Measuring Writing Progress

I think one of the hardest aspects of teaching Kindergarten is teaching writing. You are expected to take students who enter, often times not even being able to hold a pencil correctly, much less write their names and get them to the point where they are writing complete sentences, sounding out their words to spell. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of work to get to that point. But it's so rewarding! I love this time of year, because I sit down with every single student and show them how they wrote in the beginning and how they applied what they learned to write better today.

We also write every day, beginning from Day One. We write on paper, we write in our journals and even make digital stories and projects. In the beginning the students are often drawing a picture and dictating a sentence that I write. As we learn the letters and sounds, the students are encouraged to sound out their words. Even when they have the ability to do this-they often do not think they can, so they have issues with having confidence to sound out their words. Eventually, after many mini-lessons and writing conferences they begin to understand writing conventions like capitalization and proper spacing. Their writing today is not perfect, but they have come a long way! :) 

The first picture is the first week of school, the 2nd is today.

This student started in November.