Reflecting on memorandum

I am honestly happy that writing a memorandum was an assignment for our class this semester. I believe it has taught me how to write a professional piece of work, and now I am confident if I ever do have to write one in my future education career. Besides learning how to write a professional piece of work, I also learned a ton of new, beneficial information regarding the teaching of writing. This came from the numerous article readings, including mine and those from my peers. The main concepts learned about the teaching of writing that I have incorporated into my memorandum I will take with me into my education career, and hopefully they will put me more at ease when dealing with how to teach writing to elementary students. I found a lot of information useful, and especially hearing first-hand accounts from "current" teachers in the articles gave me ideas and confidence.
Back to the actual memorandum...I am glad we wrote it, even if it was a "mock" memorandum. The "Iraq" example memorandum was helpful to look at, when concerning the structure. I not only learned how to structure the piece of writing, but also how to write in a completely formal matter with a strong background and purpse. I enjoyed this assignment as a whole.

The importance of correctness

I feel as though I am one who writes with correctness via papers, emails, text messaging, etc., almost as though I was OCD about it. Although I feel writing with correctness, such as using correct punctuation, grammer, and spelling, is important with elementary writers, or any writers for the fact of the matter, I strongly believe that the experience of writing is more important than making sure each little piece of one's own writing is correct the first time around. Especially for those elementary writers who aren't always easy to motivate, correctness should be stressed, but not as much as getting ideas onto paper and expressing a topic with passion.
As Silverman states in his text Rules of Thumb, "too much concern about spelling, punctuation, and grammer can inhibit your writing; too little concern can come between you and your readers" (p. 2). I agree with this statement, and I do believe that without paying attention to correctness of writing, the reader(s) will be affected.

Current thoughts on the teaching of writing and its research

I'm not a fan of reading research articles and summarizing them, but I have to admit that this set of articles regarding the teaching of writing (or at least the first three of four that I have read so far) has changed my thoughts a bit. I wasn't a big "writer" in school myself, so I guess I have never really considered the realm of teaching writing, as opposed to the science from the science courses we as liberal studies majors have taken, or the math from math courses or even health, but reading and analyzing these articles so far has me excited, but a little nervous still, to teach writing.
I feel like each article I've read has a different point to it and that each author feels their point should be taken into consideration more so than any of the other authors' points. I've learned that genre is important to consider, and genre is determined or viewed by a student's previous experiences and everyday life. I've also learned that there are topics out there, in this day and age, that are controversial and can be considered "taboo." First hand accounts from teachers have shown me the various opinions teachers have on these "taboo" topics and how and how not they feel their personal opinions affect their students' writing. But from the idea of all these controversial writing topics, I believe I learned most that writing is a form of self-expression, and if a teacher limits or silences a student's writing, the teacher is limiting or silencing a student's self-expression (which is completely opposite of what should be happening!). I have also learned from the articles regarding teaching of writing that writing provides lessons to teachers and students, or writers in general. These lessons are not on the surface, but instead learned from practice and experience, as well as honest feedback and self-reflection/thinking. Teachers need to be writers with their students, in order for their students not to feel as if "they're alone" it what may seem to them as a "scary" blank page.
I have learned a lot from these articles, so far, and I am excited to continue my analysis.