Several posts ago I asked the question “Why do you write?”  I asked this question not because it was a new question, but because there really are so many different responses for why we write.  We have reasons that are different from one another, but we each also have multiple reasons of our own.  

In planning lessons for my students, I try to give them as many reasons as possible to write.  I hope that through these opportunities to write for different purposes and audiences that they will develop an answer to the “Why do you write?” question for themselves, as well as foster the necessary skills to write well in a variety of situations.

At the same time, I am teaching my students other concepts beyond writing itself, and can’t help but think that writing with and about the concepts will also help them to remember these other concepts.  We journal, we document, we archive, we write to record information, but does the act of writing ever help you feel like you remember what you wrote about even better?  Does the act of writing about something create a relationship between the writer and that thing?  (I am not necessarily referring to copying or taking notes in class – though there is a correlation there – but actually generating the ideas and writing them down.)  I   do think/know that it does for some people and to an extent, but I am curious to know what you all think and if you have certain strategies that you use which involve writing and remembering.  Please share your thoughts.

~Melissa 🙂