memo reflection

I thought that the memorandum project was interesting. If I ever have to write a memorandum in the future, this project will give me insight into that genre of writing. However, what i found more helpful were the articles we read on the teaching of writing. I think that many of those articles gave me new information to think about as well as provided me with more evidence to previous writing theories i had heard. It was nice not to have to read all of the articles but to discuss with our inquiry groups what each of us had read and together come to a greater understand of the theories involved in the teaching of writing.

memorandum rough draft

Memorandum Relating to Concerns of the Teaching of Writing at Henry Elementary School


I. Introduction

This memorandum concerns the teaching of writing at Henry Elementary School. This school has seen drops in testing scores and the teaching of writing has become a serious issue that needs to be addressed within our educational system. Thus, teachers and faculty will be participating in a teaching conference, based upon the selection of the Principal. Suggested in this memorandum will be several crucial factors relating to successful teaching of writing, which are incredibly important for this faculty to learn and should be included in the conference.

II. Modeling Genres

Recent Genre theory suggests that writing well within one genre is not automatically followed by successful writing within another genre. To successfully teach writing within a specific genre, teachers must explicitly model each genre with their students. Different texts have different rules and regulations regarding their format, language, etc., which need to be made clear to each student so they are aware of what is expected regarding different genres of writing.

Recommendation: The provider of the conference should have a clear understanding of various genres as well as information and advice on how to make these genre’s explicit during classroom instruction, including such techniques as the study of different genres through providing students with various examples.

III. The Social Aspect of Writing

Writing is a social process. This statement must be taken into consideration in writing instruction. It is often taken for granted that writing does not always have to be an individual activity and can be improved through peer review as well as group writing projects. Making the classroom a comfortable place for students to share their writing and where constructive criticism is offered to improve students writing is a great way to encourage students to revise their writing as well as a way to provide students with an audience to keep in mind as they write. Also, providing collaborative writing assignments is an excellent way for students to view others writing processes which can help build their writing skills.

Recommendation: The provider of the conference should be able to provide suggestions on how to make a classroom a comfortable place for a writing workshop where peer review is encouraged and accepted.

IV. Multiple Revisions

Providing the opportunity for students to constantly improve their writing through several revisions is important in the instruction of writing.



…and that’s all I have for now.

synthesis on the teaching of writing

Reading my articles as well as my groups wiki entries on the teaching of writing has been very interesting. I took the 431 class and in that class we focused on many of the same theories, however it was in a different context. In the writing center we focused on one on one instruction concerning topics or genres that we may know nothing about. Now, in this class we are focusing on teaching writing to an entire classroom of writers which brings to the surface different issues and problems and also different ways to apply the theories i had previous learned and the ones i am reading about now.

All of the articles i have read in my set have been entirely different, yet i can still see the connection. It is kind of like a big group of stars of information on writing that i need to examine and somehow link together to make a constellation that somehow makes sense and is useful. SO far its been kind of overwhelming to learn these new concepts but at the same time I'm grateful that i do not need to read all 16 articles and that my group members are pointing out the most important elements of each article, although Im sure that when it comes to writing my memorendum most of the information i put in it will come from the set of articles i have read, mostly because i feel more confident about them.

My favorite article so far was Jester's short article on the steps she takes as a writer. I feel these are important steps that are often overlooked becuase succesful writers usually take them for granted. By making these steps explicit to students i feel that they will become more confident writers becuase they know what factors proffesional writers focus on. I also think the article about Genre was interesting, but only becuase i learned so much about genre theory in my 431 class and already knew the importance of genre when teaching writing. I think if i hadn't been introduced to these theories that this article would not have meant much to me and would have been very confusing.