Platte Valley teachers have worked to align our writing assignments and our grading rubrics to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). One of the pieces that came from this work was the Platte Valley Grammar Commandments.

These commandments are a progressive list of grammatical skills that students develop throughout their education. Students will be held accountable for skills that were taught to mastery in the previous grade.

For example, one of the skills kindergarteners are expected to master is capitalizing the first letters of sentences and the word “I”. So, all 1stgrade students, from the first to the last day of school, will be expected to capitalize first letters in sentences and the word “I”. The 1st grade students will continue to learn to capitalize dates and names as well as using correct end punctuation (periods, questions marks, & exclamation points). In 2nd grade the Grammar Commandments will expand to include those expectations. These expectations will continue to increase in rigor all the way through high school.

Using these commandments will help teachers support students by clarifying the expectations so that we can all work towards the common goal of improving student writing.