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Brazilian Kids Correcting Celebrity Tweets

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Brazilian Kids Correcting Celebrity Tweets

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Such a GREAT idea!!

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"Hi, @justinbieber my name is Maria, I'm 9 and I'm a fan from Brazil, watch out: it's 'we're here' not 'we here'"

5. According to a video about the project, the teachers at the school wanted to make sure the kids knew their idols weren't right when it came to spelling and grammar.

Here's a video about this very cute and educational idea.

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Brazilian School Kids Have Been Learning English By Correcting Celebrities' Grammar On Twitter

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"Hi, @justinbieber my name is Maria, I'm 9 and I'm a fan from Brazil, watch out: it's 'we're here' not 'we here'" 5. According to a video about the project, the teachers at the school wanted to make sure the kids knew their idols weren't right when it came to spelling and grammar.

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By Clare Landrigan

Mentor texts are the perfect scaffold for young writers. Mentor texts are always available. They do not care how often they are used for support. They don't over-scaffold or rescue. They are great with wait-time. They are open-ended and allow the writer to use craft moves purposefully in his/her own writing. Research demonstrates that it takes 10,000 hours to become deliberate in any field - that's a lot of hours. Mentor texts provide choice, allow students to have agency, and create space for students to practice again and again.

The sooner we start inviting our writers to use mentor texts the sooner they will start reading like a writer. There are no limits to how we can use mentor texts to support our young writers. I worry that too often we only use mentor texts in our lessons to model or to study a particular author/genre. Sometimes we over scaffold students' experiences with mentor texts by telling them which craft moves to use and how to use them. I have been trying to broaden how mentor texts are used by always making them an option for students when they are writing. Once we show them how to use a mentor text, students can be in control of when and how they use them.

This past spring, I had the privilege of joining two first grade classrooms for writing workshop. The students were studying traditional tales. They were in the process of drafting and revising their own traditional tales. When we analyzed the student writing we noticed the students were using dialogue, strong feelings, and thoughts to elaborate their stories. They were ready to learn how to stretch out the most important part by telling it scene by scene. We noticed an opportunity to teach them how to add action in order to stretch out these scenes. Whenever I invite elementary students to try a new craft move or an elaboration strategy, I typically show how to apply it in both the illustrations and the words. This provides multiple entry points into understanding how a particular craft move impacts the writing.

These students had recently participated in March Book Madnessand fell in love with two texts: Drawn Togetherby Min Lê and Dan Santat and The Field by Baptiste Paul and Jacqueline Alcántara. These texts were perfect for the instructional focus we identified, and the students knew them so well they were primed to be mentors. Even though these texts are not traditional tales we decided to use them to model using action to stretch out the scenes and tell the most important part of the story step by step. Both texts showed how these craft moves can be used in the illustrations and the words.

I modeled a quick lesson showing how I would use these texts as mentors. I identified the moment in my story and showed how I would stretch it out using panels or a series of pictures across two pages. I also added the text to model how I would elaborate in words using strong verbs. In one classroom I used Drawn Togetherand in the other, I used The Field. I then placed copies of the text around the room and invited these young writers to use it as a mentor. I did not assign the students a task or make everyone use the text as a mentor. It was simply an invitation. I sent them off and then asked the adults in the room to resist teaching so we could observe how and if the students used the texts as mentors.

Here are some samples of the students' work inspired by studying Drawn Together:

The students using The Field focused immediately on the strong verbs and action in the illustrations. Several students identified the moment in their story that needed to be stretched out scene by scene and found a mentor page to guide them.

As we observed the students using these mentor texts to scaffold their revision process, we noticed another pattern emerging. Students started studying each other's writing. Explaining to each other the craft moves they tried and why they tried them in that moment of the story. It was powerful to watch them confer purposefully with each other and look to each other as mentors.

I believe there needs to be more fluidity between our reading and writing workshops. If a student notices something that is perfect for her writing during reading workshop, I want her to get up and get her writing to capture this idea. If a student is stuck during writing workshop, I want him to get up and head to the classroom library. When the going gets rough, writers get up and read. Our students need to know this, and we need to give them the opportunity to move between reading and writing as needed. This is the process authentically used by readers and writers. It also encourages our students to look within and develop agency in their writing process. Using mentor texts is a strategy that will last a lifetime.

It is important to remember that, "the learning environment is 'the third teacher' that can either enhance the kind of learning that optimizes our students' potential to respond creatively and meaningfully to future challenges or detract from it" (Fraser, 2012; Helm et al., 2007; OWP/P Architects et al., 2010). In my most recent book co-authored with Tammy Mulligan, It's All About the Books, we suggest having a section in the classroom library that is dedicated to mentor texts, so students know there is a place to go when they are looking for a particular type of mentor text. The classroom library can be the third teacher if it is designed to support our writers.

I also love including student writing in this section of the classroom library. There is no better way to say, "You are a writer," than to include a student's writing in the classroom library. It gives them an authentic audience and it gives classmates another mentor text to study and use in their own writing. I also include teacher writing in this section of the classroom library. It is helpful for students to have time to truly study the writing their peers and teachers share. They can also easily access the author to ask questions since they are members of the classroom community.

There is a lot of space for approximation between teacher modeling and student application. "Mentor texts empower students to become independent, which is crucial because they will not always have you as their writing teacher. If students develop an understanding of how to tap into the power of mentor texts, they will be able to seek out their own mentors in the future" (Ayres and Shubitz, Day by Day, 2010). The process of revision should be active, playful, and meaningful. We need to get out of our students' way and let them give it go. The more they try things out and look to authors - professional, teacher, and student authors - as mentors, the more they will embrace and find joy in the revision process.

Clare Landrigan is a staff developer who is still a teacher at heart. She began her work as an educator over twenty years ago, teaching in an integrated first- and second-grade classroom at the Eliot Pearson Children's School in Medford, MA. She now leads a private staff development business and spends her days partnering with school systems to help them implement best practices in the field of literacy. Clare is the coauthor of the book, It's All About the Books: How to Create Bookrooms and Classroom Libraries That Inspire Readers. She believes that effective professional development includes side-by-side teaching, analysis of student work, mutual trust, respect, and a good dose of laughter. You can find Clare online at Twitter, and at her website, where she blogs about books and the art of teaching.

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By Clare Landrigan Mentor texts are the perfect scaffold for young writers. Mentor texts are always available. They do not care how often they are used for support. They don't over-scaffold or rescue. They are great with wait-time. They are open-ended and allow the writer to use craft moves purposefully in his/her own writing.

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Short pieces of writing

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A month to Valentine's Day and he's got it all planned out... six weeks ago. He'd take her to the rooftop of Esplanade, present her with her favourite flowers (he has yet to find out what they are so let's keep that in view) and play her her favourite song on the guitar, which he'd taken months to learn and practise. He hasn't planned what he wants to say to her exactly, knowing he'd probably end up stammering and stuttering a lot. He says he'll call and let me know what happens after. I'm crossing my fingers for good news.

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100 Words: A Collaborative Writing Project, Since 2001

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A month to Valentine's Day and he's got it all planned out... six weeks ago. He'd take her to the rooftop of Esplanade, present her with her favourite flowers (he has yet to find out what they are so let's keep that in view) and play her her favourite song on the guitar, which he'd taken months to learn and practise.

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Kelly Gallagher

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When George Lucas was making Star Wars, his special effects team was at a loss as to how to film realistic-looking dogfight scenes. They began by storyboarding them, but they found that simply drawing the scenes on paper didn’t help them understand the pacing and rhythm of the fights. They solved th

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Stenhouse Knows Literacy

Stenhouse Publishers started in 1993 with two employees in a one-room attic walk-up in York, Maine. That fall we published 6 titles. Today, more than two dozen employees work in our offices in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and have a catalog of more than 400 books and resources.

Stenhouse recognizes and embraces the complexity of teaching and learning. We are devoted to helping teachers inspire deep and creative thinking in their students.

Stenhouse is guided by these core beliefs:

All students can learn to think independently and critically.

Effective teaching is achievable at any level of experience and in any classroom environment

Teachers make the best instructional decisions for the students in their care when they are equipped with knowledge, supported by colleagues, and respected as professionals.

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the writing thief: using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing

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teaching methods & materials - language arts

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children's literature - study and teaching - activity programs

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english language - composition and exercises - study and teaching

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children's literature - study and teaching - activity programs

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education / teaching methods & materials / language arts

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english language - composition and exercises - study and teaching

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teaching methods & materials - language arts

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education / teaching methods & materials / language arts

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The Writing Thief: Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing

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Amazon.com: The Writing Thief: Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing (8601423465265): Culham, Ruth: Books

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Mentor Texts: Writing Workshop Fundamentals

Mentors are trusted advisors who often show us, by example, how to do something new. When I was training to be a teacher, I learned the most from being in the classroom: observing teachers with real students, then giving it a go myself. My third graders tell me they learn how to make projects like glitter slime by watching other kids create it on Youtube. When we want to know how to do something, having a mentor to show us can make all the difference.

Today, in writing workshop, we intentionally teach students to write by using authors as our co-teachers. As teachers, we write for and with our students, and our writing can show them the possibilities for their own pieces. We highlight student work, too, as a mentor text, creating a bridge from what students are currently doing to a more effective way of writing. Our students become writing teachers alongside us and the published authors we study. We immerse our student writers in all these mentor texts in order for them to learn to write well.

What are Mentor Texts?

In , Craft Moves Stacey Shubitz (TWT's Chief of Operations and Lead Writer) writes, "Mentor texts are samples of exemplary writing we can study during writing workshops...Mentor texts can be books, short stories, articles, letters and so on. Basically any text that can teach students to write well can serve as a mentor text (3)." When students study a mentor text, they have already enjoyed it first as a reader - reading or listening to the piece read aloud. Once the text is familiar, it can be reread with the lens of reading like a writer: just was the author able to put the words together in a way that stirred emotion, caught the reader's attention or somehow changed your mind? Reading like a writer is the key to studying mentor texts. As a writer, you read to see patterns and notice how words are put together so you can try that in your own writing. Mentor texts can come from published authors, the teacher, or the students.

Mentor Texts from Authors

"Authors are like trusted colleagues we invite to teach alongside us. Their books inspire us, their personal stories and struggles resonate with us, and they show us new ways of understanding. We welcome authors we trust into our classrooms to help us teach our students strategies that will help them become better writers," Stacey Shubitz writes in Craft Moves. In a sense, we are not alone in our teaching- we have authors alongside us, showing us the power of writer's craft to create effective and often unforgettable writing. Katie Wood Ray shared, "I can't help students to write well by myself. I need lots of help doing this teaching work and I have found that help on the shelves of my library...And day after day as I teach writing to many different students, I let writers like Georgia (Heard) and Gary Paulsen and Cynthia Rylant and Jane Yolen help me do the important work of teaching students to write well (9)."

Once you find your favorite authors, you can reread books with the lens of reading like a writer and thinking about how the author made the writing so striking. In Craft Moves , Stacey shares her process for mining picture books for writer's craft to share with students. ( https://twowritingteachers.org/2016/05/05/how-to-choose ) The craft moves can be shared with students in a whole group session, small group session, or in a conference with one student.

In my third grade classroom, I introduced the idea of writer's craft and reading like a writer with Cynthia Rylant's book In November. I read the book aloud to the students, and then on another day, we compared a bland paragraph about November with the picture book. Students worked in partnerships, rereading a typed-text version* of the book and finding places where the words were interesting or beautiful. We came back together to discuss the way Cynthia Rylant wrote the book, why we think she made those decisions as an author, and the effect it had on us as readers. I've found that students need to be taught that writers are making purposeful decisions when they write and we can find those craft moves in many different types of texts, from different authors. We can use those craft moves in our own writing as well; we can make decisions as the author, too.

*It is important to obtain proper permission from the publisher before distributing copies of typed text.

Teacher-written Mentor Texts

Published authors can be powerful co-teachers in our writing classroom, but there is also skillful instruction that can come from a teacher's piece of writing, used as a mentor text. Teachers can share pieces of writing they've created outside of the classroom and also write in front of the students, creating a text that can be used as a mentor while students watch the process unfold.

Whenever my class is about to start a new unit of study, I write a piece in that genre. It helps me to go through the process, to anticipate where they might face difficulty, to try it out for myself and work through the challenging parts. This piece of writing can be used as a mentor text for my students as we immerse ourselves in understanding the new genre. Once you have taught that genre, you can use the mentor text you created for the students each year. It can also be helpful for students to see the teacher craft a piece of writing in front of them. I often start a new piece once we are in the genre study, so they can see how I go about each step in the process and understand that the first writing you do often isn't the way it looks by publication. Writers are constantly revising and rethinking and students need to see that modeled for them.

