When many of us went to school, the predominantly focus of writing instruction was on the mechanics of writing. We learned to ensure that the words we used were spelled correctly, our handwriting was neat and legible, and that we used proper capitalization and punctuation. At that time, there was little research known about how children learn to write, let alone the stages of writing development. While the mechanics of writing remain an integral part of our explicit instruction in writing each and every day, we are also teaching our students how to write stories, informational nonfiction and opinion writing . The process of writing includes idea generating and understanding that we ALL have stories to tell. We support writers as they express their opinions in writing and have something to teach others when writing nonfiction. In short, we are teaching students not only HOW to writing but also WHY we write.