Kieu's Graves CH 2 & 3

My target grade level is the fifth grade, but reality reminds me that I may not have my first choice when I start teaching. I honestly don't know how I would do in a kindergarten or first grade classroom. I have always wondered, "How in the world do you teach younger children to write?" They can't spell and they probably don't know where to place their punctuation marks. However, I think I'm now learning that writing isn't always about words or complete sentences, like they stressed in school. I now see that pictures and single words are a form of writing. Even talking is a step in the writing process. A lot of times, we sit there and get stuck on our writing, but once we talk with another person, our ideas and thoughts flow. My six-year-old nephew writes all the time. I think his favorite sentence is, "I love you!" Not to mention his full name. We have such a well-defined definition of what writing is.

It's really important for us to know our students, from little things such as their favorite flavor of ice cream to something as serious as their family history. Not only are we preventing ourselves from making ignorant comments, students feel special when they hear that we remember things they've told us.