At Two Writing Teachers, one of our core beliefs is that Slice of Life blogging can also be shared as mentor texts and shows students that the teacher writes at other times than just in the classroom for demonstration lesson purposes. A couple of years ago, I wrote a teachers who teach writing should write themselves. post for the Nerdy Book Club. The day it was published, I was bursting with excitement to share it with my students. I brought in my typed copy with all the cross-outs and revisions, explaining to them how I asked for input from trusted friends before submitting it. Students need to see their teachers "ache with caring" (as Mem Fox would say) about the writing they put out into the world. We can act as writing mentors for our students when we make this process visible.

Student-written Mentor Texts

In our writing classrooms, filling the room with beautiful words from published authors and sharing teacher created texts are key ways to help students see possibilities for their writing. Student-written texts can also become mentors for the writers in the room. Lisa Eickholdt explores this idea in her book Learning from Classmates: Using Students' Writing as Mentor Texts . Eickholdt writes, "When I compare most of my students' writing with the children's literature I use in my classroom, I see a large chasm between the two. What we all want as teachers is to help more children become better writers. Using student writing as a mentor text can help achieve this goal (xiii)." Eickholdt's book helped me look at all student work with open eyes and possibilities. She writes, "Everybody has something worthy to offer. Too often gifted students are the ones who receive acclaim in our classrooms. When choosing writing to use as a mentor text, we must consciously choose to use writing from all students, not only a select few. We need to send the message that we believe everyone, not just certain students, can be a great writer (xvii)."

If you are new to a grade level and do not have student mentor texts to draw from, you can always use student samples from other classes to share with your students. I have begun creating a bank of student samples that I can share with my current class. Each year, I hope to add to the student mentor text collection.

When I've shared student writing as mentor texts, it has been so worthwhile for all of the students. The student writer usually beams with pride and grows in confidence and his peers see a mentor text that is often closer to what they themselves can write. It's a bridge from a published writer's work or even the teacher written mentor text. Student-written mentor texts should be part of your mentor text collection for any genre or skill you teach.

Quick Tips

Less is more. You don't need to have a huge collection of mentor texts - just a few you know really well that touch upon the teaching points you want to make.

For mentor texts from authors, start with your beloved picture books you've read and reread. Though the lens of a writer, reread to notice how the author crafted the piece.

Think of the first piece of writing your students will do and write your own piece. Consider your process and make notes so you can share it with your students.

Next Steps

Consider how you might keep track of sharing student mentor texts with the class to be sure that everyone is highlighted during the year. (Lisa Eickholdt has forms to help with this in Learning from Classmates .)

Use different colored sticky notes for different parts of a story that mentors structure, development, or conventions. For example, yellow sticky notes would be placed in all the places that conventions are used to create voice.

Link Roundup from TWT
Curating Mentor Text Collections Demonstration Texts, Part Deux Teacher-Written Mentor Texts: Dive Into Information Writing Let's Invite Every Writer in Our Classroom to Create Mentor Texts! Conferring Toolkits: Mentor Texts
Suggested Reading

Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom by Katie Wood Ray

Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts by Stacey Shubitz

Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6 (2nd edition) by Lynne R. Dorfman & Rose Cappelli
Learning from Classmates: Using Students' Writing as Mentor Texts by Lisa Eickholdt
Writing with Mentors: How to Reach Every Writer in the Room Using Current, Engaging Mentor Text by Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell

Mentor Author, Mentor Text: Shorter Texts, Craft Notes, and Practical Classroom Uses by Ralph Fletcher

This giveaway is for a copy of Renew! Become a Better - and More Authentic - Writing Teacher . Many thanks to Stenhouse Publishers for donating a copy for one reader. (If the winner has a U.S. address, you may choose a paper or eBook. If the winner has an international mailing address, then you will receive an eBook.)

For a chance to win this copy of Renew! Become a Better - and More Authentic - Writing Teacher , please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Monday, August 7th at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Beth Moore will use a random number generator to pick the winner's commenter number. His/her name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Tuesday, August 8th.

Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so Beth can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, our contact at Stenhouse will ship your book out to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)

If you are the winner of the book, Beth will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS - RENEW BOOK. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. Unfortunately, a new winner will be chosen if a response isn't received within five days of the giveaway announcement.

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Mentor Texts: Writing Workshop Fundamentals

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Today, in writing workshop, we intentionally teach students how to write by using authors as our co-teachers. As teachers, we write for and with our students, and our writing can show them the possibilities for their own pieces. We highlight student work too as a mentor text, creating a bridge from what students are currently...

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.40 is the magic number

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Hattie effect size list - 256 Influences Related To Achievement

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Hattie’s updated effect size list of 256 influences across all areas related to student achievement.

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Using Mentor Texts to Motivate and Support Student Writers

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Using Mentor Texts to Motivate and Support Student Writers

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Using Mentor Texts to Motivate and Support Student Writers

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Providing students with examples of good writing is vital. Here are tips for using mentor texts in the classroom and ideas on where you can find it.

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A Few Ways to Empower Writers Using Mentor Text

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A Few Ways to Empower Writers Using Mentor Text

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Two Writing Teachers

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A Few Ways to Empower Writers Using Mentor Texts

I laid my coat on the back of the computer lab chair, blew into my cold hands, and rubbed my eyes. It was late. And the paper was due tomorrow. Suddenly, an idea...call Dad. "Hello," my father's voice sounded groggy, like I'd woken him up. "Dad," I said, "the final paper for my politics class is due tomorrow. I just got off work, and...well, I haven't started. But I know what I want to write. I just don't think I can do it." Not even a beat passed when my father's voice came, "Yes, you can. You can do it. You know how to write. You've got your outline, right? I think once you get going," he continued, "you'll find it to be fun. Trust yourself." And with those words, I suddenly felt empowered. "Okay," I said.

It could be said that what sets a writing workshop apart from other approaches to teaching writing is a focus on empowerment. In a workshop, we don't tell kids what to write. Although we may work within a writing type or a class topic for a while, we always allow for meaningful choice, as we know that ownership over a path of learning is critical. As researcher John T. Guthrie writes in a paper on best practices for motivating students (2013), "On a daily basis, teachers can give mini-choices. They empower students to increase their investment in learning" (p. 15, emphasis added). Thus, as workshop teachers we don't prescribe with narrow assignments, and we tend to avoid forcing kids to complete complex graphic organizers or follow long sets of directions.

As I write this post, I am reminded of my own pre-workshop teaching during which I would assign kids a prompt ( I had selected) about a book ( I had selected), beginning with a graphic organizer ( I had selected). I shudder at the memory simply because it wasn't until, years after imposing this "assignment" on dozens of students, I tried out the writing work myself- the graphic organizer, the prompt- and found that, well, it didn't work for me at all as a writer. Looking back, I see now that removing all choice, coupled with barely allowing for only a cursory journey across the writing process, not only bored many or most of my seventh grade writers, it disempowered them.

In writing workshop, we want to be acutely aware of the distinction between, "Here are the directions I'm giving you..." and, "Here is a strategy I'm teaching you." In the second statement, we are working to empower writers because our focus is less on them complying (first statement) and more on equipping them with a way to strengthen or improve their writing craft (second statement). For many years now, as both a classroom teacher and coach/staff developer, I feel my internalized understanding of this approach to empowering writers has guided my work.

However, a few Saturdays ago I learned of a few new ways to empower writers: through mentor texts.

Idea #1: Choice of mentor texts. At the fall Saturday Reunion at Teachers College in New York City, author and staff developer Pablo Wolfe suggested one choice we unknowingly remove for kids is what mentor text they will use. Many of us have likely become accustomed to selecting a strong mentor text during a unit of study. Stacey even wrote a book about this topic. We encourage and invite our writers to lean on this special text for ideas and inspiration, as we have deemed it worthy of study and imitation. This is wise teaching, as mentor texts hold a unique power to support writers in lifting the level of their craft. But what if we allowed for choice of mentor texts?

During his workshop on revision, Pablo arranged for digital access to around four different, high-quality mentor texts written by different authors. Each mentor text seemed to be carefully chosen and represented vastly different writing styles (e.g., Sandra Cisneros, Jack Gantos, Kate DiCamillo), as well as a student-written mentor. Looking across these four selections, I found myself able to choose a text with which I could connect my writing style. Imagine students being able to do this same work! I realized then how important it is to consider the fact that it is unlikely every writer in my classes would connect to the text I had selected. For example, are all seventh grade boys going to connect with a beautiful Cynthia Rylant story? Perhaps. Perhaps not. What if we instead arranged for other options, like those found in Guys Write for Guys Read or Jack Gantos books? As Guthrie writes (2013), "The most widespread recommendation for motivation is providing choices. In the classroom, students are often thrilled to have a choice in their reading" (p. 14). I imagine this would hold true for mentor texts, as well.

Idea #2: Turning a mentor text into a student-facing checklist. After allowing us all an opportunity to connect with a mentor text of our choice, Pablo took us through the process of turning a mentor text into a personalized, "student-facing" checklist. This process involves a short series of steps that allow writers to meaningfully interact with a chosen mentor text and literally turn it into a revision tool. The steps were as follows:

By facilitating a process by which students can select their own mentor texts and transform them into writing tools, we can empower our writers. For me back in college, all it took one spring night was to hear my father say the words, "You can do it." That belief voiced in just a few words empowered me to finish my senior paper. But for our students, a simple introduction to choice and/or a few simple steps that they can replicate independently holds the potential to empower them in new and exciting ways.
* Special thanks to Pablo Wolfe for granted permission to share his work!

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A Few Ways to Empower Writers Using Mentor Texts

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I laid my coat on the back of the computer lab chair, blew into my cold hands, and rubbed my eyes. It was late. And the paper was due tomorrow. Suddenly, an idea...call Dad. "Hello," my father's voice sounded groggy, like I'd woken him up.

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Using Mentor Texts- Use Texts that Students are Familiar With

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Using Mentor Texts- Use Texts that Students are Familiar With

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One way to approach it...

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Mentor text is a common facet of writing instruction. It's the portion of a mini-lesson where the teacher guides students through the reading of strong examples. In order to integrate mentor text, teachers need to know how and when to bring it into the lesson and which texts are best to use.

Learn from experts

Kick off each 10-15 minute mini-lesson by first identifying the trait-based writing skill. Convey to the students exactly what you're trying to teach them. Then, explain the purpose or function of the day's writing skill. How and why would a writer use it? How does it impact a reader when the skill is used?

With the foundation of the lesson set, it's time to reveal the strong example. This is when the teacher shows the students the mentor text and begins to break it down. Point out the characteristics and qualities of the text. Explain the skill "in action" with the ultimate goal of students emulating that same skill in their own writing.

Choose a familiar text

When choosing a text to use in a lesson, there is a cardinal rule: Students must be familiar with the text. Therefore, do not plan to read the text for the first time during your writing lesson. Students have to have heard, read, or seen the text first as a reader before they are ready to re-read it as a writer.

Identify compact excerpts

Familiar text is best, but then there is a second rule: Do not plan to read the whole text in the mini-lesson! The bulk of the mini-lesson time is to be spent teaching a writing skill--not reading a 24-page picture book! Rather, reveal the strongest excerpts of the mentor text.

Now, it's fair to say that almost every skill can be found in any text. However, ideal passages are a balance between the shortest excerpt that provides the most examples. This allows students to see the skill in action numerous times while maximizing the minutes of instruction.

For instance,

When preparing a conventions lesson on proper noun capitals, find an excerpt with numerous examples of proper noun capitals within a handful of consecutive sentences (e.g., Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse).

When preparing a word choice lesson on adjectives, find an excerpt with numerous examples of adjective-noun combinations all on one page (e.g., The Napping House).

Store text carefully

A fringe benefit to using only a portion or page of a favorite text is that you can utilize that same text over and over again all year long. Choose a different excerpt from a different page to teach a different skill.

That said, teachers will need regular access to the same mentor texts. Therefore, it may not be wise to store them within the shelves and baskets of the general classroom library! They will likely not be there the day you need them.

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Integrate Mentor Text within Writing Instruction

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Mentor text is a common facet of writing instruction. It's the portion of a mini-lesson where the teacher guides students through the reading of strong examples. In order to integrate mentor text, teachers need to know how and when to bring it into the lesson and which texts are best to use.

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from presentation @ SFT

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As a follow-up to our November 2017 #NCTEchat, Using Mentor Texts, we asked our social media community to share some of their favorite mentor texts with us. Last week, we shared our community's recommendations for mentor texts to teach argument writing.

