Today, Summit first graders learned a new editing strategy as they checked for C.O.P.S.  Using the acronym, students are actively looking for appropriate capitalization, organization, punctuation, and spelling.  Students will practice this strategy as we check sentences through the daily review. Writing the C.O.P.S. acronym beside their sentences, students are encouraged and supported in correcting their own writing.

• C – Students will check for  capitalization at the beginning of the sentence, in titles, and in proper nouns.
• O – Students will check for  word spaces, legible handwriting, and complete thoughts.  They will be encouraged to read sentences out loud asking whether or not it sounds right.
• P – Students will check that sentences end with the correct form of punctuation and that commas and apostrophes are used appropriately.  For first grade, this entails using a comma in a series and an apostrophe in a contraction.
• S – Students will check that words are spelled correctly.