Summary of Adam’s “✏️ 10 Myths About Teaching Writing” (Oct. 19). Source: Adam - Paste Eater's Blog

Summary for Educators

Adam frames his AMLE conference talk with a simple premise: before adopting “how-to” techniques, teachers need to challenge unhelpful beliefs about themselves, writing, and students. He organizes 10 myths into three clusters and, for each, offers a brief “agree–question–act” sequence that acknowledges the concern, reframes it, and proposes practical next steps. 

Myths 1–3: About Myself.

1. “I’m not good at writing myself.” Adam argues you don’t need to be a novelist to teach writing; you need to be a practicing writer of classroom-authentic tasks. His fix: build a private writing habit—fill a notebook, write alongside students, and use your own drafts to model struggle, revision, and decision-making. He suggests grading with a notebook nearby to capture patterns you notice in student work and to narrate your thinking aloud in class. He also recommends reading poetry (from Psalms to Whitman and Dickinson) to rekindle voice and attention to language. 

2. “I don’t know enough; I’m not trained.” Adam distinguishes between head knowledge and experiential knowledge. Waiting for perfect expertise only delays growth; teachers can learn by doing with small, low-stakes routines (intro letters, quick reflection paragraphs, transcript exercises from a film clip). Professional reading helps, but iterative classroom practice—teach, observe, adjust—is the engine of teacher learning. 

3. “I can’t teach writing; I have to teach spelling/grammar/vocabulary.” Rather than isolating subskills, Adam urges a “wholes-to-parts” approach: write first, then zoom into the conventions the writing actually needs. A 30-minute block split into spelling/grammar/vocab crowds out writing; a block structured as write–discuss–revise integrates all three with authentic purpose. 

Myths 4–6: About Writing. 4) “Writing has too many moving parts.” True—if you try to teach them all at once. Start with complete texts and sentences before taxonomy; label only what today’s drafts make visible. Use whole-class “scripted feedback” talks built from real student samples so complexity becomes navigable, not paralyzing. 

5. “I have to mark every mistake.” Adam calls this a burnout recipe. Instead, triage: name your focus (e.g., sentence boundaries and evidence), give targeted comments, and convert repeated notes into reusable templates for future assignments. Talk more than you mark; quick conferences often change habits faster than dozens of red marks. He cites Michael Clay Thompson’s “Opus 40” as a helpful framework for feedback. 

6. “Grading and feedback take too much time.” They can—without the right tools. Choose rubrics that match the task (holistic for early drafting, analytic when zooming in). Start with the “big picture,” then drill down. Build banks of comments tied to common moves and missteps so feedback is consistent and fast. 

Myths 7–10: About My Students. 7) “My students have too many skill levels.” Mixed readiness is the norm. Adam points to James Moffett’s action–response model: begin with student writing, let real errors drive mini-lessons, and keep feedback “accurate, specific, individual, and timely.” This grounds instruction in relevance and reduces over-preteaching. 

8. “Students can’t write a complete sentence.” Don’t postpone writing until every fragment is fixed; paradoxically, students reduce fragments by writing more in meaningful contexts. Replace worksheet drills with short daily writing and targeted discussions of recurring errors visible in class drafts. 

9. “Students have low stamina and bad attitudes.” Make writing a daily routine rather than an occasional “tested” event. Frequent, low-stakes writing normalizes struggle, builds endurance, and improves tone. 

10. “Students don’t see their own mistakes.” Teach students to be feedback-givers, not just receivers. Use fast peer swaps with simple “point-to” checks for short tasks and read-aloud exchanges for longer pieces—hearing one’s words in another voice is a powerful mirror. 

Takeaways for School Leaders and Teachers. Adam’s through-line is humane and sustainable: (a) prioritize authentic writing first, then address conventions; (b) constrain focus for feedback to avoid burnout; (c) teach from student work to keep instruction responsive; and (d) practice as a writer to strengthen modeling. For leaders designing ELA PLCs, his notebook routines, reusable comment banks, and whole-class feedback scripts are immediately adoptable and align with workload-aware professional learning. 

Original Article

Summary of Adam’s “✏️ 10 Myths About Teaching Writing” (Oct. 19). Source: https://pasteeatersblog.substack.com/p/10-myths-about-teaching-writing

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com