Questioning and investigating: For questioning and investigating, an aligned thinking routine is See, Think, Wonder. This big list of mentor texts for writing includes key pieces of literature to use during writer’s workshop to show your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders how professional authors use particular traits to engage their readers and help their audience understand the central message. Reward your learners with these rockin’ mentor texts:  AMAZON SUGGESTED LIST, See more Mentor Text blogs: MENTOR TEXT BLOGS. We spend a lot of time teaching children what to avoid when writing, but mentor texts show them masters of their craft. These published pieces provide students with a road map as they’re trying to find their own voices as writers. Read a Page or Two and Kids List the Part of Speech You are Featuring This is so simple to do but it really trains kids to use their ears for a purpose! Mentor texts Or try your local library or online booksellers for inspiration. I like to use mentor texts to give my students a LOT of practice in order to help my students master understanding each type of connection, as well as help them provide a list of things that might help spark connections, such as movies, books, current events, and problems in our local area … In class, students may study a genre like argument with three to five op-ed articles as mentors. Mentor texts are rigorous texts intentionally chosen for a specific reason for the purpose of teaching multiple content areas. What’s the use of teaching students to identify a compound-complex sentence if they can’t even write one themselves? Students may compare and connect their writing with their mentors by using the I Used to Think... Now I Think routine. So, we begin the work of using mentors with scaffolds that support our students in using a mentor text. This collection of mentor texts for reading wouldn’t be complete without a healthy stash of books that teach inferencing. This might be especially beneficial if you have students who have only experienced freedoms and privileges already granted in a progressive country. Using Mentor Texts Mentor texts are the perfect tool to teach mini-lessons over several standards and skills across subjects, and also provide a way to teach the required content while representing races, cultures, family dynamics, and other differences that make diversity so beautiful. Comparing is fun for kids as they often do it in real life. Before utilizing a book as a mentor text, I read it aloud to students for purposes of enjoyment and comprehension. Most of the time, teachers use picture books for mentor texts, but novels also model a variety of well-crafted skills. It is time for a little honesty! If you want students to study a few sentences and attempt the same writing move, those sentences better illustrate one specific technique. Mentor Texts are Time Efficient. A mentor text is a published piece of writing used when teaching a specific writing skill or craft to ultimately motivate students to write effectively. Teaching students how to understand texts can be a challenge. I know not all teachers … This doesn’t mean that every text needs to be an award winner or awash with literary gems. A mentor text is an excellent piece of writing that models for students what good writers do — the craft and skills involved in writing, to which we apprentice ourselves and use it to learn from so that we can improve our writing. What better way than with clear, quality writing? There are some skills that you can review with just about every book, such as inferring, summarizing, theme, point of view, to name a few. You may initially reject mentor texts for math, since reading about a skill won’t give your students the practice they need to master it. Students breathe a sigh of relief when I tell them this. Using mentor texts for reading is a wonderful way to help children develop reading comprehension skills. Remember, not all mentor texts are created equal. Mentor texts are used to show a strategy, inspire creativity, and are models of writing in the real world. What worked last year might not work this year. The observing and describing phase provides an opportunity for students to slow down, take notice, and absorb what the mentor text has to say. Step 1. Here are a few suggestions to help you visualize using mentor texts with your science class: Historical fiction leads to wonderful mentor texts for any time period or topic you teach in social studies! When students engage with mentor texts, teachers make the essential connection from the content, or what they are learning (e.g., writing a short story), to the thinking that students are rehearsing. In addition to understanding different time periods and major events, a good mentor text can help students understand different cultures and ethnicities. Now students have a text to use as a measuring stick for their own work, not just to do better than, but to aspire to. The writers behind the mentor texts—representing diverse backgrounds and perspectives—are also teachers. The goal of using mentor texts in the classroom is quite simple: students learn by example, so in order to learn awesome writing skills, kids need to read awesome examples of writing! Mentor texts are are an incredible way to teach writing and grammar in middle school. However, the concepts in a mentor text can be applied to any subject; it’s simply a matter of finding the right story to supplement the lessons you’re teaching. While learning from mentor texts transfers beyond the classroom in this way, teachers should always consider transfer of learning through the acquired thinking that is targeted and carried on with students. A simple book for a simple concept aimed at young students can still be a work of quality that you can confidently recommend to parents, students, and other staff. When I use these mentor texts, I like to do them in several different ways: 1. Your skill as a mentor and guide to your students will help them see the principles of the text that you hope they’ll replicate, whether