As the students work their way through their own alphabiographies, I include a question they can come and answer each day once they have written. The reward for them is a Jolly Rancher, but the reward for me is the opportunity to have a brief personal conversation with each young writer.
I usually try to make a connection between the question and the example title, so on the day that kids might be working on the letter U, the example was U is for Understand, and the question was What is something that used to confuse you, but now you understand?
I was unprepared for their disarming honesty. Kids told me about being mystified by escalators, military time, their locker combinations, long division, and the rules of football, among other things. And to a one they were so proud of their new knowledge that I was perfectly charmed, and I wished I'd asked the question before.
Life Lesson: But that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone. ~Chad and Jeremy "Yesterday's Gone"
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