What it is. A name begins with a capital and continues in lowercase.
Why our test works. Children who have just learned capitals often use them anywhere in a word. Naming the position — first, and only first — gives a rule that can be checked by looking rather than by remembering.
Leans on. Lessons 2 and 3 — the letters of their own name.
Watch for. A child whose name is long will tire before the end. Let them do the first three letters well rather than all of them badly.
Write your own name with a capital letter first and lowercase after. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher writes a name on the notebook slide, naming the capital and each lowercase letter The class reads the teaching page printed at the top of the sheet — our own writing, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher writes a name on the notebook slide, naming the capital and each lowercase letter as it is formed. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Each child says their own first letter aloud and names it as a capital. Teacher writes each child's name on their page as a model to trace. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on the printed sheet instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They read the teaching page — printed at the top of today's sheet — with you, either read-aloud or FASE, never round robin. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Trace your name three times. Then write it once on your own underneath.
You close on the exit direction — Put your finger on the capital in your name. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Big letter first, small letters after.
A child whose name is long will tire before the end. Let them do the first three letters well rather than all of them badly.