I thought the power point was really informational. One thing that I enjoyed was this realistic sense that I felt towards writing. For example, not all writing has to be perfect and that teachers should give some slack on spelling errors. When I wrote essays in school, I would think of this great word, but I didn't know how to spell it. So I would substitute it with a less meaningful or intelligent word. I did this because I didn't want to get marked down for spelling or I didn't want the teacher to think I was stupid.
I think it is really important to refrain from using writing as a punishment. Writing already has a bad connotation for students as it is, we don't want to deepen the dislike.
I thought it was a great idea to have the different levels of writing. That way students can gather their thoughts together without fear of grading. It also sparks creativity. Another thing that encourages creativity is giving choice to the writing topic. I remember my favorite papers or assignments where I had a choice of what topic to write. Even just a list of options made it seem more fun. I remember once I had to pick a historical figure to do a report on: I chose The Romanovs because I was interested in the mysterious story of Anastasia. It was so fun to do the research.
Another thing that I learned from the power point was to give the students an audience to write to. Now looking back over my schooling experience, I can see the effect that the audience had. Any time I had to give a report orally to an audience, whether it be the class or a parent, I double checked everything to make sure it was the best. One time, in elementary school, we had to write a summary of the life of a president. Then we dressed up like that president and each of us had a pretend button on our shoulder. We had a presentation night where the parents went around and pressed our buttons. We had to recite our summary from memory. It was a creative way to get us to learn about the presidents and the audience made us more careful.
