First Grade Teachers!!!!!?

Question

I would really love to be a first grade teacher when I graduate college. But I have some questions.

While reading newsletters from other first grade teachers out there....this is what they have said. "We are having a wonderful time writing in our science journals."
"We just finished up writing a story about dinasouars for our science unit."
How can first graders write in journals when they don't know how to write?? By the middle of the year do the students know how to read or write little sentences or what?? When they come to you from kindergarten......do they know how tor read or write a little?? Please answer my questions because I don't know what the students already know when they come to first grade....thanks!

Answer 1

First grade students can do their own writing. Now, it won't be very detailed or spelled correctly but that's ok. They will use phonetic spelling (often called inventive spelling) as they are learning spelling patterns. So if they write in their science journal it might say something like "The is kub mltd" (the ice cube melted) or "the rok felz hrd" (the rock feels hard). This is a normal stage in writing and needs to be encouraged. In first grade the teacher should require correct spelling of simple sight words and spelling patterns the students have already learned. For example, the should spell the sight words "the, is, it, was" correctly and towards the middle or end of the year you would expect them to correctly spell simple spelling and vowel patters like "silent e and oo".

So yes, first graders can write. But their writing will be short and spelled phonetically. As the year goes on their abilities will increase and they will be able to write short paragaphs (3-5 sentences) on a topic and their spelling will be a little more accurate.

Answer 2

Grade 1 journal writing usually means the teacher writing a sentence on the board (this may have been decided upon as a class or she may have just decided it) and the kids copy it into their journals, doing their own pictures. With some strong groups or near the end of the year, you can just write certain words on the board and the kids put the sentences together on their own.

Grade 1 students should have learned to write all their ABC's in Kindergarten and will still be getting a review on it. Some kindergarten teachers have all the kids doing some basic reading and writing, but in many places, it's not required and with some of the issues the students have, just getting everybody to know the ABC's is their limit.

Really, you will never know what your students will know when they enter first grade. Each student is different. You've got to get to know all of them. When you are hired in a district, you'll have all the learning objectives available to you per year and you'll see what they should have learned in K and what you are supposed to teach them in gr. 1.

Answer 3

You're a little behind the times! The current trend is for Pre-school age kids to learn concepts of print, beginning writing skills, upper and lower case alphabet recognition, phonemic awareness and basic phonics. Some of them are reading by the time they start kindergarten and if they aren't reading yet, they will be within a very short time. They are writing their names and a few basic words before they leave pre-school and once they start kindergarten, they are writing daily. By they time they reach first grade, they should be reading and writing a lot. They may not be proficient spellers yet, but that's ok. They will be working on that, and they are certainly not discouraged from writing and expressing themselves just because they don't know all the correct spelling yet. This is a fun age to work with, preschool through about 3rd grade. Children learn and develop so very much during this time, and it's wonderful to work with these kids and allow them to grow as quickly as they can and help them along.

Answer 4

I have spent most of my 18 years of teaching in first grade. you will find many different ability levels in your first grade class depending on what type of educational background your student has experienced. Some students will be at the picture drawing stage. Others will write letters to represent sounds, and others will be able to write complete sentences. Your job as a teacher is to let the child gain confidence where he/she is in order to express himself/herself. Then, to use class time to build ability levels in getting the information down on paper. Always praise and try to move the child to the next level. It has been my experience that if a child's writing ability is not very advanced, I remind the child that I am not a first grader anymore, and that I need help reading "first grade writing". That way, they can help me read what they have written, and I can help them read when they need help without making the child feel bad.
Dictations work really well with the lower ability child, because since conveying meaning is important to the child, he/she will try to emulate what you have written.
Hope that helps. I love teaching first grade. It is the most rewarding grade I have ever taught.

Answer 5

Hi,
for the small kids, writing might mean "their invented writing" - i.e. making some pictures and writing "invented" words. Students can use "dn" instead of dinosaur or "stn" instead of stone and so on. Their teacher can call it "writing"

Writing of separate keywords can be called "writing" as well

so, "writing" can have many meanings

From other side, a lot of first graders who receives good home education in addition to the school education are able to read and write well.

I teach enrichment program "Math and Logic" for the children starting at age 4. In my class, several first-second graders can write well and solve Math problems that their school teachers have difficulties with :).
What can you say about first-second graders who can multiply 326x17 in a raw, using distributive property? Or factor to prime numbers?
So, skills depend on quality and quantity of instruction that child can get.

Answer 6

Sweetie you have a long way to go..Here in Texas students are writing in kindergarten. They should be able to leave Kinder writing at least basic sentences..I have had kids reading and writing at a third grade level in Kindergarten..Even in Pre-K they should be able to write their names , the letters and beginning sounds...Some of them write words and I have seen a few pre kindergarteners writing sentences...So in First grade they should be able to write a least a couple paragraphs,,School has changed a lot...trust me...You will learn when you go to college..honestly I would suggest second grade instead of first...I have heard many times that this is the best grade to teach...Anyways Good luck!!

Answer 7

i did my work experience in a primary school a couple of weeks ago, and i was in every class for at least one day, but i found that they could write fine- i mean, some of the letters were backwards, and some of the spellings were hard to figure out, but other than that, they were really good at writing- by the way- this was in a Y1 class (age 5-6) im not sure if thats the same as first grade in america though

Answer 8

I'm not a teacher but my great niece could read and write her entire alphabet and count to 100 by herself when she started J. K., now she is in grade 1 and doing really well.

When they are young and curious if you teach them how to read things they are interested in they learn faster then older children so as a teacher you would have both kinds of kids in grade one, some can already read and write and some can't. It all depends on how much time their parents put into their early years.