Mentor Texts: All 115 of Taylor Swift’s Songs, Ranked by Rob Sheffield School Days and Parisian Nightsuits: Every ‘Freaks and Geeks’ Episode, Ranked by Jennifer Wood Writing Techniques: Criticism Considering Appropriate Length Recognizing good writing Background: One of this week’s mentor texts was a total must read for me based upon the subject material. […]
Today’s Mentor Text Wednesday post comes from Amy Estersohn, a middle school English teacher in New York. She blogs over at teachingtransition.wordpress.com and tweets @HMX_MSE. Mentor Text: “We don’t make princesses in those colours” by Nicola Yoon in The Guardian Writing Techniques: Structure Craft Genre mixing Background: The Guardian is one of my favorite online magazines for […]
Mentor Text: The Taco Boat by Al Ortolani Writing Techniques: Idea Generation Memoir Poetic Form Voice Background: In Twitter edchats, I’ve been part of discussions about what should be part of a teacher’s Twitter feed. One of my go-to recommendations is always poetry. Following poets, literary magazines and other sites that focus on poetry. The […]
Mentor Text: Coat of Many Colours by Dolly Parton Writing Techniques: Memoir Symbolism Allusion Revision Background: Somewhere along the way, I’m not sure when, the woman I love fell for Dolly Parton. I know it wasn’t a childhood thing, because that’s not really what her folks listened to. But she’s a fan. And I get […]
Mentor Texts: Poetry In Action from The New York Times Book Review E.B. White on Why He Wrote Charlotte’s Web, Plus His Rare Illustrated Manuscripts via brainpickings.org Strategies Used: Revision Background: Aside from noting a few things that popped into my Twitter feed, I haven’t done very much work this summer. July is largely mine. […]
Mentor Text: Wheat Kings by The Tragically Hip Strategies Used: Poetic Narrative Symbolism Background: Waiting for the last day on Friday means I’m in my classroom, wrapping up this year, cleaning up, prepping for next year… that kind of thing. It means a pretty much constant stream of music is playing. I’ve been testing out […]
Mentor Text: Ted Wilson Reviews The World by Ted Wilson (posted and collected at Electric Literature, The Rumpus.net and I Am Ted Wilson Writing Techniques: Writing Reviews Humour Satire Background: Perhaps the thing I love most about the Internet is the delightfully random nature of what it manages to put in front of me. This weeks […]
Mentor Text: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo Writing Techniques: Writing biography Focusing presentation of research Background: It’s almost June! That means the last couple weeks of school for me, and in Grade 10, it means we’re launching into the Rebel Project. It’s one of my favorite projects […]
Mentor Texts: The Say Something Nice series at Birth.Movies.Death Writing Techniques: Criticism Counterargument Tone and Voice Background – Our students consume a fair amount of pop culture. They’re able to budget their time in such a way that they’re consuming media at an insane pace, binge watching like mad, and watching everything Netflix has to […]
Mentor Texts: Another Nightmare in America – Cory Branan (listen here) American Tune – AJJ (listen here) Writing Techniques: Voice Adopting a persona Writing a protest piece Background – I’m a music fan. I use music in many ways in my classroom. It matters in my life so it features in my work. As I […]
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