Why Johnny Can’t Writeby Mark Pennington, MA Reading Specialist and author of Teaching Essay Strategies ©2002 Pennington Publishing“Johnny is a creative story-writer, but he can’t write an essay to save his life.” Does this ring true for your child or student?Johnny has had some good writing instruction. He can recite the steps of The Writing Process from the posters he has seen in every classroom throughout his elementary school years. He knows all about Writers Workshop. He would know what to expect if the teacher had written “Writers Conferences” or “Response Groups” on the white board as parts of her daily lesson plans. Johnny’s writing portfolio is chalk full of fanciful stories ...