it be creating conflict in writing, understanding motive while reading, or visualizing fractions in math! Do I love it? A lot of learning focuses on what to do and what not to do. Because making inferences is an essential skill, you’ll maybe want to keep a few of these finds … Obviously, mentor texts will differ depending on student needs, class, and the concept you wish to teach. Mentor texts in science can help bring home the meaningful context of science in our world as well as teach important scientific concepts in a relatable way. Mentor texts are valuable tools and they can fit into your curriculum, no matter what age or subject you teach! Here are a few suggestions to help you visualize using mentor texts with your social studies class: Using mentor texts while teaching reading is a natural choice. Now, mentor texts won’t magically work for all students unless you work in partnership with the book. Check out our use of Odd Boy Out as a mentor text. © Copyright 2008 - 2021 Rockin Resources. Students may compare and connect their writing with their mentors by using the I Used to Think... Now I Think routine. For example, studying the structure of an argument brings knowledge that can be transferred to writing your own argument across situations or preparing a verbal argument in real-life contexts. Use data to identify ONE reading skill or strategy BEFORE picking out your mentor text. By experiencing different viewpoints, students may consider how genres cross paths to amplify understanding and vary options for expression. In our most recent lesson, we used a mentor text to teach students how to write with details to showhow they’re feeling in their memoirs. Typically, mentor texts are used by individuals. Help them with catchy poems and clearly illustrated groupings—and those left over, with, Ready to tackle that most tricky of areas, the circle? Using Mentor Texts In Each Major Subject Area Showing an example of quality literature might seem a natural pairing with ELA or writing. Explicitly tell the students what you want them to learn from the book that day. Here are a few suggestions to help you visualize using mentor texts with your writing class: After reading these tips for using mentor texts in the classroom, we can’t wait to hear what gems you’ve discovered and how you plan to use them! When students are learning how to write, mentor texts can be a valuable tool. In a recent post on the Moving Writers website, Rebekah O’Dell asked, “What comes after mentor texts?” A similar question that students tend to ask when they want to know the true value of what they are learning in the classroom is, “How does this help me outside of class?” Part of the response is the value of transfer of the learned concepts or information in new situations. Observing and describing: When the content of learning about the structure of a narrative eventually fades in a student’s rearview mirror, what’s left is the thinking they gained. It can be throughout the entire book or a focused excerpt from the book. Use mentor texts to show students great writing skills that even adult writers still struggle with, such as creating strong plots with good pacing, building multi-dimensional characters, and conveying the author’s purpose. As with all mentor texts, you want to have concrete examples for your students to look back on when they need to replicate a skill. Using Mentor Texts and Sentences in the ELA classroom is a great way to help students’ enhance their work. If we explicitly point out the critical thinking that’s sparked by studying mentor texts, students can deliberately strengthen their thinking when engaged in any activity. Do you love the book? Mentor texts not only provide examples of skills you want to teach, but they also provide high-quality examples that you feel at ease using, knowing you can provide the best for your students. transfer of the learned concepts or information in new situations. A good mentor text helps students not only understand historical context, but also the emotions and struggles of the people of the era. We focus on comparing : characters, setting, plot, themes and more. See, Think, Wonder invites writers to investigate their mentors, leading to additional study. A mentor text is a written piece used in education as an example of quality writing by a student who is studying the writing process. So, what comes after mentor texts? Using mentor texts that have the elements you want students to use are a powerful example for students. Enjoy the tale of. In particular, genre, writer’s craft, and text structure are studied in mentor texts. Now that I’ve shared some of my favorite mentor texts, let’s talk about how to use them effectively in the classroom! Will this mentor text engage your current group of students? Mentor texts are how we accomplish this! The Circle of Viewpoints allows students to see perspectives that use different genres or various moves to get to the heart of a topic. Students study the way mentors take on and approach a topic differently. Here are a few suggestions to help you visualize using mentor texts with your reading class: Mentor texts support writing in the best way! Ideally, mentor texts should be short so that your students can re-read them multiple times to study. A good mentor text lends itself to multiple applications and is often interdisciplinary as well. Nov 20, 2013 - Explore Nancy Barlow's board "How-To Books Writing Mentor Texts", followed by 219 people on Pinterest. Make sure you make the most of your reading time by using mentor texts that model reading concepts like metacognition, summarizing, identifying character traits, identifying conflict, inference, and many more. See more ideas about mentor texts, procedural writing, writing mentor texts. Using a mentor text in social studies can help make the characters come out of the distant past or an obscure and unrelatable moment into the immediate world for students. No more telling your students that “my dad” is not a reliable source for a bibliography because all of the bibliographies in your mentor