Could I have the definition? ch.18

I don't want to brag, but in elementary school I won the fifth-grade spelling bee. Though it may not seem like a big deal to most people, I was very proud of myself and it caused me to want to continue to be a better than the average speller. (Do they even have that anymore?) One of the things I can remember doing in elementary school is when I got home, I would get started on my homework right away. I'd get my spelling book and write out my list of words for the night before going out to play. However, I don't know why this helped me or if it's even the reason I did so well. After reading ch.18, I discovered that there are many things that takes place in the development of spelling.

Since I'm in a kindergarten class, I have been able to see the process of writing or the stages children go through in becoming writers. The stages listed in the chapter were so dead on that it was scary. Now that I know these stages and how I can help my students, I will have a better sense of expectations. For some reason, the bar for my expectations are set at an extremely high level. Getting the information from this book and class is showing me that I must always take into consideration the age and grade level of my students. I think the hard part about it is knowing what the students should know for every grade. Especially since we won't know where will end up after graduation and if we haven't had a certain grade, what are we to do?

My question may be as easy as 1, 2, 3 because the obvious answers are to ask another teacher, do some research, or not to worry about that sort of thing. Personally, I'm just finding out that there are many differences amongst grade levels as far as the knowledge they are to gain in our classrooms. To me, it's a freightening thought to not know how to help a student because we simply don't know how.