and your child read together.7. When you write, ask for your child’s help. Ask him or her

to help you spell a word, or to show you where a comma, apostrophe, period or question mark goes.

8. Do not expect perfection.

Verbs: Linking and Helping • Action, linking and helping verbs

– You have handout– Identify 3 types of verb in the following:

Poor George

George Washington was our first president.

Some people were saying that he wore

wooden teeth. Those people were incorrect.

All but two of his teeth had fallen out so he

had false teeth made from metal and bone.

The Perfect Day by Darrel Yesterday was a great day. It was snowing and snowing. It lasted all night and school was cancelled so my best friend and I built things in the snow ALL day long. There were snow people with faces and sticks for arms. They looked like marshmallow people. One time, we looked up and saw that the head had fallen off our snow boy. It rolled off and had landed with a big splat! We laughed and LAUGHED until we made strange noises with our noses. That made us laugh even more. My dog started barking and made a GRRRRR sound when we put the coats and hats on the snow people. He is pretty dumb sometimes. That made us start laughing all over again. Yesterday was a PERFECT day!

Another practice – create 3 column chart to record

Tense • Change this piece of writing from past to

present

Book Review

In Animals Nobody Loves, we learned about

all sorts of amazing animals. Seymour

Simon described animals that have big feet,

strange habits, or poisonous venom. I

hated to put it down.

Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Check out the verbs

Tense – analyze Head Lice I have this teacher She is really nice. But some

time I think she has head lice. She itches all day.

And the last time for head lice check she got sent

home form school. I would tell you more but it is

not cool. The day she came back she had no hair

and her head was bear. I think to my self how did

she get the lice. I kept on thinking untell I new that

I was not nice because I’m the one who gave her

the lice.By Samantha

Regular and irregular • Regular verbs (add –ed to form the past

tense)• Irregular verbs in different ways

I surveyed my friends in class to find out their favorite sports. Matt plays football every Saturday. Seth swam when he was younger, but now he enjoys tennis. Sheila rode a bike in a competition. Today’s sports will be our exercise in the future.

The Storm of the Century:Analyze for regular/irregular

If you believe that the storm of the century was a blizzard, you’d be wrong. If you guessed tornado or flood, you’d still be wrong. But, if you guessed it was a combination of all three, blizzard, tornado, and flood you’d be right on. The storm was called a nor’easter. That’s when winds blow, really blow, from northeast, especially along the United State’s northeast coast. The year was 1993 when the nor’easter hit from Maine to Florida. It closed down most airports on the eastern coast. It dumped snow and caused about 50 tornadoes.

Pronoun: TAKES THE PLACE OF A NOUN

• Share vague sentence:– He was really polite. He didn’t act like a really big

star. (Who is the star? What are your questions?)– Share pronouns: he, she, it we, they…– Is the following clear?:

We are the involuntary muscles of your heart. Strong and powerful, we beat every hour of every day.

Analyze for pronouns – IS THE MEANING CLEAR?

My fat Tail Lepord Carey Geko has a fat tail.

I hold hime every day. Some times he

climes on my bed. his name is Jake. Hise

favorit thing to eat is meal worms. He lives

in a ten golen fish tanck. He has a lot of

room. hise favorit things to do are eat slepe

a stae still.

Pronouns order • When I tell about somebody in a story about me, I

usually put the other person first. – My dad and I packed the car with our gear. (NOT me and

my dad)

At daybreak, my dad and I stood at the care

with poles, hooks, and worms, ready to go.

Mom and I carried the big basket of food to the car

and we were off for our fishing adventure. As we

drove out of town, my dad and I both knew that

today was going to be a perfect day.

Guided practice: Always be polite, and write or say the other person’s name first

Me And My CousinMe and my cousins are very close. We even live on the same block and see each other every day. My favorite cousin is Jordon. She and me like to do a lot of the same things. We both like to make cookies. The whole house smells SO good. Her favorite cookie is chocolate chip. So is mine. Her favorite ice cream is chocolate-chocolate chip. So is mine. Her favorite candy is Hershey's chocolate bar, but I like M & M’s. oh, well. Two out of three is a lot in common.

Peer Response form I liked…(pick one thing): I would enjoy this writing

more if… (pick one thing)

I liked it because…(Use 6+1 Language)

This would help me enjoy the writing more because (Use 6+1 Language)

Book List – by Brian P. Cleary Books

• Quirky, Jerky, Extra Perky (adj)• Pitch and Throw, Grasp and Know (synonym)

• I and You and Don’t Forget Who (pronoun)

• How Much Can a Bare Bear Bear? (Homonyms)

• Under, Over, By the Clover (preposition)• To Root, to Toot, Parachute (verb)• A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink (noun)• Lazily, Crazily, Just a Bit Nasally (adverbs)• Hairy, Scary, Ordinary (adj)• Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely (adv)

More Books • Fortunately by Remy Charlip• No, David! By David Shannon• A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni• Good Dog Carl by Alexandra Day• The Girl’s Like Spaghetti by Lynne Truss• Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss• Cat’s Colors by Jane Cabrera• If You Were a Synonym by Michael Dahl• If You Were a Homonym or Homophone by Nancy

Loewen • Animalia by Graeme Base • A River of Words by Jen Bryant• Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka

Thank YOU for all you do for Penfield Students!