Mike Rose's Writer's block

I found a lot of his article really difficult to follow. All that stuff about the rules and TOTEs flew by me. What I found most interesting was when he said that the "five students who experience blocking were all operating either with writing rules or with planning strategies that impeded rather than enhanced the composing process" (390). I feel like I've been teaching writing all wrong. So much of what we are asked to do as teachers is to give students structures and guidelines. I am guilty of teaching my students that they need a hook, that their thesis needs three parts, and that they have to complete a 5 paragraph essay. While I want them to break free from that, so many are hesitant to start writing if there is nothing concrete for them to see and cross off a checklist. I do the same brainstorm strategies as the other teachers, and there's nothing creative about how I teach writing. I can see some students zoning out, and yet, if they don't have that 5 paragraphs, they can't pass the CAHSEE or write a coherent essay that has some sort of organizational pattern. When Rose gets to describing his test subjects, I see my students in Ruth and Laurel. Some get stuck on the hook (OMG, are they going to write a question as a hook again?! I told them not to do that...) or some turn in their papers WEEKS late with some good parts and some stuff they totally did not come up with on their own (probably had help from an older sibling or student cause they wanted me to stop calling home or mad dogging them in class). My plan has always been to get the kids used to the 5 paragraph structure fall quarter, then branch out spring semester when there's a little less pressure after testing. My tenth graders are all very resistant to writing, and I'm having writer's block about how to get them not to have writer's block.