5 Ways to Help Students Check their Writing for Capitalization and Punctuation
Writing with all the correct conventions can be tough for kids, and as teachers, we always wonder how to help students check their writing for use of correct capital letters and punctuation marks!
Here are 5 helpful tips so you can support students and help them improve their writing by self-editing!
Classroom Strategies
1. Peer Editing Swaps
Peer editing is very popular and sometimes students pay more attention to tips from peers than teachers after a while. My grade used Keys to Writing from Keys to Literacy for a long time and they have peer editing checklists here. I really found the blog post from Teaching from the Fast Lane to be very helpful! She has practical tips and examples of peer editing strategies and checklists that you can use!
I also use whole class sentence editing as a quick lesson some days. Some teachers use this every day as a morning work, or as part of morning meeting. I also have picked up a few editing task cards materials for reading centers from Teachers Pay Teachers.
2. Checklists
COPS is a very popular checklist that helps guide students check their writing. Here is a great example, from Second Grade Wonder on Teachers Pay Teacher. Click here or on the image to grab it from her.
And my writing prompts on Teachers Pay Teachers always include a checklist for student accountability. Here is an example from the Fall Writing Prompts resource:
3. One Thing at a Time
Have students focus on one skill at a time – for example, have students at the beginning of second grade focus on capital letters for the beginning of sentences and names only. Students do not need to have every word and every sentence correct the first time they write, the first time they edit… it will only become frustrating if they have to edit everything!
4. Model
Model, model, model! Use sample writing or make your own (or use pages from the Editing and Proofreading resource) with small groups or your whole class! I used to do this on the overhead projector back in the day. LOL!
Ready to Go Activities from Teachers Pay Teachers
Wouldn’t be it easy for you if you had ready-to-use activities and resources from Teachers Pay Teachers? These proofreading “fix-it” printable worksheets have editing practice for sentences so they can find errors in their own writing.
To help you or substitute teachers, answer keys are included so it’s great for sick days! They are a great and effective way to help students check their writing!
Five Star Reviews:
“I used these as a daily editing review before our writing block. It made their editing process go much smoother with these daily practices”.
“Love being able to find things out there that make teaching easier! This is one of those items that helped kids enjoy doing some editing and proofreading. Thanks!”
Other blog posts you may want to check out:
- Back to School Writing Tips
- 5 Ways to Get Students Excited about Writing
- Tips for Teaching Writing
- Capitalization Made Easy
If you want to save this blog post for later, pin this Pinterest ready image below! If you try any of the strategies, or grab the Fall Writing Prompt Collection or the Editing and Proofreading practice let me know! Please take a moment on Facebook to leave feedback. It means the world to me!
And also, it is that time of year (back to school!). I go back in one week. If you are heading back to school, you got this!!
