How many times have you read a student’s work and wanted to pull your hair out in frustration at the number of grammatical errors that they make?
One of the biggest mistakes is in the area of capital letters, but it is probably not surprising given the change to language use with posters, business signage, social media etc.
What do I mean? Well, have you noticed how visual signage on trucks and business vehicles all seem to start with a capital letter? In social media, everything seems to be written in capitals either to attract attention or because it is quicker to read given time constraints.
One way I try to reinforce the rules for capital letters is through the mnemonic M.I.N.T.S:
M- months
I– the letter ‘I’
N- names
T– titles
S– start of sentences
A great activity with your student is to give each student a wrapped mint candy/lolly and then introduce the mnemonic to them. Give students a range of photos with capital letter mistakes or a passage and ask them to find the mistakes. I like to give students texts that have a set number of mistakes and then let them know how mistakes they need to find eg 10. Setting parameters, like this, makes it much easier for them to complete the task.
I have just listed a PDF poster of M.I.N.T.S on my TPT page– so take a look.
Good luck trying M.I.N.T.S with your students and post a comment if you try the activity recommended,
Felicity
aka The Literacy Mentor