In the next installment of this series, we've compiled educators' favorite resources for teaching narrative writing. We received SO many fantastic suggestions, we had to break them into two posts! In this first post, we will be focusing on chapter books that were recommended to teach narrative writing.

Next week, we'll be sharing picture books, short stories, and more. To see the original messages this list is based on, click here.

Did we miss one? Please let us know on Twitter!

Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays edited by Rebecca Stern and Brad Wolfe
Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays will inspire students to think differently about the much feared assignment in elementary and middle schools around the country: essay writing.
Good for use with middle grade students
One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty

Eudora Welty was born in 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi. In a "continuous thread of revelation" she sketches her autobiography and tells us how her family and her surroundings contributed to the shaping not only of her personality but of her writing.
Recommended to teach showing not telling
A Summer Life by Gary Soto

In this lively collection of short essays, Soto takes his reader to a ground-level perspective, recreating in vivid detail the sights, sounds, smells, and textures he knew growing up in his Fresno, California, neighborhood.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay
Recommended to teach point of view
An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.
Recommended to teach traditional narration Good for use with middle grade students
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George, illustrated by John Schoenherr

At 13, an orphan, and unhappily married, Miyax runs away from her husband's parents' home, hoping to reach San Francisco and her pen pal. But she becomes lost in the vast Alaskan tundra, with no food, no shelter, and no idea which is the way to safety.
Recommended to teach characterization Good for use with middle grade students
Going Bohemian: How to Teach Writing Like You Mean It by Lawrence Baines and Anthony Kunkel

Bohemian writing lessons rely on unconventional strategies, art and multimedia, competitive games, and indirect approaches to teach some of the difficult lessons of writing.

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

In Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Amy Krouse Rosenthal has ingeniously adapted the centuries-old format of the encyclopedia to convey the accumulated knowledge of her lifetime in a poignant, wise, often funny, fully realized memoir.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

On Writing begins with King's childhood and his uncannily early focus on writing to tell a story. King next turns to the basic tools of his trade and culminates with a profoundly moving account of how King's overwhelming need to write spurred him toward recovery.

The Art of Fiction by Henry James
In this classic essay which originally appeared in his 1888 collection Partial Portraits, Henry James argues against rigid proscriptions on the novelist's choice of subject and method of treatment.

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.
The opening chapter was specifically mentioned.
Garden, Ashes by Danilo Kiš

In Yugoslavia during the Second World War, young Andi Scham and his beleaguered family are constantly moving, searching for refuge. Yet the physical hardships of the world do not intrude on Andi's adolescent world of vivid observation and imaginative withdrawals.
Recommended to teach style
by Vladimir Nabokov

Humbert Humbert-scholar, aesthete and romantic-has fallen completely and utterly in love with Lolita Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Neither a novel nor a short story collection, The Things They Carried is an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam and back home in America two decades later.

by Walter Dean Myers

Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that Steve served as the lookout.
Recommended to teach style Recommended to teach dialogue Good for use with middle grade students
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's Web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend.

New York the Big City by Will Eisner

Before the Lower East Side was cool, there was the grit and grime of Avenue C, a world filled with street musicians, overflowing sewers, and peeping toms, all recalled in Eisner's unforgettable style.
The vignette "Hairs" was specifically mentioned. The vignette "My Name" was mentioned as a great get-to-know-you piece to use at the beginning of the year.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Told in a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous-it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Recommended to teach graphic novel narrative writing
Winter 1945. WWII. Four refugees. Four stories. Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies, war. As thousands desperately flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom. But not all promises can be kept . . . .

A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Okay for Now explores a seemingly improbable alliance between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself.
Recommended to teach precise word choice and varied sentence structure Good for use with 9th-grade students Excerpts can be used as mini-lessons.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

A tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that, despite its profound flaws, gave the author the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.
Recommended to teach endings
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.
"My Indian Education" was specifically recommended.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

In this darkly comic short story collection, Sherman Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, brilliantly weaves memory, fantasy, and stark realism to paint a complex, grimly ironic portrait of life in and around the Spoke Indian Reservation.
Book descriptions are taken from the Goodreads website.
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along.

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Mentor Texts for Teaching Narrative Writing: Chapter Books - NCTE

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As a follow-up to our November 2017 #NCTEchat, Using Mentor Texts, we asked our social media community to share some of their favorite mentor texts with us. Last week, we shared our community's recommendations for mentor texts to teach argument writing. In the next installment of this series, we've compiled educators' favorite resources for teaching narrative writing.

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Modeling Text Structures Through Nonfiction Mentor Books

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Modeling Text Structures Through Nonfiction Mentor Books

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Suggestions from Texas

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Most writing workshop teachers know what a mentor text is (examples of writing in books, short stories, articles, poems etc.). But, what about how to use a mentor text? When I scoured the internet for the answer to this pressing question I found very little. Thus...this post. I came up with a five step process for using any mentor text. I hope it inspires you to try the process yourself!

Before each writing unit I seek as many, age and grade appropriate, mentor texts as I can find. Here are two resources that can aide you in locating quality mentor texts: Ten Places to Find Mentor Texts and Middle School Mentor Texts.

Once you've found as many texts as you can, then you will want to pick one that you'll refer to most in your mini lessons. Let's call this mentor text the capstone. The other texts should be made available for students to read and for the teacher to refer to during conferences. The texts you choose need to be within the same genre your students will be writing, it needs to be engaging and full of skills you want your students to retain and produce in their own writing.

Before your writing unit make sure to read your capstone mentor text aloud. This guarantees that all students hear and read the whole text. Don't make students do anything except follow along. Read with expression and don't stop until you've finished the whole thing. I know this can be difficult for teachers. We want to stop and explain, teach or question comprehension. Don't do it. Don't ruin the experience of the first read through. If it's hard for you to do this, just remember you are going to be rereading and talking about this text a lot after this first read, so just read, don't talk.

After you've done one cold read through of the capstone text and launched your unit it's time to teach your first writing mini lesson. What will this lesson be about? There are many, many skills to teach when it comes to writing. Let's say you've chosen to teach how to develop characters. You'll want to pick parts from your mentor text that describe characters or include inner thinking, action or dialogue. All of this reveals character. Read parts of the mentor text out loud and analyze the techniques of the author when it comes to character development. Then, try to emulate in your own writing...

During each writing unit you need to have your own piece of writing in progress. This piece of writing does not have to be complete and it definitely doesn't need to be perfect. Writing in front of your students is a powerful way to reveal that writing is a struggle for all of us. This can relieve so much tension some students have about their writing.

Emulating mentor texts may seem hard but it is actually quite simple. All you have to do when you emulate a mentor text is use words/phrases from the mentor text in your own writing and change it up to make it your own.

For example here is a sentence from The Jacket by Gary Soto:

"I remember the green coat that I wore in 5th and 6th grades when you either danced like a champ or pressed yourself against the greasy wall, bitter as a penny toward the happy couples."

Here is my emulation sentence about some shoes:

"I remember those black Airwalk shoes that I wore in 7th and 8th grades when you either skated like a pro or quit after a week because you were too scared of breaking your face."

See how similar but different these two sentences are? This is emulation.

As you can see, using mentor texts is a pretty simple process. All you have to do is choose a skill, read a part of the mentor text that exhibits that skill and try it in your own writing. That's it. It's that simple. Once you've finished a unit repeat the process with another genre of writing.

Do you use mentor texts? If so, in what ways do you use them? Tell us in the comments below!

These are Amazon Affiliate links. This means that if you buy these books by clicking the link I will get a commission.
Ten Places to Find Mentor Texts Differentiate Writing Instruction

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Teach Students HOW to Use Mentor Texts - Amanda Write Now

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Most writing workshop teachers know what a mentor text is (examples of writing in books, short stories, articles, poems etc.). But, what about how to use a mentor text? When I scoured the internet for the answer to this pressing question I found very little. Thus...this post.

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Writing Strategies book

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Jen is the NY Times Bestselling author of The Reading Strategies Book and The Writing Strategies Book, both of which have been translated into French, Chinese, and Spanish. Her newest professional books include Teaching Writing in Small Groups (Heinemann, 2021), Connecting with Students Online, Understanding Texts & Readers and A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences. Complete Comprehension for Fiction and Nonfiction are revised and reimagined whole book assessments and teaching resources based on an award-winning previous publication. She is a sought-after speaker and leader of professional learning.

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Jen is the NY Times Bestselling author of The Reading Strategies Book and The Writing Strategies Book, both of which have been translated into French, Chinese, and Spanish. Her newest professional books include Teaching Writing in Small Groups (Heinemann, 2021), Connecting with Students Online, Understanding Texts & Readers and A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences.

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Generally, academic writing is considered plagiarism to draw any idea or any language from someone else without adequately crediting that source in your

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Plagiarism Concerns

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I coached and taught debate for almost ten years and, in the process, became a bit of a news junkie. So naturally, the political conventions were on 24/7 at my house this summer. And, naturally, like every other English teacher in the world who was tuned into politics this summer, I followed the Melania Trump plagiarism story pretty closely. , many of us thought, a perfect example of how "paraphrasing" can go so very wrong.

However, as the news coverage dragged on, I started to wonder if the general reaction and ultimate resolution may have sent a confusing message to our students. At my school-and most academic institutions-plagiarism equals a zero. Boom. Hammer dropped. But our students watching this summer learned that in the "real world", there isn't always a hammer. Instead, the campaign explained they were simply "common words" and "no harm was meant." Certainly, it was an embarrassment for the campaign, but the dire consequences of plagiarism we always warn our students about didn't really transpire. Nobody got fired, nobody was kicked out of anything...it just kinda went away.

So how do we still use this as a teachable moment? It's a great example of plagiarism-it's the ultimate "un-mentor" text- and I really want to use it. But in this contentious election season, I have no desire to turn this into a political debate with my students. I am very committed to keeping my politics out of my classroom, and I don't want to turn this into a perceived Trump attack.

Here's how I plan to make addressing plagiarism one of the first things I do this year:
1. Discuss: Unaware vs. Careless vs. Devious
The first discussion we must have with our students is about intent. All of Mrs. Trump's defenders argued that she was either unaware that she was plagiarizing or-at the very worst-just did it on accident and, therefore, shouldn't be held accountable. I think there is some merit to this argument IF the plagiarizer has never been taught the rules of proper citation.

At my school, every ninth grade student learns all about citation in Ninth Grade English. It doesn't always stick, so I plan to review with my students and share this poster with them.

If you are aware of the rules and still plagiarizing, you're either being careless or devious. Carelessness we can address with more explicit teaching and careful, consistent practice. The only ones left, then, are the students truly to cheat. Once determining intent is off the table, plagiarism becomes a much simpler discussion.
2. Practice: Quoting vs. Paraphrasing-but still always citing!
The writing we ask our students to do today is different than the types of writing I was asked to do in high school. For me, there was one type of writing that required citation-the research paper. We made our note cards, we used the MLA handbook, and then we went on our merry way. Today's writing is different. So many things require citation where a Works Cited page would not be appropriate. How do you properly attribute someone else's ideas in a blog post? This past spring, the tenth graders at my school wrote editorials. We quickly realized it was silly to have the kids do traditional MLA citation and, instead, taught them how to use hyperlinks. And a speech? You definitely can't use MLA there! Kids need practice attributing sources within the text itself.

This quick practice can begin that work and is something I will do with my students early in the year, but I am realizing this practice is something we will need to revisit throughout the year as we use research in our argumentative and informational writing. As students write in different contexts, we'll need to discuss and practice how to cite their sources appropriately.
3. Communicate: English teachers and other teachers and parents and students

The Trump plagiarism debacle demonstrated very clearly to me that many people do not truly understand what plagiarism is. That's on us as English teachers, I think. We have an opportunity to start educating people about how to give credit where credit is due. That education needs to happen on three levels.

First, English departments need to be completely common in both their teaching of the rules for citation and their application of them. If I am going to hold my tenth graders accountable for proper citation, I need to know exactly what they've learned about citation in ninth grade. I think sometimes we assume that we're all teaching the same things, but discussions can reveal big differences. I know my students learned the difference between a hyperlink and MLA citation; what if the tenth grade teacher down the hall is teaching only MLA? Our kids deserve clear, aligned expectations and constant practice throughout their writing education.

Second, as English teachers we need to help our colleagues in other departments support high quality writing. The Common Core requires informational and argumentative writing in Social Studies and Science, but sometimes non-English teachers are hesitant to hold students accountable for proper citation. Cut and paste runs rampant at times and teachers are unsure of what students know. A quick run-down of what students know and should be able to do could happen at a staff meeting. I'm hoping my principal will allow our department to share something like this at a meeting early in the year.

