1. With footnotes by way of explanation or commentary.

2. What makes a student "a fine class member"? Note the kinds of qualities that my teachers noticed and directed their comments on report cards to. It's also worth noting at just how young an age certain pressures to succeed or conform are applied.

3. This direction illustrates just how I am able to write as much as I do during Kindergarten. After that year, though, all writing which appears in this document is my own writing (both composition and transcription).

4. Across a year, teacher report card comments form a way of shaping behavior and then updating the parents on this process.

5. The attic was a strange place to me: part of the house but seemingly beyond reach. It held wondrous things, most often brought down to the family at holiday-times. When we moved eventually, all attic functions were taken over by the garage and sundry closets in the new house.

6. The assumption is clear: that "like" will automatically direct students to think about favorite foods. I find the assumption curious, as a teacher of writing, but then again I have never taught students quite so young. Still, the directions a teacher offers affect the writing one receives from students.

7. I loved to play action figures.

8. Looking back, I am curious as to how much of this list is my own and how much my mother helped me to supply (either by prompting or by asking questions). In that spirit, the last item takes on a new possible significance, perhaps placed on the list (and in the emphatic last position, no less) as a way of signaling a certain kind of message to the teacher: hey, this kid really does like to write; he wants to succeed.

9. As with most composing in the early years, this story was accompanied by a rather large picture which I had drawn with crayons.

10. Mom picks up on the language of the comment she's responding to. The focus here is also clearly developmental (on both parts); it's not my performance that's the issue, but my progress.

11. Again we see some attention to the teacher audience here. The message of approval is here returned to the faculty, by way of praise in their performance.

12. Look at all the skills add up. Compare this list to the Kindergarten list to see just what is asked of students. This list also marks the first designation of subject areas, a fact that will become more and more specialized over time. It's also worth noting just which skills represent (young) competence in the Language Arts, including creativity and (gasp) handwriting.

13. I present the whole list to give some context of what the whole report card looks like (all the skills as well as all of my grades). But this moment is really a bit of a turning point. Watch how this quality in my writing is assessed over the years. I find it fascinating, looking back, to see how different teachers reacted to my writing (both in terms of the content of the composition and the physical skill of transcribing).

14. The language here, once again, is in terms of development. Clearly the IN is present as a warning sign of sorts, while the IS gives feedback that things have improved and are no longer a cause for concern.

15. Amy Carter, then in the White House for almost a year, was my age. My whole class wrote letters to her, and we received a very polite response from her secretary, as well as black and white photos for each of us. I thought that Amy Carter was so pretty.

1. Note the assumption here: I like comics, and so you must, too. My question is not, "Do you like/ read comics?" but "What kind do you like?" It's amazing that, even at this age, reading would figure into my letter with the First Daughter and that I would assume certain things about her.

19. This essay topic is the ultimate in clichéed compositions. Fortunately, I had a couple of interesting things to say about my summer. All spelling errors in here are original to the text.

20. Here, I anticipate a question which my reader might have.

21. One might compare this to earlier teacher comments (noting a change in focus).

22. This comment, too, bears striking resemblance to earlier ones.

23. Seemingly, this is an important distinction. This sample is in contrast with the rest of my report card, in which I received almost all C's in other areas, indicating that the area of handwriting was one of some concern.

24. Genre expectations seem to govern this kind of writing (although I never would have described it that way at the time). Reports produce report writing, perhaps. OR I may have simply copied this report from a reference book. (I seem to recall one such book on astronomy in the house.) I think that I learned the important lesson that school writing is supposed to be all original sometime after this report.

25. Handwriting. Again. Note that the problem persists across two marking periods, leading to consecutive IN scores (an unheralded event in my education).

26. Again, progress is noted, but this response shows a critical turn at the conjunction "but," one which shifts attention from the wholly positive to the more negative (or constructive).

27. Watch the pronouns at work here: Dad begins with the first person plural (the parental We) but then shifts to the first person plural (the personal I). He ends by focusing on the third person singular, indicating his focus on me. The assumptions here are fascinating-- sports as a focus, the need to match up to where others are, and a need for projects and other hands-on activities. Dad was not completely unqualified to make such judgments, though, since he was the director-manager of a summer camp and a member of the staff of Cooperative Extension working very closely with 4-H members.