---

        Kindergarten Benchmarks

---

The student begins to acquire a way of thinking about writing and understands purposes for writing:

                * will demonstrate active listening and viewing skills during whole group discussions

                * are eager to share ideas with others and offer personal responses

                * discuss ideas for writing with classmates and are able to elaborate on a single idea

                * are able to respond to teacher questions that clarify their idea using the 5 W's

The student produces various types of writing for different audiences and purposes:

                * personal narrative

                * "how-to" books

                * three part stories (beginning, middle, end)

                * personal responses (ie: reading responses, science journals, math journals)

The student demonstrates an understanding of the following conventions:

                * concepts about print (ie: top to bottom; left to right; front to back)

                * upper case letters and punctuation

                * proper spacing

                * beginning and ending consonants as well as some middle sounds

                * some high frequency words consistently (ie: I, my, go, to, the, etc.)