about the memo

This was a challenging paper to write. I really felt like I was just piecing together quotes from different articles. Because I didn't actually read some 0f the articles, we just read summaries, I felt like I was missing pieces. I know we are not supposed to apologize for our writing but I really wasn't happy with the way my paper turned out. I think it looked more like a rough draft than a finished work. The first couple of sections which were the ones I felt most strongly about, looked okay, but the further into my paper the weaker my arguments seemed to get. I just didn't have as much information for those as I did for revision and choice for example. It was definitely a creative assignment, that made me look at teaching writing in a new way. When I thought about English class in elementary school before this assignment I thought of those goofy text books that we had to work out of. Most of my classes try to get you thinking about what goes on in a real classroom and I felt that this was a great way to do that. Even though this was an extremely challenging assignment, I appreciate its value.

correctness

I can say without question that I am not confident in my writing. More specifically I am always worried about correctness. Especially with the grammar and punctuation. I think the book "Rules of Thumb" can be very helpful. My biggest challenge is going to be remembering to use it. I think the best thing I can do with it, is place it right on my computer desk so I will remember I have it and it is easily accessible. The pages on how to cite, and how to fix a run-on sentence will be the most used. The conversation we had in class was very interesting to me because I find myself worried about correctness in every type of writing I do, even when I am just text messaging a friend. If I am not sure about the spelling of a word I will go look it up before I can send the text. This is mostly because my friends know that I want to be a teacher and most people hold teachers to higher standards when it comes to correctness.

So far I have found the articles I've read to be very interesting. Especially the second one, about how teachers deal with touchy subjects in student writing, and how to stay subjective and keep your own beliefs out of your responses to them. I had never thought about how my beliefs would affect how I judge my students writing. I think writing should be judged on how well it is written not on the context. I believe if we expect students to take writing seriously then they should be allowed to write about something they enjoy. Students will become much better writers by being allowed to express themselves and be creative, rather than regurgitating something they could care less about. So far the articles have talked about what we learn from writing both as the writer and as the audience, but I would like to see more about the different styles of writing. More specifics on how to teach different types of writing, such as a persuasive paper or even poetry. I think it will be easier to figure out what to look for in a good writing program if we see more examples of how writing is being taught as a whole. I have noticed in the articles that the author talks about different teachers witing plans but I have not seen one completely laid out. I would really like to see a couple of examples of a teachers complete writing program not just one part of it. Even though each article has talked about a different aspect of writing, I think it would be easier to take in as a whole.