Explanation:  From the letters that the students wrote, I realized that they were not focused on the grammar and punctuation.  Although I mentioned the capitals and commas that must be used when writing a letter, the students did not do so when writing their own letters.  I believe that due to the fact that they were concentrating on thinking of something to write as well as all the new information, that a review of capitals and commas was necessary.  The following lesson is a result of the assessment that the students were not grasping where and when to use commas and capitals in a letter.

Topic:  Commas and Capitals in a Friendly Letter
Grade Levels: 2/3

Instructional Objectives:
1. Students will participate in a discussion of where commas and capitals are necessary for writing.
2. Students will determine the proper capitals and commas that are needed in a letter.
3. Students will practice placing necessary commas and capitals in a letter.

Materials Required:
1.  Strips of construction paper or other strong material with various parts of the friendly letter written on each strip.  Some are capital, some are not.  For example one strip may have “Dear” written on it, another has “dear”.  A third strip has “Grandfather” and a fourth has “grandfather”.  Names of streets and various closings are written on the strips as well.  Also, strips containing commas are necessary.
2.  Pins or another device to hold the strip in place on the chalkboard.
3.  Peer Editing Checklist

Concepts:
Grammar
Punctuation

Anticipatory Set:
    Ask students what they know about where to put capitals and commas in a sentence.  Discuss reasons why this is important to think about in their writing.

Procedure:
1.  Follow anticipatory set.
2. Have the students sit in the front of the room in a whole group close to the board.
3. Explain that you will place the strips on the board to make a greeting, heading, part of a body, closing or signature.  You will place a choice A and a choice B.  Students must decide which choice is grammatically and conventionally correct.  For example, for choice A, arrange the strips so that they read “allentown p.a.”.  For choice B, arrange the strips to read “Allentown, P.A.”  Students must decide which choice is correct.
4. Vary the arrangement of strips so that students practice different aspects of grammar and punctuation.  Have some students place correct strips where necessary to make the choice correct.
5. Discuss closure.
6. Give assessment sheet.

Key Discussion Questions:
 1. Where are commas and capitals necessary in a friendly letter?
 2.  Why are commas and capitals important in our writing?

Closure:
 Ask the class what they will think about when they write their next letters.  How is knowing where to put commas and capitals going to help them?

Assessment:

Assign each student to look over his/her previous letter and have a chance to make desired changes.  Explain that they will check their own writing as well as a classmates writing.  Each student uses the Peer Editing Checklist below.

                                   PEER EDITING CHECKLIST

Use this list to check your paper and your classmates paper carefully.
 
 

Authors Name:	Checkers Name:	Checking For:
Yes     No	Yes     No	My writing is on topic
Yes     No	Yes     No	I checked the paper for complete sentences
Yes     No	Yes     No	All sentences start with a capital letter
Yes     No	Yes     No	Proper nouns are capitalized
Yes     No	Yes     No	The parts that require capital letters have them where needed
Yes     No	Yes     No	Each sentence ends with proper punctuation
Yes     No	Yes     No	Commas and quotation marks are used correctly
Yes     No	Yes     No	I reread the letter carefully for all errors

Reflection on the lesson:

Justification for the entry:
    Please see the explanation above.

Connection between lesson and philosophy of learning and teaching:
    This lesson was intended to strengthen student weaknesses as well as build on their strengths.  All of the students showed creativity and detail in their writing.  This lesson on conventions gave them a foundation on which to grow and learn from.

Evaluation of methods:
    The method of the strips of paper was created to be fun, novel and educational.  The students were engaged, learning and eager to participate.  However, the students were not used to this method of learning and it took some time and practice for them to grasp the process of the lesson.

Possible Improvements:
    A good improvement would be to have a short introductory lesson on what the strips of paper are and how to determine which choice is grammatically correct.  In this way, the students would not have to comprehend too much new material at once.