Caught'ya!

 

The Caught'ya method is taken from Elementary, My Dear! : Caught 'Ya!, Grammar With a Giggle for Grades One, Two, and Three.

The Caught'ya method teaches language skills in context in an integrated approach. Essentially, a Caught'ya is two or three sentences of an ongoing, funny story. Each Caught'ya also includes at least several challenging words that should be new to most students. Many also contain simple literary devices (such as similes) and writing conventions.

The day's Caught'ya sentences are written on the board with errors. The students copy and correct the sentences on their own as best they can. Then the teacher and students correct the sentences on the board together, using simple proofreading marks. After the Caught'ya has been corrected, each student counts the number of errors they missed when they attempted to correct the sentence on their own. The students indicate the number of errors on the margin of their papers.

With each corrected sentences several skills have been introduced, reinforced or practiced; a new word has been learned; a new word has been learned; and maybe the class has enjoyed a giggle about the story.

How Caught'yas are Graded

The sentences are not graded on how well a student initially grasps the rules of the English language when he or she corrects the sentence independently, but on how carefully the student corrects the sentence when the teacher and the class go over the errors. A student can make one or twenty errors in any Caught'ya and still earn an "A" if that student has caught all of those errors and corrected them.

Caught'ya sentences are graded for:

  • Format. Each paper should have:
    • the date for each sentence
    • the correct heading
    • correct margins
  • Content. Each week, I select one Caught'ya sentence at random, and that is the only sentence I grade for content. Mistakes in other sentences do not count against the grade. The chosen sentence is graded for:
    • Are missed errors marked with proofreading symbols?
    • Did the student catch every error, either independently, or when the class went over the sentences together?
    • Is the number of errors indicated in the right-hand margin?
    • Are all of the words spelled correctly?
    • Have any words been left out?
    • Is the sentence copied correctly?
    • Are capital letters and punctuation used correctly.

Each item is a five point deduction.