The Astros are in the playoffs so there’s been a lot of baseball talk at our house. My husband told me that when batters were in a slump, they used to have them watch film of their bad hitting to try to figure out what was wrong. At some point, someone had the idea to have them watch video of their good hits, so they could identify what it looked like when they did it well.
I hope teachers have embraced this same philosophy when it comes to teaching writing. Students don’t need worksheets and warm-ups full of mistakes and bad writing to learn to write well. They need models of good writing and intentional conversations about what authors do effectively.
Special thanks to the teachers and students in Elida, NM who let me share my writing and gave me great feedback!