I learned how to paint years ago from Bob Ross.
I’d watch a bit of Saturday morning cartoons and eat a bowl of quintessentially too-sugary 1980s era cereal and organize my brushes and paints.
This was my routine from the age of eight until fifteen.
And guess what?
Religiously following this discipline allowed me to become an exceptional painter.
But imagine if Bob Ross came on to the screen and said:
“Hello happy little people. Today we are going to paint a beautiful New England Autumnal landscape with beautiful fall foliage; and in the center of our canvas, we are going to include a New England wood-covered bridge going over a little babbling brook.”
And then Bob Ross speaks of the theory, technique, and nuance of painting.
And then Bob Ross provides me with a graphic organizer.
And then Bob Ross says I have half-an-hour to complete my painting.
If Bob Ross taught this way, I’d still be a pretty LOUSEY painter.
What makes Bob Ross such an exceptional teacher is that he paints with his students while providing plenty of exemplars and models.
Further, he only uses one template or heuristic – the wet-on-wet technique.
Literally, every time he paints, he uses just one template.
We need to “paint” with our students when we teach writing and we need to provide them with templates. Otherwise, you cannot expect them to make much progress as far as their writing goes.
In the Teach It Write program, a fundamental tenet of the course is this very idea that we must become the veritable Bob Ross of composition.
Teach It Write will show you how to wear this persona in the classroom so that your students will absolutely flourish in their abilities to write. Further, Teach It Write will equip you and your students with the three templates necessary to make it happen.
This is just one essential component of the program, but it’s the main taproot of my philosophy on how to teach teachers how to teach writing – templates, models, clear exemplars.
On August 28th at 11 a.m. EST, Teach It Write will meet live in Zoom for a special two-hour session. We will look at how to build student writers from the ground up while reframing the manner in which we offer composition instruction.
If you’d like more information, please reach out or go to my webpage at
http://teachinghow2write.com/teach-it-write/
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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