Like many writing teachers, I use mentor texts in my work as "models" of writing. So often, we remember a great book or a great beginning or a great ending. And we encourage writer's to emulate that in their own writing.
But emulate what? Sometimes I don't think we spend enough time dissecting why something worked (or why it didn't!)
I like the notion in this blog post of developing "x-ray reading skills" to improve writing:
"I've come to believe that writers see things in texts that are invisible to others. Moreover, I have a theory that the best writers are the best readers, possessed with a kind of X-ray vision that allows them to peer through the surface of a text, to see the machinery whirring underneath."
He goes on to share the opening two paragraphs from a novel and prompt us to answer the questions: "Why and how does this passage work?"
A great model for working with mentor texts. A great model for using blogging with our students.