A blurb about my experience of writing in school.

My earliest memories of learning to write in school involve the keeping of a personal journal. At first I began by simply drawing pictures to tell a story, and then I slowly began drawing wavy lines to represent my words. My teacher would give us a sentence starter, a topic to write about, a specific set of words we needed to use in a word bank that were probably spelling words of the week. I also remember this kind of activity being used after we had read a story as a class. In order to be successful at our retelling of the story, my teacher would create a word bank that had key words that would help jog my memory of what occurred in the story. Our spelling words of the week were also related to each other through the special sound of the week. Sometime around first or second grade, I remember a fun activity that used the materials macaroni and cheerios to help us learn! We glued macaroni onto sample sentences where commas needed to go and cheerios where periods belonged!

My earliest memories of writing outside of school take place at home with my oversized crayons and pencils and huge Big Chief Indian Tablet! I would pretend to write my mother’s grocery lists or send notes with my dad to work that said nothing legible! These materials were available for me at home and at school to encourage me to explore writing on paper and drawing. I think that all of this exposure and practice made it easier for me to quickly learn to write.