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“Caught’ya” is a method to present grammar, punctuation, vocabulary
and parts of speech in a fun, enjoyable way. By integrating the soap opera
suspense of the Caught’ya storyline, good natured teasing by both students and
teachers, and built in success Caught’ya becomes an effective means of teaching
grammar, mechanics, listening skills, handwriting, proofreading skills, editing
skills, and some spelling in only 10 - 15 minutes per day.
How Does Caught’ya Work?
- Write the day's sentence on the blackboard. Box the vocabulary
word clearly and discuss it. Write the day and date above the sentence. Count
the number of errors and put the number in a circle to the right of the
Caught'ya.
- The students read the Caught'ya, identify the problems, and write
the passage as correctly as they can in their Caught'ya folder. While the
students attempt to write the Caught'ya sentence as correctly as they can, you
circulate, offering individual encouragement and issuing challenges in a good
natured way. When you find a student who hasn't caught an error your can tell
them "Caught'ya" and encourage them to find the missing error. Sometimes you
may want to give them a hint.
- After the students have written the sentence as correctly as they
can, return to the blackboard and elicit the corrections from the class. Ask
them what is wrong, press further and insist on an explanation of why the
correction needs to be made. Correct the Caught'ya on the board using
proofreading symbols to mark the errors. The students use a colored pen to
correct their Caught’yas and indicate how many mistakes they made in a circle
to the right of that days Caught’ya.
- All Caught’yas for the week are kept on one sheet of paper and
collected on Fridays. Points are not taken off for making mistakes but they do
receive fewer points for failure to correct their errors. I use the following
rubric for grading Caught’yas:
CAUGHT'YA GRADING RUBRIC
|
FORMAT |
|
Name
and number written correctly. |
2
points |
|
Title
correctly written and capitalized. |
1
point |
|
Days
of the week correctly spelled above each sentence. |
5
points |
|
Number of uncaught errors indicated and circled to the right of each
Caught'ya. |
5
points |
|
Errors corrected in another color. |
5
points |
|
Margins fairly even. |
2
points |
|
All
caught'yas for the week on the same sheet of paper. |
5
points |
| |
|
|
CONTENT |
|
Every
error not caught, not marked, or the correction not written above the
marked error. |
- 5
points |
|
Every
error added in, words missed, etc. |
-5
points |
My rubric gives the students 25 points
per week for their Caught’yas. The rubric in the book allows for 100 points per
week.
The book comes with three scripts
ranging from 3rd grade through 11th grade. For each lesson she lists the
vocabulary words and skills, the incorrect version and the correct version.
Example: Lesson 12 from “The
Magic Purple Umbrella”
Vocabulary Words and Skills:
paragraph, abbreviation, homophone (their), comma (appositive, interruptive)
Unedited Sentence: all the
students however just stared at the old lady and ignored ________ there teacher
Correctly Written Sentence:
All the students, however, just stared at the old lady and ignored _______,
their teacher.
Many of the sentences include
blanks for personalizing the story with the names of students from the class and
the teachers name.
The book also presents methods for
incorporating spelling tests, vocabulary tests and caught’ya tests into your
program.
