I believe....

I believe that writing in the classroom is empowering. Students who are given the opportunity to write about something that is important to them are given an outlet with which to voice their beliefs. This can be empowering for students as they are able to find out what matters to them and tell others through their writing. This is also an opportunity for students who do not feel comfortable speaking out in class to express their ideas.
Writing is important to practice. It is not something that comes naturally to most people and like all other skills, such as soccer or clogging, it must be practiced. Writing is multifaceted. For this reason it is important to try many types of writing and practice them as more than one type of writing will be used throughout one's life. Learning to write in many ways is augmented by reading different types of texts. As readers become more confident with understanding and taking apart texts to uncover meaning, they are also finding ideas and styles that they might want to try in their own writing.
Writing gives students a voice. This voice needs to be explored through reading and writing and writing and writing. It is in the process that students learn what is important to them and they find a style that suits them. Writing can evolve as the student grows and finds that other styles suit them better, this is found through practicing writing. Being able to grow as a writer is empowering because it is evidence of having discovered one's voice as it changes over time. I believe that writing in the classroom is empowering because it gives students the opportunity to learn something about themselves and it is an outlet for their ideas.