Third, parents and students need to be crystal clear on our expectations from the beginning. When I heard political commentators saying things like "but she didn't really understand" and "her intentions were good" this summer, I felt like I was hearing well-meaning parents. What a frustrating situation to be in as a parent. You thought your kid was working hard-you even read the paper and thought it was great!- and then the hammer dropped because neither of you really understood the importance of citing someone else's words and ideas. This year I'll be talking explicitly about plagiarism with parents at our Curriculum Night to make sure everyone is on the same page from day one. It's been a part of my syllabus for years, but this year I'll show some examples and explain which skills the students should already have and which ones we'll be working on this year in class.
What about you? Are you planning to use Melania Trump's speech as an "un-mentor" text this year? Share what you're doing in the comments below or connect with me on Twitter @TeacherHattie.
Ultimately, I want to avoid ever having to wonder if a student is unaware or careless or devious. I truly believe the vast majority of my students want to do the right thing. If I am intentional about helping them understand how to properly give credit to others' words and ideas right from day one, they can do that.

-Hattie

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Unaware vs Careless vs Devious: Teaching Plagiarism

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I coached and taught debate for almost ten years and, in the process, became a bit of a news junkie. So naturally, the political conventions were on 24/7 at my house this summer. And, naturally, like every other English teacher in the world who was tuned into politics this summer, I followed the Melania Trump...

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Amandawritenow.com

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Every writing unit should start with mentor texts. Students need many examples of the type of writing we expect them to do. In this article, I've compiled my favorite middle school mentor texts. Each mentor text includes grade levels, a summary of the text and skills you could teach.

Note: This article doesn't cover how to teach using mentor texts. Read how to use mentor texts here.

Help make this article a more powerful resource for teachers by sharing your favorite mentor texts in the comments at the end.

Personal narratives are short stories about one important event in a person's life. When I teach personal narrative, students often complain that their lives are boring, that nothing substantial or worth writing about has ever happened to them. I remind these students that narrative is just another word for story and give them permission to embellish and make parts up. Students breathe a sigh of relief when I tell them this. Mentor texts can also help students get ideas.

It's Rachel's eleventh birthday but she doesn't feel eleven. On this day she feels more like one. Her insensitive teacher wants to find the owner of a red sweater that's been sitting in the coatroom for a very, very long time. No one in Rachel's class wants to claim it. When Rachel is accused she doesn't speak up for herself. The following writing skills are beautifully done in this short story:

James finds a sick kitten in the woods and tells the kitten everything will be okay. He takes it home hoping his his family will help. His mother says, "we'll see...". His brother Paul, who works for Dr. Milk, comes home and knows what to do. They drive the sickly kitten over to the vet's office and the scenes that follow are heart wrenching. This story flows back and forth between the events of this day and memories involving James's family. These components of narrative writing stand out most in the story:

Will is in sixth grade and invited to Maggie's party. He and Maggie have been exchanging notes in class. She confessed she liked him better than two other boys. Will gets ready for the party and has high hopes for the night. He and Maggie slow dance and afterward Will gets pressure from his friends to french kiss Maggie. When I read this story out loud to my students they are anything but disengaged. This story is related in so many ways. The following writing skills could easily be taught using this mentor text:

My husband and I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for five years and bought season ski passes every year we were there. We spent most weekends in the Wasatch mountains skiing the greatest snow on Earth. As fantastic as this sounds, things went very wrong one day. Erik, my husband wanted to ski out of bounds. We'd done so before and nothing had gone wrong but every time we did it I struggled with a decision, follow my husband out of bounds or stick to the groomers. On this day, I chose to follow and things went seriously wrong. The following writing skills could be taught using this short story:

What's the difference between memoir and personal narrative? Memoirs are usually centered on a time period in a person's life, or a theme, whereas personal narratives are about one important event. The memoirs below are powerful stories about facing both small issues and huge. Your students will find connections and ideas from reading these:

Amy Tan is in love at the age of 14 with a boy named Robert. He doesn't know it. To her horror, his family is invited over to dinner for Thanksgiving. Amy is mortified by her family and their traditional Chinese ways. This story is so short but is packed with wonderful writing lessons about the following topics:

Gary needs a new coat. He describes a super cool biker jacket to his mom and is excited by the potential this new piece of clothing could have on his identity. The next day he finds a guacamole colored, too large coat hanging from is bedpost. His mom says it's for him. He wears the ugly thing for years and describes in sad detail the negative impact it had on his life and his eventual acceptance of the thing and his situation.

Alexie describes his love of reading from the age of three to adulthood. He knows this love of reading saved him from the poverty and struggles of life on an Indian Reservation. But he doesn't just want to save his own life, he wants to save others' lives too, through books and writing.

Jing-mei's mom has big plans for her daughter. She wants her daughter to be a prodigy. But as time goes on and Jing-mei fails her mother's expectations over and over, Jing-mei begins to resent her mother and fail on purpose. She and her mother eventually face off and Jing-mei wins. Her mother backs off, but eventually Jing-mei regrets what she did and the things she said to her mother that day.

I believe that most teachers neglect teaching fiction writing because it is a beast! Fiction includes many, many genres and trying to teach how to write all those genres seems daunting. It is daunting! Here's what I suggest...let students choose the genre and teach core writing skills that apply to all of them. Those core skills might be: plot, character development, setting, tone, mood, point of view, description, dialogue, theme, figurative language, transitions, organization and the writing process.

But what about mentor texts? You can do one of two things: use short excerpts from your favorite fictional books or use short stories. Below are some of my favorite fictional short stories. I think most English teachers use these stories to teach reading analysis, but fictional writing skills can be taught with these stories too!

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Margot is from planet Earth and just moved to Venus. Most children in her class have never seen the sun, because on Venus it rains for seven years straight. On the day that the rain is finally supposed to stop the kids in Margot's class make a horrendously cruel decision. The following fictional writing skills are very obvious in this classic sci-fi story:

Thank You Ma'am by Langston Hughes
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Mrs. Jones is walking through the street at night when suddenly a young boy tries to take her purse. She is a strong women and grabs a hold of the boy and doesn't let go. Instead she brings him to her house, feeds him and talks to him. She learns his name is Roger and soon they begin to develop an understanding. This very short story is packed with writing lessons, here are some of the more obvious ones:

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
Best for 8th Grade (has mature content)

Jack or "Kan-kan", as his mother likes to call him, has a magical, paper lion named Laohu. Jack's mother made it for him. She has an incredible talent for making origami creatures come to life. Jack loves all his "pets", but when another boy comes over with his Star Wars toys, Jack realizes he is different...and even more so...his mother is different. He begins to keep his distance from his mother and wants her to be more American by learning English. Jack stops speaking Chinese with her and as time goes on he discovers the story behind his mother's past. This story is worth a read by you and your students! Here are some writing skills you could teach using it:

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

George and Lydia Hadley just purchased the HappyLife Home. This house does absolutely everything you can think of for them and their two children. It even has a playroom that can turn into the African savannah for their children's entertainment. Lack of discipline and too much reliance on technology leads to a treacherous end. There are so many awesome writing techniques used in this story:

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Appropriate for 8th Grade

Members of a small village gather for many events throughout the year, square dances, teen club, the Halloween fair and other civic activities. And now all the members of this small town, men, women and children gather for the annual lottery. This dark story has many writing techniques that students can emulate in their own fictional stories:

It is fairly easy to find information mentor texts, they are all over the internet in the form of blog posts and news articles. Tween Tribune and Dogo News are my favorite free websites for informational writing mentor texts. They always have articles that interest students. Kelly Gallagher also has a comprehensive list of both information and argumentative articles all formatted to use in your classroom: Articles of the Week. Gallagher uses these articles in his high School English classes, so they are more advanced, however, access to all of these articles in one place can be super helpful for an 8th grade teacher like myself and maybe you too.

Teens and adults say they feel tethered to their phones from Tween Tribune
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Parents are depicted as a bit hypocritical in this article (students will love it). They say they want their children to use their devices less. Yet, parents seem to be on their devices just as much, if not more than their children!

How Online Gaming Platform Roblox is Helping Teenagers Become Millionaires from Dogo News
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Kids can become developers for games like Roblox. The company pays 30% in royalties and this has made some millionaires! Students will love reading about how to make money through what they are most passionate about...video games!

Homework and Tests Stressing You Out? Consider Moving to Sweden from Dogo News
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

A school in Sweden decided to do an experiment...no homework or tests for a whole month. If stress is reduced in these students' lives they may never have to do homework again! Other countries are experimenting with this idea too. Students will love learning about the negative impacts of homework in this article. Here are some of the features of this article students could emulate in their own informational writing:

Giant boom hopes to corral Pacific Ocean's plastic trash from Tween Tribune
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Between Hawaii and California there floats a patch of trash twice the size of Texas! It is disgusting. Boyan Slat, a 23 year old, has taken it upon himself to find a solution. This article talks about his invention and how he is working toward a solution to this very large and concerning problem. Here are some writing skills students can glean from reading this informative article:

Ever wonder why it is so difficult to find mentor texts to teach literary essays? It's because people don't write literary essays in the real world! The only time this type of writing is done is in school. This worries me a bit because I believe students should be writing what people in the real world write. Then, I came across this article called, Thinking About Mentor Texts for Literary Analysis, and was convinced that yes we should definitely still teach literary essays. Not because it is what we've always done in English classes, our reason should be to help students develop their analysis skills so that they can think critically about world events, business, politics, books and even their own lives! The mentor texts below are about a wide range of topics but can still be used to teach literary essay writing skills.

Picture Books Tell Children the Harsh Story of Refugee Picture Books by Monica Edingar
Appropriate for 8th Grade (advanced writing)

Edingar starts off arguing how important it is that we talk about the experiences of migrants and refugees, especially to our children. She then goes on to beautifully summarize and analyze six children's books about people from places ranging from Chile to Greece to Mexico. Students could learn these writing techniques from reading all or part of this article:

YA Thrillers to Give You Chills This Summer by Elisabeth Egan
Appropriate for 8th Grade

Three thriller YA novels are discussed in this well written article. Not only will students learn the writing techniques listed below, they'll also learn about some high interest YA novels too.

10 Benefits of Reading Everyday by Lana Winter-Hebert
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

This article discusses some excellent reasons why we should be reading everyday. Many important points are brought up such as how reading helps you become a better writer and develop analytical skills! The following writing techniques could be taught using this article:

Movie theaters fight streaming by assaulting the senses
Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Movie theaters are struggling to compete with the streaming television services Netflix and Amazon Prime. So, they are adding many creative features to keep movie goers coming back. Reclining seats, food service and even augmented reality! There are many things to learn from this article:

Finding age appropriate argumentative writing samples that are at the middle school level is tricky. I rely heavily on newspaper editorials. This is real life argumentative writing at its finest. However, newspapers are often written above our students' reading levels. Because of this fact I read these articles out loud with students first read then I have them reread and annotate. It is more likely students will retain the information and the writing skills you teach when you read it out loud first.

Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away by James Doubek
Appropriate for Grades 7-8 (article is a bit advanced)

Doubek argues that taking notes by hand is actually better than taking notes on a laptop. When you take notes by hand you synthesize information into memorable chunks because you can't write absolutely everything down when a teacher is lecturing. When you take notes using a laptop you tend to type word for word what you hear, skipping the important synthesis and thinking process. Not only is this an important article for students to read, you can also teach the below writing skills using the article too.

The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety by Richard A. Friedman
Appropriate for 8th Grade (term sex is used)

Friedman is a psychiatrist and argues that screens are not causing a rise in psychological disorders like anxiety and depression. Studies done about the impact on screens to our mental health only show correlations and not causation. He argues that anxiety and stress are a normal part of everyday life and parents need to stop assuming it is psychological trauma. This article has all sorts of argumentative writing techniques students can learn from:

An Open Letter About Female Coaches by Pau Gasol
Best for 8th Grade (some locker room talk)

Pau Gasol is an NBA basketball player who has been coached by Becky Hammon, the first and only female to ever coach in the NBA. Paul writes this letter to question societal norms and assumptions about women in positions that are dominated by men. It is an excellent read. Here are some skills you could teach using this article:

Is it Actually Smart to Sit Still? by Hannah Amell

Hannah Amell is a 15 year old New York Times Learning Network essay finalist. Find out more about the contests here: Learning Network Contests. She wrote her editorial arguing against block schedules. She thinks schools need to start incorporating more movement in their classrooms. Here are some writing techniques she used:

Thanks to TED Talks (and the transcripts that are provided right beneath them), there are tons and tons of examples of speeches available online for our students. I believe this is why so many teachers are shifting from having students give speeches to having their own TED Talks! If you do this have students watch some talks, read the transcripts and then begin planning their own. Here are my favorite TED Talks to show students:

Overcoming Obstacles [ Transcript ] by Stephen Claunch
Appropriate for All Grades

Stephen Claunch was born with many health issues. But these issues have not stopped him from reaching his goals. Stephen explains that obstacles can be overcome with hard work, not excuses. There are multiple heartwarming stories and lessons students need to learn in this talk!

