Choice Lit Topic: Mentor Texts
It’s all about the right book at the right time, given to the right student or used in the right lesson . . .
Here is where we gather all those suggestions from our contributors for using mentor texts, including lesson protocols and scores of video examples.
Results
Mentor Texts Elevate Readers and Writers
Reading workshop was ending, and my students were packing up their take-home book bags. I mingled around the room, assisting as necessary and gathering my materials for our writing workshop...
I Was Wrong About…
When I’m planning an argumentative writing assignment, I like to look for articles to show students how arguments look “in the wild,” or, in other words, how real writers construct...
Graphic Engagement
Earlier this year, I found myself in the midst of a fourth-grade class, most of whom were reading at or above grade level. They enjoyed reading and devoured books one...
Letting Informational Mentors Lead the Way
After reading Albert Marrin’s book Oh, Rats!, our sixth graders possess some fascinating knowledge about rats, revealed to them through a wide variety of details that range from absolutely repulsive...
Age Poems
Poetry can be hard to teach, in my experience. Anytime I mention the words poetry or poems, my students tend to groan. So I work hard all year to find...
What Criteria Should We Use When Selecting Whole-Class Texts?
Do you think it is important for students to read stories that include a wide variety of characters (different races, religions, abilities, genders, etc.)? Here is what some of my...
Craft Moves in Before the Ever After
Meg Kearney, the director of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College, said many memorable things during my time as a student. One of them involved...
Overplayed Mentor Texts
“What about this book?” I asked my kids as I held up The Sandwich Swap. We were unpacking yet another box of books from our recent move and having to...
Scaffolding Instruction in an Author Study
I bet you can name the author of the following passage: A band that's so good should have someone to hear it, But it's going so fast that it's hard...
When Learning Gets Tricky, Go Back to the Pigs
I am in a third-grade classroom, the students gather on the rug, and I say, "I heard you have been learning how to think about the texts you are reading....
Choosing Mentor Texts for Demonstration Lessons
This workshop is designed for use with literacy coaches and school leaders leading demonstration lessons, but it can easily be adapted to use with teachers choosing mentor texts for minilessons...
Crafting the Basics: First-Grade Writing Conference
Bitsy Parks confers with Aubrey early in the year, connecting key text elements such as title, author, and the links between images and text to mentor texts used in whole-class...
Bringing Multiple Texts and Perspectives into Teaching Point of View
This year my fifth-grade students struggled a lot with point of view. I thought it was something they had already learned in the years before. They might have covered it,...
Fourth-Grade Minilesson: Character Traits
Gigi McAllister helps her fourth graders develop the characters in their writing with a minilesson. She uses three mentor texts, one of which is her own writing.
End-of-Year Read Alouds
As we gather in our last community circle of the year, I pull out I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and read it to my attentive and quiet...
Mentor Texts for Letter Writing
A few months ago, Jennifer Serravallo posted a photo of children in her neighborhood writing letters and postcards. When we looked at this photo, we could almost hear the productive...
Using Mentor Texts Across the Writing Process
During our prep for state testing, Alex wrote lead after lead in her on-demand narrative pieces that mimicked the structure and phrasing of Owl Moon. She knew the lead to...
Great Books for African American Boys
When Serena saw the class list for her middle school language arts class, she knew that it was going to be a challenge. There were 18 boys in a class...
Giving Graphic Organizers a Go
When my literacy coach fanned out five graphic organizers for text structures (description, sequence, compare/contrast, problem/solution, and cause/effect) and suggested I ask each child to try roughing out a plan...
Building Community with a Shared Text
While I was teaching a children’s literature course for future educators at a local college, my adult students were assigned to read a middle grade book, Sunny Side Up by...
Using Stories to Launch Writers’ Notebooks
Twenty-two fourth graders are gathered on our blue carpet framed by bookshelves. One of us is perched on our stool, Fireflies! by Julie Brinckloe in hand, scanning the faces in...