texts have books and websites listed. Lastly, there are types of scientific writing like research reports, hypothesis, and inquiry-based project outlines with which you’ll want your students to become familiar. Teachers in our weekly #2ndaryELA chat shared their best ideas for finding resources and using this strategy effectively in their classrooms. Mentor texts have made my life as a teacher so much easier! I remind these students that narrative is just another word for story and give them permission to embellish and make parts up. A mentor text takes the emphasis off of the student’s immediate efforts and instead creates an exemplar. *IMPORTANT* Just because a book can be used for many skills doesn’t mean you should cram them all in! Diversify the Teaching Voices in the Classroom With mentor texts at the center of our writing instruction, we don’t have to be everything to every student writer. You might have students who feel that your units on plants, soil, or. Will it be engaging to my students? Five Tips for Using Mentor Texts. The knowledge middle and high school students gain through working with mentor texts can strengthen their critical thinking skills. They may not understand the fight for change or the oppression that has already occurred to give them the life they live today. I have found that they are able to notice how details are alike and different especially when comparing two different texts. Ok…this is just one of my many favorites! When students are aware of and rehearse their learning through the lens of deliberate thinking, learning is easily transferable. 2. However, some students grasp content differently. The goal is to provide students a model they could emulate in crafting their own piece. You want to make sure your mentor text will fit the objective and not the other way around. Edutopia® and Lucas Education Research™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of the George Lucas Educational Foundation in the U.S. and other countries. Enjoy it, mark it up, make it your friend. Perhaps the mentor text leads a student to wonder about the writer’s craft, or it pushes a writer to dig up new mentors. However, all mentor texts should get a resounding “Yes!” when you ask yourself the following questions: Does it showcase high-quality writing? There are so many wonderful ways to use mentor texts to encourage young writers and to model the great writing they should aspire to. 4. routine. In comparing the mentor with their own writing, they are linking their writing to form new ideas by seeing another way through their reading. However, the concepts in a mentor text can be applied to any subject; it’s simply a matter of finding the right story to supplement the lessons you’re teaching. Now, use picture book mentor texts (and illustrations) to help you create a picture book that really shines. Mentor texts can be used throughout all grade levels! Read the piece out loud or give students time to read on their own in class. We hand out sheets with errors and mistakes and challenge our students to find them, encouraging the thrill of discovery, close reading, and good detective work. To use mentor texts to improve your students’ writing, they need to pay attention to how the author wrote… not just what they wrote. Choose mentor texts that your students will love, and that you love, too! As a fourth and fifth grade teacher in a public school setting, I used these things called Mentor Texts all … They can be read and referred to over and over. What is the magic number that equals pi?” Students will embrace math concepts and create strong connections to them through stories and characters. For instance, the topic of social media may be explored through various modes of expression such as poetry, an infographic, a short story, an op-ed, reviews, podcasts, interviews, or other forms. That’s why picture books make great mentor texts! Exploring viewpoints: An exploration of viewpoints allows students to use mentors to explore multiple perspectives. Routines associated with studying mentor texts invite students to observe and describe, compare and connect, question and investigate, and explore different viewpoints. 1. The harder part is recognizing what makes it great. When learning how to use mentor texts is rooted in thinking, students can easily apply the thinking to any endeavor. Mentor Texts to Teach Comparing Comprehension Strategies. Mentor Texts for Making Inferences. Here is a list of the incredible texts used in the bundle. model how to use proper nouns; show how to draw a mental picture using sensory details and adjectives; Those are just some of the few great ways to use mentor texts. 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. The value of mentor texts is so powerful that The New York Times developed a series of mentor texts for students to emulate and learn from. The texts are read for the purpose of studying the author’s craft, or the way the author uses words and structures the writing. Share them with us on our social media! They read and then reread them to observe elements across the mentors. Author Lynne Dorfman says mentor texts are designed to be “studied and imitated,” and they “help students to take risks and be different writers tomorrow than they are today.”. Students of all ages love a good tale to inspire and teach them. We encourage students to do their best and we point out mistakes. Social studies is a rich ground for mentor texts. Does it work in my timeframe? 