How to Start a Movement [ Transcript] by Derek Sivers
Appropriate for All Grades

This humorous talk analyzes the process of creating a movement. Sivers points out that leaders are important but followers might be more important to making a movement. Here are some speech writing topics you can cover with this talk:

Summary of Lessons to End Speech

Using Humor

Video Analysis in a Speech

8 Secrets to Success [ Transcript] by Richard St. John
Appropriate for Grade 8 (the words damn and assholes are used)

This super concise and funny talk gives students advice for how to be successful in life. Here are some speech writing techniques you can teach with this talk:

How to Tie Your Shoes [ Transcript] by Terry Moore
Appropriate for All Grades

This short talk teaches us that we've been tying our shoes wrong! It is eye-opening in the simplest way. Here are a few speech writing techniques you can teach with this talk:

Connecting with the Audience

Doing a Demonstration During a Speech

Using a Quote to End a Speech

Type your favorite mentor texts in the comments below...
How I Teach Reading and Writing Workshop in 54 Minutes 10 Best YouTube Channels for Writing Teachers

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Mentor Texts for Middle School by Genre+Summaries and Skills to Teach

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Every writing unit should start with mentor texts. Students need many examples of the type of writing we expect them to do. In this article, I've compiled my favorite middle school mentor texts. Each mentor text includes grade levels, a summary of the text and skills you could teach.

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Jane Hanson,PhD

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Example of Explicit Instruction- math class

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Example of Explicit Instruction- math class

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Explicit, Systematic Instruction: High School

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Listen to this post as a podcast (sponsored by Listenwise):
Plagiarism can be a real pain. Most teachers have had to deal with it in some form or another, and a whole lot of us still haven't figured out the best way to combat it. Many of us issue stern warnings and threaten serious, soul-crushing consequences. Others also use plagiarism checkers to catch students in the act.

While these methods can deter students from plagiarizing and catch them if they do, they operate on the assumption that all plagiarism is devious, that all students who plagiarize know exactly what they're doing, and our mission is to catch and punish. Now because I don't believe that assumption is true, I think we could be handling the problem with a lot more finesse.

How Well Do Students Understand Plagiarism?

In my own experience as a teacher and a parent, I have seen acts of plagiarism that I truly believe were rooted in ignorance.

Take my 5th-grade daughter, for instance. A few months ago, she and her best friend were collaborating on a Google Slides presentation about a Native American tribe. Reading over it as she worked, I found sentence after sentence written in language she never could have come up with. When I asked her where she got the information, she told me point blank that she copied and pasted it from a website. It took me forever to explain why that was wrong and what she needed to do instead. She seriously had no idea. She wasn't trying to cheat. Eventually, I convinced her that she really, really needed to revise, and even though she did, I could tell she was mostly humoring me.

Okay, that's 5th grade, you say. Surely it gets better as students get older?

Marginally. Let's take a look at college undergrads. In two separate studies, undergraduates were asked to identify incidences of plagiarism. In both, students' ability to correctly label plagiarism could best be described as limited (Dawson & Overfield, 2006; Marshall & Garry, 2005). In other words, a significant number of students have an incomplete understanding of what plagiarism actually is. And if they don't always know when they're doing it, it's going to be pretty hard to get them to stop.

To be clear, I'm not arguing that all students who plagiarize are innocent. I've had students whose attempts at passing off someone else's work as their own were so blatant, I took it as a personal insult. But I do believe we can cut way back on less deliberate instances of plagiarism by teaching students the skills to avoid it.

Direct Instruction Works

Unfortunately, students are expected to learn how to avoid plagiarism by some kind of osmosis. As they progress from grade to grade, they are expected to already know how to weave research into their writing in original, elegant, and ethical ways, but far too often, they don't have this skill set. Not at all. So rather than going straight to the plagiarism checkers, we need to explicitly teach these skills, and we need to do it more than once if we want good results.

How? First, we need to help them identify plagiarism. When students are shown different examples of plagiarism and taught-even through basic lecture-the many forms it can take, their understanding of what constitutes plagiarism gets much more sophisticated (Landau, Druen, & Arcuri, 2002; Moniz, Fine, & Bliss, 2008).

Then we need to give them practice in correctly citing their sources. When students get hands-on practice with paraphrasing and correctly citing sources, especially if that practice comes with instructor feedback, plagiarism is significantly reduced (Emerson, Rees, & MacKay, 2005).

Below I have outlined five exercises you can do with students in grades 7-12 to give them a much better understanding of what plagiarism is and how to correctly integrate research into their own writing.

5 Exercises for Reducing Student Plagiarism

These exercises come from my own classroom practice and are supported by the above research. (If you'd like these exercises in a classroom-ready format, take a look at my Avoiding Plagiarism Mini-Unit at the end of this post.)

Before we start, two important tips:

First, use simple texts for practice. If you want students to read and cite challenging academic texts, that's fine for later, but to teach them the skills of writing from research and giving proper credit, make the reading material easy so they don't waste energy struggling with that. Once they have the writing and citation skills down, they'll be better equipped to plug in more challenging sources.

Second, do these exercises together in class. These would not be good lessons for flipped or blended learning, where students just work through them on their own. The skills are complex and often require a judgment call to determine if they have been done correctly. For every exercise, students should be getting feedback from you, from their group members, or both. Setting aside class time to do these together will pay off in the long run.

Here are the exercises:

Exercise 1: Recognizing Plagiarism
Required Time: 15-20 minutes
As mentioned earlier, students have an incomplete understanding of what actually constitutes plagiarism. This exercise uses the concept attainment instructional strategy of showing students "yes" and "no" examples to help students refine their definition of a concept.

1. Have students read a short, simple text. This could be anywhere from 500-800 words, on a somewhat familiar topic. Something like this article about bees would do the trick.

2. Show several teacher-created examples of student writing based on that text. In some cases, the writing should demonstrate plagiarism, and in other cases, it should not. For each one, have students decide whether they think it represents plagiarism or not. Have them discuss this in groups if possible. After each example, tell them if they are correct or not, and explain why.

3. Eventually, they should get to the point where they can correctly identify most examples as "plagiarism" or "not plagiarism."

Exercise 2: Summarizing
Required Time: 20-30 minutes
Once students know what plagiarism looks like, have them practice putting the information they learn from texts into their own words. Here we're not talking about a full-length summary; the skill of summarization can be applied in smaller bursts, and it's absolutely necessary for writing about the things you research. Students need to be able to read something, digest it, then explain what they learned in their own language. In the context of plagiarism, that skill is referred to as summarization.

For this exercise and the ones that follow it, use a classic I do, we do, you do format to model the process described below: Start by modeling the process yourself (the "I" step), then repeat it as a whole class with you in the lead or by having students try it in pairs or groups (the "we" step), and finally have students make a fresh attempt on their own (the "you" step).

Here's the process to teach:

1. Choose a 1-2 paragraph section of a text. (If you haven't already gutted the one used for Exercise 1, that will work; otherwise, find a fresh one). Read it several times to make sure you understand it.

2. Turn your paper over (or minimize their screen, if you are reading it digitally), then think for a minute about what the section said.

3. Next, turn to a partner or group and explain what you learned from the paragraph in your own words.

4. Write a few sentences summarizing that information without looking back at the original source. Their summary should sound like YOU, not the source.

5. After you have written your summary, check the original source to make sure your summary is correct and that key terms are spelled correctly.

6. Finally, make sure you give credit to your source for this information. (Show students a few different sentence stems so they have options for building their sentence, e.g., "According to..." "In her article, _____ says...")

This process, if done carefully, will show students how important is is to disconnect from the original text when composing. After the "you do" part of the exercise, let students study the paragraphs of their peers and evaluate each other for plagiarism. Looking at how other people summarized the same idea will help them see the range of possibilities.

Exercise 3: Paraphrasing
Required Time: 20-30 minutes
There's a fine line between summarizing and paraphrasing, which is . Each one needs to be treated a little differently. When you summarize, you are pulling together lots of information and making it your own. When you paraphrase, you are taking a more specific, unique idea from one author and using similar- explained here by the OWL at Purdue but not exactly the same -language.

For this lesson, use the same I do, we do, you do format to practice this process:

1. Read a section of a text (like the bee article mentioned above).

2. Point to a specific idea and show them how to paraphrase it and give credit to the author. Show students a few different sentence stems so they have options for building their sentence ("According to..." "In her article, _____ says...")

3. Have students practice the same skill with a different passage, checking their response with each other, then reviewing it with the class.

Exercise 4: Using Direct Quotes
Required Time: 20-30 minutes
The next level up from paraphrasing is using some of the exact words from the source. This will help students understand that the only time it's okay to copy someone else's exact words into your work is when you put those words in quotes and give them credit for them.

For this exercise, use the same I do, we do, you do pattern as in exercises 2 and 3 to show students how to quote a sentence or phrase from the original text, using some of the same sentence stems from exercise 3.

Exercise 5: Using a Formal Citation Style

Required time: 30-40 minutes

At the university level, students are expected to use a formal citation style (such as MLA or APA) when writing papers, and the Common Core requires students to start applying a formal citation style as early as grade 7. So choose the style your district uses most frequently and teach students the basics.

Give students 2 to 3 sample items to use as practice sources. I recommend sticking with simple, predictable items that resemble the kinds of things students will access in their own research. For middle and secondary students, this most likely means online articles and (maybe) books.

Start with the references list at the end of the paper (or Works Cited, if you're doing MLA). I recommend beginning this way because many students will already be somewhat familiar with the concept of a bibliography, so this is a logical jump. Also, when you do in-text citations later, those citations will actually refer to something, since the references will already be listed at the end.

After you've built the references list, show students how to modify the author mentions they already made in exercises 3 and 4 so they match the in-text citation format of your chosen style.

Do all of this slowwwwly, with plenty of time for students to check their work with you and with each other.

When you think they have the basics down, throw two new resources at them-a book and an online article-and see if they can repeat the process: First have them build a reference list, then then paraphrase something from each one and do an in-text citation for each.

If it fits with your curriculum, the next step after this exercise would be to have students actually do a bit of research and write their own essay or extended response with a reference list and in-text citation

By the way, citation generators like EasyBib and BibMe or the citation feature in Google Docs can be wonderful time savers, but because they are not fail-safe, students will get the most use out of them after they learn to do their own citations manually.

Get these exercises in a classroom-ready mini-unit

If you like the exercises described in this post and want them ready to teach tomorrow, get a copy of Avoiding Plagiarism, my classroom-ready mini unit for grades 7-12. It contains all five exercises in PowerPoint slideshows, plus printable handouts for student use.
References
Dawson, M. M. & Overfield, J. A. (2006). Plagiarism: Do students know what it is? Bioscience education, 8(1), 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.3108/beej.8.1

Emerson, L., Rees, M. T., & MacKay, B. (2005). Scaffolding academic integrity: Creating a learning context for teaching referencing skills. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2(3), 3. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1059488.pdf

Landau, J. D., Druen, P. B., & Arcuri, J. A. (2002). Methods for helping students avoid plagiarism. Teaching of Psychology, 29(2), 112-115. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15328023TOP2902_06

Marshall, S. & Garry, M. (2005). How well do students really understand plagiarism? Proceedings from ASCILITE 2005: Balance, Fidelity, Mobility: Maintaining the Momentum? Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/52_Marshall.pdf

Moniz, R., Fine, J., & Bliss, L. (2008). The effectiveness of direct-instruction and student-centered teaching methods on students' functional understanding of plagiarism. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 15(3), 255-279. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10691310802258174

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Listen to this post as a podcast (sponsored by Listenwise): Plagiarism can be a real pain. Most teachers have had to deal with it in some form or another, and a whole lot of us still haven't figured out the best way to combat it.

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Source for mentor texts

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Reading A-Z: The online reading program with downloadable books to print and assemble | Reading A-Z

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Award-winning reading solution with thousands of leveled readers, lesson plans, worksheets and assessments to teach guided reading, reading proficiency and comprehension to K-5 students

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Use Mentor Text to Analyze the Assignment

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Use Mentor Text to Analyze the Assignment

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In my classroom, the school year typically comes on like gangbusters. I begin fast and furious as a sort of illusion - more for my benefit than for the students. It's as though I feel that the faster I tread the beginning-of-school water, the less I'll feel like I'm drowning.

This year has been very different.

