Ch. 4 Raise Your Expectations

I particularly found the part of this chapter about handwriting interesting. I agree that we should hold high expectations for neatness. I've become frustrated over the past few years with students entering third grade and still forming the letters incorrect. I think this is one more example of some of our expectations that get pushed aside because there seems to be so many other things to cover. Two other thoughts that I took away from this chapter are first, that students need to a have a good amount of independent writing each day. "Just as it is necessary to doa great deal of independent reading to become a competent reader, so too is it with writing." Secondly, one can never underestimate the power of kind words. We need to repair some of the negativity that some students already hold against writing and protect those that still hold the "I can," spirit.