3. Just as a mentor guides you and is full of pertinent knowledge, a mentor text provides a concrete example of the skill you want students to master and guides them toward achieving it. When students engage with mentor texts, teachers make the essential connection from the content, or what they are learning (e.g., writing a short story), to the thinking that students are rehearsing. Some mentor texts may not be compatible with what students envision in their writing, but they may feel a connection with other texts, which allows the students to grow their love for an author or style of writing. Students will see right through it. Mentor texts should be used for a very specific purpose. I love the fact that mentor texts are short and sweet. Here are a few suggestions to help you visualize how a mentor text can merge with your math lesson: As with math, you might initially think mentor texts aren’t for a hands-on subject like science. Mentor texts are written pieces that serve as an example of good writing for student writers. Use a mentor text to analyze a character through their thoughts, words, and actions. To draw students’ attention to what thinking they are actually doing in these early phases of studying their mentor texts, teachers may use the What Makes You Say That? Read more about the importance of diverse mentor texts here. FREE MASTERCLASS: The Secret to Writing Success, Step-by-Step Writing® Program with Interactive Notebooks, A Series of Step-By-Step Writing® Mini Lessons, Writing Mini Lesson #2- Complete Sentences, Writing Mini Lesson #7- CLOSING SENTENCES AND CLINCHERS, How to Effectively Use Mentor Texts in the Classroom, Teaching division with remainders to your third and fourth graders? One group may have grasped a skill quickly and would find a mentor text that you loved last year to be repetitious. A mentor text is simply a text that can be used as an example of good, strong writing. Next, an example of using a mentor text to teach “Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences” can be found in chapter 4, using the book Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez (2018). Sometimes “Why does this matter?” is indirectly related to thinking more efficiently and better down the road. For some students, even the most creative and experimental science classes fail to help them understand the point of a particular process or the end result of scientific inquiry. Your bookshelf is an excellent place to start looking for different mentor texts. A good math mentor text will give you talking points, such as “Remember, what Sir Cumference learned about all circles? This type of thinking with a mentor text pushes the student to question and investigate their mentors. Each quarter (nine weeks) comes with sentences based off high engagement, mentor texts to use with your students. Finally, for that truly challenging topic, Lastly, teaching writers to write a strong, compelling, and well-paced. Take a look at ways you can use mentor texts in every subject! Read the book completely ahead of time; Jumping into a lesson with a mentor text you haven’t read definitely isn’t smart. Picture books, articles, poems, chapter books can be mentor texts. Here are several I use together. Ultimately, students will learn how to think better well after the mentor text study ends. Many mentor texts provide excellent examples of multiple skills. As with reading and math, there are many facets that need to be addressed when creating a skilled and proficient student. The use of colorful picture books and descriptive language can help auditory, visual, and linguistic learners grasp mathematical concepts that might otherwise elude them. In this case, let’s take O’Dell’s question and explore it through the lens of the Artful Thinking Palette, created by Harvard’s Project Zero. 3. After all, … Choose a mentor text that will fit into your time constraints and add to your lesson instead of becoming an entirely separate one! If it’s a literary masterpiece, but you can’t fall in love with it, your enthusiasm and passion will not ring true. Picture books can be mentor texts in elementary, middle and high school depending on how you use … When we read a great piece of writing, we can easily recognize it as great writing. Personal narratives are short stories about one important event in a person’s life. Learn how to effectively use mentor texts in the classroom. How to Use Mentor Texts First, choose a mentor text that will teach a specific writing skill, trait, or craft. Here are five things that I do when working with writing mentor texts: 1. Have students discuss the piece of literature with partners or in small groups to deepen their comprehension. Stopping for a good story also increases the likelihood that your point won’t get lost in the hustle and bustle of hands-on work. The whole point of mentor texts is to get students to explore and develop and stretch their own writing. Based on the needs of the writer and the range of mentors, students strengthen their habit of questioning and challenging their mentors. "Mentor Texts is like having a literature expert and master teacher at your side all year long. Throwing a bunch of great writing at students all at once isn’t going to inspire them–it’s going to overwhelm them. Read the mentor text out loud to students, then encourage students to read it chorally. If you’ve ever had a student ask you how they’ll use the rock cycle or why they’ll need to know the difference between a monocot and dicot in “real life”, you know what I mean. Steps for Using a Mentor Text Select a mentor text based on content and language objectives. Use each of these mentor texts with the mentor sentences for middle school grammar bundle. My Favorite Mentor Text. Playing around with different low-pressure exercises helps them think about the possibilities of writing. If you’re new to this, here are eight tips for teaching with mentor texts to further pique your interest. Showing an example of quality literature might seem a natural pairing with ELA or writing. They provide skillful, nuanced examples for students to emulate. Comparing and connecting: Imagine the student volleying back and forth from their writing to a mentor text as they either try out moves or revise their own writing to mirror the mentor text. Making Connections can be as difficult or as easy as you make it for our upper elementary students. A lengthy novel may be the perfect way to delve into climax and falling action, but it won’t fit into a class period or two. Reading good literature that has stand out lessons and examples of skills good readers need is a part of your daily curriculum anyway. All rights reserved.