My maternity leave it looming large, and in an effort to stick with the plan I made with my substitute in the spring, I am slowing way down. The result is that we are spending our days doing all of the activities I have always wanted to do to build community .

A couple of weeks ago, Stacey at Two Writing Teachers posted a great idea for using a book of author-inspired art to help students introduce themselves to the class. I decided to take the leap and try it with the added bonus of using it as a means to introduce students to mentor texts.

On Tuesday, the first day of class, I shared the three illustrations that Stacey shared in her original post. I told students that these, while visual, were still texts that we could study. In fact, they are mentor texts - any text that inspires writing or teaches us something about writing.

I asked them to study these examples and, together, to make a list of "rules" for creating author introduction art:

I wanted students to go through these steps in order to learn how we use mentor texts. What I was surprised to learn was how much my ninth graders really needed these rules in order to create their own author introduction art. To shift their dependence from teacher to mentor, I redirected all of their questions back to the mentor text.

"Should I use color?" Look at the mentor text.

"How many images do I need?" What does the mentor text tell you?

Students shared their introductions in the form of a gallery walk. As the students roamed and read, I asked them to jot down any questions they had for one another (either clarification or follow-up questions) and to make note of commonalities they noticed among class members.

When we had all had a chance to silently "meet" one another, we had a group discussion - asking follow-up questions, playing impromptu games of, "Does anyone here have a ____?", "Has anyone here been to_____?" By the time class was over, my previously nervous freshmen were smiling and talking to one another.

Only time will tell if this activity had a deep impact on my students' understanding of mentor texts, but it certainly them some important, early exposure to mentor texts. It set the tone that individual study and inquiry - independence - is going to get them further than asking the teacher. And it helped my students feel more comfortable in my classroom.

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Every August teachers everywhere lose sleep over the first days of school. Some of us dream of showing up without lesson plans, copiers that break down leaving us syllabus-less. Some dream of classrooms without enough desks, of desks without chairs.

The thing that keeps me up at night is the impression I'm going to leave with students in the first few days. I rack my brain every year for an activity that will accomplish the following:

set the tone for the year

inspire students

get students writing and reading right away

show rather than tell about the routines of the class

help students learn one another's names and get to know one another on a meaningful level

As usual this August I spent several sleepless nights trying to invent an activity that might fulfill this criteria. And I kept coming back to this book that I couldn't keep on my shelves last year: Robin Bowman's It's Complicated: The American Teenager.
photo taken from amazon.com
Students love this book for its candid interviews and stunning portraits of teenagers. The more I thought about this book the more I began to see it as more than a book. I began to envision it as a mentor text that could not only inspire my students but teach them something about writing and about one another. The result of my insomnia was The American Teenager Project.
Getting Ready:

I read through the book, tagging interviews of 13 and 14-year-olds (I am teaching 8th and 9th grade this year).

Then I reread these entries looking for compelling profiles that would represent a variety of perspectives, worldviews, and lifestyles. I narrowed it down to six.

I photocopied the entries and made packets for each student.

I typed up the list of the 26 interview questions Bowman asked her subjects, removing only three which I felt weren't appropriate for younger students or relevant to the year 2014 (Bowman conducted her interviews in the early 2000s.)

I thought about questions I might ask to help them probe these mentor texts like writers (see below).

I checked out a set of iPads from the library so students could record their interviews in class.

Getting Started: Day #1

1. On the first day of school, I welcomed students to my classroom, took attendance, and did a 60 second overview of the syllabus. I asked students to read and annotate the syllabus for homework, returning the next day with questions.

2. Then we put the syllabi away, and I said, "I want to tell you about a book my students have loved." I showed them Bowman's book, spreading open the pages of the book and walking around the room as I gave a summary, some information about Bowman, and a clincher. "If you've ever wondered what other teens just like you really think about this life, this is the book for you." Then I read one interview with the book under the document camera. This was a perfect way to begin book talks and a great prelude into our own American Teenager Project.

3. Next I passed out the packets and gave a brief introduction to mentor texts. I said, "Here are six pages from the book. These are mentor texts. Mentor texts are anything that inspire and teach us about writing." Then we began reading the interviews out loud with these guiding questions:

What do you notice about these teens? Are there any common themes?

What surprises you about the interviews?

What do you connect with? Where do you see yourself in these teenagers?

I gave small groups a chance to discuss these questions, and then we shared our reactions as a whole group. Many of them commented on the fact that much of the stress and anxiety felt by teens stems from their parents.

For homework I asked students to read through the interviews again, this time with a different focus. I asked them to mark-up the text and jot down their answers to these questions:

How do you think the writer, Robin Bowman, chose what to put in?

How do you think Bowman chose what to leave out?

What makes the responses compelling?

What do you want to know more about?

Day #2
The next day we met as a group of writers, trading our insights about these interviews. After the students talked in small groups, and we made a large list on the overhead of our observations.

Then I passed out instructions for our own version of The American Teenager Project. That night for homework, students chose a minimum of six questions and took notes for each of the questions. These notes became talking points for their interviews the next day.

We spent the remainder of the class talking about the syllabus and answering questions they had about the class.
Day #3
On day three, students paired up with someone at their table. They were invited to find a spot on campus to conduct their interviews. I asked them to record between 3-5 minutes of footage. I thought 3-5 minutes would give them enough fodder without making the transcription process unbearable. They were also instructed to take a picture of their subject. Before the students set out to do their interviewing, I did a minilesson on the qualities of a good interviewer and the qualities of a good interviewee. They copied these notes into their notebooks. For homework that night, they transcribed the audio.

(Students loved the interview process. Many of them had fun experimenting with filters-something I hadn't even thought of-to help them "shape" their portraits.)
Day #4
On day four, students brought their transcribed interviews to class. I conducted a mini lesson that helped students think about how they might shape the interview and thus the story of their subject. We talked about what kinds of responses they might keep verses which responses they might leave out. I reminded them that Bowman likely had an hour or more of footage for each subject because she asked all 26 questions of every person. We looked at the interviews again and estimated that the final interviews were likely 1-2 minutes in length.

Several students brought up the idea of wanting to emphasize a certain understanding, story, or theme about their partner, which would entail cutting out anything that didn't connect to that theme. Other students said it was important to represent the complexity of their partner by showing lots of different responses. Students used highlighters to trace emerging themes in their partner's interview. They continued this work for homework.
Day #5
I conducted a short mini-lesson on how to format the interview. I asked students to study Bowman's profiles and think about these questions:

Do you notice any interesting punctuation? How is this punctuation being used?

How does Bowman indicate the end of one response and the beginning of a new one?

How long is each profile?

Do you notice any titles or ancillary information? Any other font features?

These questions lead to conversations about the following writerly things:

what an ellipses is and why writers use them

what an em-dash is and why writers use them

rules about indenting paragraphs

how images enhance text

what wrapped text does and how to wrap text in a Google Doc or Word Doc

I also took this opportunity to show them how to sign in to Gmail (students already have school accounts), access Drive, and create a new Document. Students used workshop time to format their interviews or continue shaping them. Some of them explored Robin Bowman's website for more inspiration.
Day #6
On Day #6, students brought printed copies of their final "collaborative portraits" (the term Bowman uses to define this genre of writing) and we had a Read Around. Students put everything away and set their writing in the center of their desks. Portraits were rotated clockwise, and each group had about 5 minutes to cycle through four. Then students got up and moved to the next table. In a class of 20, it took about 25-30 minutes for every student to read every portrait. I had asked students to keep in the mind the name of two individuals they would like to get to know better this year based on what they learned about them in their profiles.

For homework that night, students completed this survey to reflect on their first writing project. Here are a few responses that stood out to me:

[I learned that] I need to have better conversation starts and ends. - Brian

[I discovered that] I would like to write more interviews about people because I find it interesting. -Elizabeth

[Through this activity] I learned that I want to write more about actual people and less about fictional people and stories. -Cole

I did not know how interested I was in learning about someone else. -Summer

I prefer this assignment to [typical getting-to-know-you activities] because we get to know people on a deeper level...I discovered that I would like to explore writing about the future. One of the questions was what you want to be when you grow up and it got me interested in the future. - Kennedy

What I learned about myself through this activity was that I can open myself up a little more and talk about things I usually wouldn't talk about. -Grayson

As I was answering the questions, I started to realize that the future and where my life is going to go is something that really interests me. -Aubrey Scott

I learned that I am unique and most of my peers never had the experience that I have had. - Annalynn

I discovered that I would love to explore [through writing this year] the Depression because Reed's interview about the homeless made me think about the Depression. -Garett

[I learned that] I would maybe like to explore writing more about other [people's] views of the world. -Reed

I would like to learn more about inequality in different teens throughout the world and family relationships because it seems like a ton more people than we realize face problems within their families. -Ravenel

I learned to be more honest with people and that it is okay to share your feelings with friends. -Liam

[I prefered this assignment to typal getting-to-know-you activities] because it explains your story better... -Michael

I discovered the topic of ethnicities and I would like to write about that because I don't even know mine. -Kara

While reflecting on the project myself, I realized it had a few surprising outcomes.

It helped me identify which students are going to need more technological support this year and which students I may be able to call on to help others with technology.

It helped complicate some of the assumptions I had made about students early on.

It helped me share the following language and routines of the workshop without having to explicitly talk about them:

mentor texts

time to write & conferring

the development of a "so what" or significance

how to create a document in Google Docs

what is genre study

what is a mini-lesson

In the end, the portraits were moving, rich, and candid. It's amazing what can happen when you give kids a camera and ask them to tell their story...

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Summer Mentor Text Countdown Week 6 - Mentor Texts for the First Week of School

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Are you ready to start planning for the first week of school? We use mentor texts in our classes from the very first day of school. We want to lay down a strong foundation and also some strong expectations that mentor texts will be our go-to source for inspiring our work, giving us how-tos, and...

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Where the original assignment came from...

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Where the original assignment came from...

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I paused when I reached the James Gulliver Hancock's About the Author page of Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff. Instead of the typical paragraph-long blurb about him, his work, and his family, it looked like this:

And that's when I exclaimed, "This would be a great way to have kids introduce themselves to each other during the first week of the school year!" I loved the portraits of each person in Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff since each one gave me a better sense of what each person is/was like since Hancock featured their quirkiness on every page. I thought this book would be good for teachers to show students in the fall to encourage them to introduce themselves to one another in a more artistic way (and to be accepting of one another's weird stuff early on!).

Like many teachers, I used to have students complete writing interviews, but that was just for me - their teacher. Then I moved to Celebrity Writer Profiles, which is an idea from Jim Vopat. The Celebrity Writer Profiles were stellar since I posted them in the hallway outside of our classroom. The kids used to look at one another's profiles before school and during transition times ( and when they were dilly-dallying in the hall on their way back from the bathroom).

I think this introducing oneself in an artistic way that acknowledges one's own weirdness is something that will help to build a supportive writing community (especially in middle and high school when everyone feels different!). Granted, an assignment like this would've scared me as a kid since I was never much of an artist. Therefore, if you're going to try this out in your classroom this fall, I would provide non-artistic students with some basic drawing books (Think: Ed Emberly) to help them get over that hump!

Here are a few more peeks into Hancock's book. As you'll notice from these excerpts, this book is appropriate to use as a mentor with students in grades six of higher.

All images in this post come from Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff by James Gulliver Hancock, published by Chronicle Books, 2014.

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:

This giveaway is for a copy of Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff. Many thanks to Princeton Architectural Press for donating a copy for one reader.

For a chance to win this copy of Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers, please leave a comment about this post by Friday, August 22nd at 11:59 p.m. EDT. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner, whose name I will announce at the bottom of this post, by Sunday, August 24th.

Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so I can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, my contact at Princeton Architectural Press will ship your book out to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)

Comments are now closed.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on this post. I used a random number generator and pjjmison's commenter number came up so she'll receive a copy of Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers. Here's what she said:

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I paused when I reached the James Gulliver Hancock's About the Author page of Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff .

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Order it here.

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Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of Fifty Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff

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Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of Fifty Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff [Hancock, James Gulliver] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of Fifty Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff

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Focus on 6-8th grades

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PowerSchool Learning : Writing Matters : Mentor Texts

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I first heard of mentor texts from my friend who is an amazing fourth grade teacher. At the time, I figured they were just for younger kids. Then, I was lucky enough to attend two PD sessions with the oh-so-inspirational Penny Kittle and discovered that they were invaluable tools for high school teachers too. So let's put this in English class terms: if you want your kids to
Mentor texts are models of effective writing that we show our students. They can be longer, like a short story or article used as an exemplar for a type of writing assignment, or shorter ones (sentences or longer passages) used to illustrate certain skills or techniques.
It took me a while to get the hang of using mentor passages, but once I found my stride, I was off and running. Now, they are a staple in my classroom.
Let me tell you why and how. And, if you stick with me, I'll give you some fabulous freebies too.

The why is pretty simple: mentor passages help us s how our students how to write well. They don't have to guess how to craft an effective sentence because they have the blueprint right in front of them. Think of real life. If you want to improve your golf swing, which would you rather: the instructor stand there and tell you what to do, or grab that club and show you? Or, better yet, would you rather watch someone set up that IKEA dresser, or read the directions and figure it out yourself? I think we all know the answer to that! The next step would be very important, though. After seeing how it's done, you have to try it yourself.
learn to use a semi-colon, instead of giving them a lesson and a handout of exercises, you provide sentences where the semi-colon is used properly, and ask students to figure out the rule for its use.

"I pictured her tragically; it never once occurred to me to picture her as the tragedy."

"True terror isn't being scared; it's not having a choice on the matter."

"That which is around me does not affect my mood; my mood affects that which is around me."

Students are given the sentences and time to reflect individually. Then, they work with a partner to write a rule for semi-colon use. After that, they write their own sentences that contain a semi-colon.

Why is this better than the traditional method? First of all, it creates an active learning situation for the students. They are responsible to figure out the rule and have to act as detectives, rather than just passively receive the information.

Mentor texts also offer a way to make a clear connection between reading and writing - and an excellent way to combine the two in our time-strapped teaching lives. Reading and writing shouldn't be two separate entities, and if you choose your texts carefully, you can teach lessons in analysis and writing all at the same time (I'll give you some specifics below).
Finally, if you choose sentences and passages from engaging novels, another bonus of mentor texts is that you can inspire kids to pick those novels up and read. For that reason, I try to choose ones that might draw them into the story and want to know more.

You don't need to spend hours and hours on your computer, hunting and pecking. There is a much more enjoyable way to find texts to share with your students: read. Read books that your students will be interested in. R 2. How do I find & Organize Mentor Texts? ead with post-it notes and pens, and when you see a well-crafted sentence or passage, mark it.

But how do you keep it all organized and easily accessible?
I've been doing this for several years now and have learned to be a little more intentional with my post-its. First of all, I've moved up to the larger ones, ones that I can write on as I read. I'll note the features of the passage (metaphor, use of dialogue, semi-colon, etc). Then, I stick the post it right on the quote. In the picture below, I've found a quote that I can use to illustrate a couple of comma rules, something I want to do early in the upcoming semester.

Don't stop there, however. You need to make a plan for how to use them. This year, in my quest to be much more organized, I've started a Mentor Tracker file on Google Drive. At the end of the day (or week), I'll transfer the info on my post-its to the table so I can have a collection of quotations, organized and ready to go. It's still a work in progress, but you can grab it For example, if I'm teaching them about variety in sentence length, they will be tasked with the job of looking for examples in their novel and using them as models for their own writing. The same goes with here and edit to suit what you're doing with your students.

My richest resource for mentor texts, however, is the novels my students are reading - because I can use them without doing any work myself. literary analysis. If I'm showing them different techniques authors use to develop character, I ask them to examine the ways that the writers do so in their novels.

It's so easy to make that link -- and it's easier for the teacher, because you don't have to spend hours looking for mentor texts. It puts more responsibility on the students to do the thinking and the work, and it is an activity that blends reading and writing skills, as they have to be able to identify the technique in the novel (reading) and use it in their own writing. I want the kids to notice that he grabs the reader's attention by starting with a shocking fact. Hopefully, they will also point out that he uses a conversational tone that will appeal to many readers. If they don't, I'll start asking questions: After this discussion, I'll give

3. How Do I Use Mentor Texts?
First of all, I think about the skills that I want my students to work on, and then I plan mini-lessons, based on the mentor texts, to help kids build those skills. Next, I follow this procedure:

Give students the mentor text and ask them to note the writer's moves (you can pose a broad question like this to see what the kids notice, or you can ask them to look for something specific).

Discuss their observations

Give a mini-lesson on the topic

Use students' novels to reinforce the lesson
Read on to get more detail and a freebie!
I do a lot of double-dipping and even triple-dipping, using the texts to demonstrate multiple elements. For example, next week I'll be teaching my students how to write an engaging opening to a narrative. To illustrate the ways that writers draw their readers in to the story, I'll read the openings of several YA novels. This will serve two purposes: I can book talk the selections AND illustrate a skill I want my students to experiment with.

The mentor text pictured above is the opening from Goodbye Days, by Jeff Zentner. I will tell my students a little about the book: it's from the point of view of a teen whose three best friends have died in a car crash - and he thinks he is responsible for their death because he sent the driver a text.
I'll read the opening to them and invite them to note the moves Zentner makes to draw his reader in. How would you describe his tone? What words or phrases contribute to it? What's the effect of this tone?

a short mini-lesson on the techniques writers sometimes use to open their stories. During this lesson, students will re-read the openings of the novels they are reading and discuss the techniques used with a partner. With this step, they are analyzing and evaluating the author's choices.
But wait! There's more...
After we discuss the passage as an opening, I'll use it to teach some comma rules. Students will be instructed to look at it again, this time paying attention to how he uses commas - or not - around character's names. In my experience, most students will notice exactly what I want them to, so they learn the comma rules, but they do so in a way that's far more active and engaging than just reading about them and doing exercises.
Next, I'll ask them to use one or more of the passages I've shown them as inspiration for their own writing. With the comma rules, we will just spend a few minutes writing sentences that contain names as necessary parts of the sentence, as appositives, and as nouns of address. Then, students will be asked to write an opening chapter to a part of their lives, using what they learned from our discussion of all of the mentor texts. They can mimic them exactly, or they can just try one of the techniques.

In the above example, I'm giving students a specific task that is inspired by the mentor texts. However, if I'm focusing on a particular skill like diction or idea development, for example, students are often directed to look at the writing they already have - prompts and drafts - to find places where they could revise it based on what they just learned from the mentor text.
If you'd like to use mentor texts in your classroom, and want a little help, check these out:

Ask students to imitate the mentor to practice the skill

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Teaching with Mentor Texts in High School

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I first heard of mentor texts from my friend who is an amazing fourth grade teacher. At the time, I figured they were just for younger kids. Then, I was lucky enough to attend two PD sessions with the oh-so-inspirational Penny Kittle and discovered that they were invaluable tools for high school teachers too.

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Are you ready to start planning for the first week of school? We use mentor texts in our classes from the very first day of school. We want to lay down a strong foundation and also some strong expectations that mentor texts will be our go-to source for inspiring our work, giving us how-tos, and [...]

But even if we want to, how can we teach literary analysis in writing studies throughout the school year using a workshop approach? Do we just repeat the same mini-lessons again and again until the students have mastered them? Do we teach the mini-lessons once at the beginning of the year and just bring out [...]

We use mentors to help students become better writers. We want these mentors to teach them and inspire them and moving their writing forward in ways that our mini-lessons and conferences alone could not accomplish. But we also want to use mentors to help students develop a thriving and lasting writing life. If writing is [...]

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High School Mentor Texts - moving writers

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Are you ready to start planning for the first week of school? We use mentor texts in our classes from the very first day of school. We want to lay down a strong foundation and also some strong expectations that mentor texts will be our go-to source for inspiring our work, giving us how-tos, and [...]

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Memoirs mentor texts are perfect for teaching students this genre. The perfect place to start when you want them to write their own memoirs.

What is a memoir?

It's important to understand the definition of a memoir.

The root of the word sounds like "memory," and that helps students understand what it is:

The personal account of an event or time period someone experienced.

Autobiography vs memoir - what's the difference?

Generally, an autobiography is someone's life story. From beginning (or often pre-beginning!) to current day. The story is written by the person who lived the experience.

Again, understanding the meaning of "auto" as "self" helps students see that it is a story someone writes about themselves.

A memoir is a story someone writes about a smaller portion of their life.

Memoirs generally involved a particular important or significant event that the person experienced.

So for example:

An autobiography could be My Life by Edgar Allan Poe

A memoir could be My Childhood by Edgar Allan Poe

I want you to know that this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small fee from any qualifying purchases you make. You can read more here.
How to use memoir mentor texts

Read alouds. Open your reading workshop by reading a portion or chapter of a memoir.

Writing prompt. A book like When I was Young and In the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant provides a perfect writing prompt with the repeated statement "When I was young and in..." students can use this same prompt to write about many different situations. For example, "When I was young and in summer camp" or "When I was young and taking piano lessons." You could use this prompt several times with different memories sparked.

Idea generators. After reading a text (or selection) to students, have them brainstorm ideas from their own lives that the text sparked. I love What We Keep by Bill Shapiro since it provides a natural opportunity for students to think about an item in their life that holds a memory for them.

Reading analysis. Ask students to work independently or with a partner to analyze one of the mentor texts. This works well with picture books. Share as a class using an anchor chart.

Analyze descriptive writing. Because the writer wants the reader to experience an event, memoir writing relies on vivid details and precise language. Ask your students to find "mentor sentences" that they can record in their resource books as examples for their own writing.

Use as literature circle texts. Even a picture book can be used as a book club or literature circle text. For example, can be read on many different levels. Students can analyze internal conflict, character development, and point of view. This text also relies on a lot of inference. Great way to practice reading skills as students dive deep into the elements of a successful memoir.

(If you're ready to start teaching memoir writing, you can find 20 mini lessons in my shop that will help you every step of the way!)

When you start teaching memoir writing or personal narratives, you'll want to provide students with mentor texts that they can analyze. There are so many great memoirs you can use! Here is the start of my list!

Memoir Examples (Book Length)

Here are several ideas for mentor texts you can use with your class. You may want to read excerpts or chapters aloud to your class to illustrate points.

You will want to preview stories to make sure they're appropriate for your students, but there are real gems here that your students will be able to relate to.

These fun, short reflections that are perfect to get your students started with writing a memoir. Have their bring in (and share) an item that is important to them.

Memoir Mentor Texts (Picture Books)

I dare you not to cry! This is a moving story. Fiction, yes. But the premise behind it is similar to What We Keep. In this story, Laura keeps a string of buttons and each one has a memory.

When I was Young and In the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. This is a great read to get students thinking about their own life experiences. Rylant uses the phrase, "When I was young and in the mountains" to recall different events of her childhood. Students can use a similar phrase like "When I was young and in preschool" or "When I was young and lived on Maple Street" to generate ideas. You can use this for a warm up writing prompt - or even as the basis of their memoir.

Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. This story is based on the author's experience with difficulty reading as a child.

Providing your students with memoir mentor texts will help them understand the genre.

Be sure to allow them to dig into a variety of different texts so they can compare, contrast, and list elements they thing help create a vivid, meaningful memoir.

This is just a partial list of mentor texts. What other ones would you add?

Did you teach this lesson?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #justaddstudents.

With gratitude,

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Memoirs mentor texts are perfect for teaching students this genre. The perfect place to start when you want them to write their own memoirs. What is a memoir? It's important to understand the definition of a memoir. The root of the word sounds like "memory," and that helps students understand what it is: The personal ...

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Using Mentor Texts to Motivate and Support Student Writers

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Providing students with examples of good writing is vital. Here are tips for using mentor texts in the classroom and ideas on where you can find it.

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Explicit Instruction: A Teaching Strategy in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics for Students with Learning Disabilities - LD@school

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Explicit instruction involves using highly structured and sequenced steps to teach a specific skill.

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by kids and adults

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What is a mentor text anyway?

A mentor text is any text used to model the type of writing your students are learning. Mentor texts are the backbone of writing workshop because students need to see what the pros do, to get inspired in their own writing. Mentor texts can also be called writing samples, or examples.

One of the most challenging parts of being a writing teacher is finding mentor texts. So I've curated a list of my go to places for mentor texts online below.

Before you dive in, I think it is important to remember mentor texts can be found in many, many places. Sometimes I'll roam the class library for my favorite books or use writing from previous years done by students. I also write my own writing samples. You might think about using these strategies too.

But teachers are busy, so having a go to list can help!

Another thing you should definitely do is check out this post about How to Use Mentor Texts.

You can also check out this quick video reviewing ten of my favorite places to find mentor texts...

Thoughtful Learning
This is one of my favorite places to find writing samples written by students because there are many samples for each genre of writing and from students in 1st-12th grade. I link this site to my class website so that students and parents can refer to it throughout the year.

Achieve The Core
This site is an incredibly comprehensive and well organized resource created by non other than the writers of the Common Core! It not only has samples for grades K-12, it also has prompts, lessons, assessments and much more! I highly recommend you peruse this one.

Reading Rockets
This site has Pre-K through 3rd grade writing samples (both hand written and typed). There is also a thorough analysis of what each writer does well and needs to learn next provided with each sample.

Scholastic Write It
This site has loads of writing samples for poetry, essays, short fiction, memoirs, humor and journalism. It is also a place for student writers to connect through a bulletin board chat feature! Students can even publish their work here too!

Completely free and full of high interest nonfiction and fiction for 5th-12th graders. You can sort by lexile level, themes, genres, devices or standards too!

Tween Tribune
This site provides many writing samples to teach information writing in grades K-12 and the articles are even organized by Lexile level!

Awesome site with tons of nonfiction articles written about topics kids care about. Students K-8 can comment or even mail each other articles they think their friend may like. Sort by current events, science, social studies, sports, world, environment or fun. Students can also write book and movie reviews. This feature is for students K-12.

Actively Learn
Sign up for a 30 day free trial and have access to tons of online texts. Not only that you can insert questions, polls, notes and other links for students to interact with. You can also grade student answers and collect data on how long they read, words they looked up, notes they took and parts they didn't understand. Students can listen to texts being read aloud too!

You have to sign up to read full articles but there are a plethora of information articles to choose from and you can have access to the premium version for 45 days. You can add your classes, assign specific articles and track student progress.

New York Times The Learning Network
This site is mainly for middle and high schoolers and has lots and lots of resources. There is a writing competition every year and the pieces written by the winners and runners up are featured here. Showing your students really incredible and powerful writing done by kids can be just the inspiration and motivation your class needs.

Middle School Mentor Texts for All Genres
This is a blog post right on this website. What's awesome about this post is that all the mentor texts are directly linked within the post and every genre is included (except poetry).

There are so many writing samples on this site it is overwhelming! This site does cost money and is definitely worth it if your school or district decides to go for it. My recommendation until then? Sign up for the 14 day free trial and download as many samples as you can!

Moving Writers
This is an awesome site that provides access to a shared Google Drive with many, many mentor texts. Just click the button that says "Click Here to Enter the Mentor Text Drop Box" and you will be transported to mentor text heaven.

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Ten Places to Find Mentor Texts - Amanda Write Now

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What is a mentor text anyway? A mentor text is any text used to model the type of writing your students are learning. Mentor texts are the backbone of writing workshop because students need to see what the pros do, to get inspired in their own writing.

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Source for mentor texts

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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Truth be told, there are very few phrases my [ speaking as post co-author Sean] high school teachers used during instruction that I remember to this day. Ironically, if taken at face value, the phrase I do still remember promotes outright thievery.

My high school journalism teacher Jack Kennedy told us: "If you are going to steal, steal from the best." Of course, he was not advocating larceny. In the context of teaching us how to write, he also was not teaching us to plagiarize. He was emphasizing that learning techniques and approaches from other writers' work, and using what you learn in your own writing, is a good thing. He taught us to read the best writers for this purpose, and we devoured articles from Sports Illustrated, Time, and Rolling Stone and talked about them in class.

Most teachers are not going to be able to bring in the most accomplished writers, such as journalist Malcom Gladwell or novelist Courtney Summers, for mentoring sessions with their students. However, teachers can do the next best thing by using mentor texts as part of their writing instruction. These texts also can be used to help children and teens become better writers at home.

What Are Mentor Texts?

Those articles we read and discussed in Kennedy's class were mentor texts. Mentor texts are written pieces that serve as an example of good writing for student writers. The texts are read for the purpose of studying the author's craft, or the way the author uses words and structures the writing. The goal is to provide students a model they could emulate in crafting their own piece. Essays, passages, articles, chapters, or full books could all serve as mentor texts. So too could a letter, email, film script, or comic strip, depending on the context under which the mentor text is being used.

What Constitutes a Good Mentor Text?

A good mentor text will be something student writers can read (individually or as a group), identify techniques and approaches used by the writer, discuss and understand why those approaches were effective, and integrate what they learned from this process into their own writing. A mentor text will show, not just tell, students how to write well, and allow them to envision the kind of writer they can be as they develop their skills (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017).

Three Qualities of a Good Mentor Text

1. You (the educator) think it is good. If you will be reading the mentor text aloud with students or assigning them to read it, choose something you consider to exemplify good writing. Do not pick a piece or a writer just because his or her work has a reputation for being good. If you are indifferent about the piece, it will be difficult to authentically teach students to emulate the writing.

2. It is understandable for your students. Although it is an added bonus if a mentor text is about a topic that is of interest to students, fundamentally, students must be able to comprehend the piece. This does not mean to avoid all challenging texts. You can go over difficult vocabulary with students prior to having them read the mentor text independently or in a group. That way, they will not get frustrated when they reach those challenging words (Gil, 2017).

3. It is relevant to what you are teaching. If you are teaching a unit on writing persuasive essays, do not choose a hilarious parody article. If you are teaching students how to write a lead or introductory paragraph, make sure you include the beginning of the piece, not a beautifully composed conclusion from a long research paper. If you want students to identify and implement several writing techniques into their own writing, choose a text where the writer did multiple things well.

In addition to textbook passages and texts that are part of your specific literacy curriculum, mentor texts can be found from a variety of other sources.

Potential Sources of Mentor Texts

"In the wild": You may encounter or already know of excellent mentor texts without even trying. Perhaps you subscribe to a literary magazine that had an article last month with incredible use of metaphors and similes. Or, maybe you frequently think back to reading the journalistic profile of an actor that had great use of direct quotes. When you encounter good examples of authors' craft, print them out, email them to yourself, or bookmark them on your computer. You can never have too many mentor texts in your toolbox for a future writing lesson.

Students' peers: Student writers may be more likely to connect to a mentor text written by someone close to them in age or writing experience. They also may have greater confidence in their abilities to implement in their own writing the techniques that a peer used, as opposed to emulating a more experienced professional writer. For example, if you have a unit on narrative poetry coming up, you might recall reading a narrative poem in the magazine just published by your high school's poetry club that contained captivating character development. You may know that the local university's arts and culture magazine always has strong student-written reviews that would work great for your lesson on how to write a movie review. Go to student publications and see what you can find.

Go straight for the best: Teach using mentor texts that won prestigious prizes like the Pulitzer Prize for journalism or fiction, or The Masters Review short story award. This can also be a way to find outstanding mentor texts by students' peers, such as winners from the Paul Engle High School Essay Contest. As mentioned previously, make sure to select something you actually think is well written, not just because it won a prize.

Teaching With Mentor Texts

Once you have identified mentor texts that you want to use, your students can gain the most from them with some instruction. Research findings indicate that using mentor texts as part of comprehensive writing instruction can result in students improving as writers. A large-scale statistical review (meta-analysis) resulting in the recommendation of 11 key elements of effective adolescent writing instruction included teaching students to analyze and emulate mentor texts (referred to in the report as models; Graham & Perin, 2007).

An action research project suggested that picture books might be useful as mentor texts for struggling writers (Premont, Young, Wilcox, Dean, & Morrison, 2017). The teacher read the mentor texts aloud, followed by a class discussion. Students then considered the writing traits explored in the picture books when writing their own personal narrative. The student writers' improved their sentence fluency, word choice, and writing conventions such as punctuation. Picture books may not be the best choice for every class or specific lesson, but they may work well as a change-of-pace alternative, as long as they have sufficient text to work with.

The authors of a descriptive study wrote that mentor texts also might have application for teaching overall structure and necessary contents for subject-specific writing (Pytash, Edmondson, & Tait, 2014). A teacher would read aloud a white paper in a high school economics class and highlight the techniques and vocabulary used by the author. Students then worked in groups to analyze the text further before writing their own economics papers. An analysis of their writing and comments made in interviews seemed to suggest that reading the mentor text provided students' knowledge of how to structure their own papers, how to effectively use transitional words, the need to include evidence for their claims, and the need to recognize bias in their own writing and the writing of others.

A study with younger students ages 7-11 found that their quality of writing improved from pretest to posttest when teachers taught with mentor texts (Corden, 2007). Over the course of a school year, teachers used mentor texts as models of particular narrative forms and writing styles during daily instruction. They read aloud the texts to the class, focusing on structural or stylistic features. This was followed by a shared writing of sentences or paragraphs using techniques identified in the mentor texts. Then, students further investigated the mentor texts in small groups. Students followed all this by transferring ideas and devices learned into their author notebooks during weekly independent work. The resulting students' writing showed significant progress in structure and style. Although students were not compared to a group of peers who were not receiving the mentor text instruction, the authors noted that the average improvement of students in the project exceeded the expected rate of normal writing progress over the course of a school year. The techniques discussed in the mentor texts were evident in the students' writing.

Overview of Steps for Teaching Writing Using Mentor Texts

1. Directly teach students what they should recognize in a piece of mentor text. For example, if students are unfamiliar with figurative language, it will be difficult for them to recognize it or label its properties in a text. No matter how good the piece of writing might be, knowing what makes it so compelling is not necessarily intuitive for student writers. Authentic writing used as mentor text likely does not come with a set of directions pointing out what the author has done or what the particular technique is called. You will need to introduce that element of author's craft first by defining it and giving easily understood or simple examples before asking students to apply that knowledge in studying a mentor text.

2. Have students read the mentor text. Depending on the age of the students and their familiarity with reading to identify a particular type of author's craft, you may want to read the mentor text aloud to them. Reading in small groups or reading individually are also options. As students become familiar with recognizing one or more elements of writing, you can transition from reading aloud to having students read the mentor text individually.

3. Engage in a discussion about the text by asking questions. Though opinions on the mentor text's topic should not be the focus of the discussion, it is important to establish that students understand what the text is about (Gil, 2017). Next, move to the crux of the discussion by asking students about the technique or approach used by the writer. Initially, you will need to model for students how you identify in the text the element of language or structure that you are teaching them. Think aloud to describe for students what makes the author's craft stand out to you. As students become familiar with analyzing a mentor text, ask them to identify where and how the technique(s) they are learning were used in the text and why the writer was effective at using the technique. The discussion is a time to slow down and focus on individual words, sentences, and paragraphs and how these convey meaning to the reader (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017). Talk about writing decisions that the writer made, section-by-section, and why certain words and phrases were used to make points (Pytash & Morgan, 2014).

4. Time for students to write using what they learned from the mentor text. If possible, have students begin writing existing or new pieces right away, with a focus on emulating the techniques and approaches of the mentor text writer. This too will need to be modeled for students first. Think aloud as you demonstrate for students how you adapt an example from the mentor text to incorporate that craft into your own writing. With guidance and practice, students should be able to take what they learned, using their own writer's voice, and tell the story they want to tell. As they write, help students revisit and reflect on their conclusions about what the writer did well in the mentor text.

5. Assess the students' writing and provide feedback. What level of success did students have in using the writing techniques and approaches of the mentor text writer in their own writing? Provide specific praise and constructive feedback. Ask for revisions where opportunities for improved use of the techniques and approaches exist. Peers can also provide feedback in a writer's workshop or small-group setting, depending on the students' ability level and prior experience providing peer feedback.

Using the "Improve Your Writing Using Mentor Texts" organizer (see Supplemental Materials for Teachers and Families below), students can read and respond to a mentor text as a class, in small groups, or as individuals.

By finding and using excellent mentor texts as part of writing instruction in the classroom or at home, you can help students progress from "stealing" from the best to learning to "read as writers." This involves reading with a sharp eye for writing techniques and approaches that they can use to become multi-skilled writers like those successful scribes they wish to emulate.

Supplemental Materials for Teachers and Families

Improve Your Writing Using Mentor Texts

This organizer can be used in a group or individual setting to guide thinking and discussion about a mentor text, and how students can identify techniques and approaches used by the writer to improve their own writing.

References

Corden, R. (2007). Developing reading-writing connections: The impact of explicit instruction of literary devices on the quality of children's narrative writing. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 21, 269-289. doi:10.1080/02568540709594594

Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children's literature, K-6 (2nd ed.). Stenhouse Publishers.

Gil, C. (2017, June 1). 8 Tips for Teaching With Mentor Texts. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-tips-teaching-mentor-texts-christina-gil

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Using Mentor Texts to Learn From the Best and Improve Students' Writing

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Truth be told, there are very few phrases my [ speaking as post co-author Sean] high school teachers used during instruction that I remember to this day. Ironically, if taken at face value, the phrase I do still remember promotes outright thievery.

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Mentor Text Suggestions form Penny Kittle

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Mentor Text Suggestions form Penny Kittle

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Drive Brand Studio - Branding, Advertising, Marketing, Websites

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Penny Kittle is an English teacher, author and advocate dedicated to helping students and teachers develop a passion for reading and writing.

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Passages for K-12
Fiction and Non-fiction

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https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/one-pagers/