I have a hard time narrowing down the list of mentor texts I want to use in each writing study. There always seems to be just one more amazing text that I think can instruct and inspire my students. In Writing With Mentors, Allison and I recommend 3-6 mentor texts as the ideal cluster for […]
Category: mentor texts
Translating Writing With Mentors for Elementary and Middle School, Part I
Our bookshelves are jammed full with books meant for elementary and middle school teachers. Donald Graves, Nancie Atwell, Georgia Heard, Katie Wood Ray, Ralph Fletcher, the gals at Two Writing Teachers — these are the teachers who have taught us how to teach writing, who continually push us to reconsider what we think we know […]
Summer Mentor Text Countdown Week 8: Mentor Texts for Literary Analysis
Before Allison and I each began using the writing workshop approach in our classrooms, one of our biggest concerns was the same concern we hear again and again from teachers around the country: we are high school teachers. We must teach literary analysis and the writing of literary analysis. How can writing workshop accommodate this? We […]
A Mentor Text Goldmine for Movie Buffs and Writing Workshoppers Alike!
It seemed too good to be true when I first happened upon it: a database with hundreds of free Hollywood movie scripts, ready to download and dig in to for writing studies! I had landed upon The Internet Movie Script Database (not to be confused with the International Movie Database) — an amazing resource for writing workshop. I […]
5 Mentor Sentences to Help Students Write Better Analysis
If you haven’t checked out Rebekah’s series on analysis, stop what you’re doing and go read about her brilliant work with her IB students! I’ve never been more excited to teach analysis than after reading her thoughtful blog series. I’m going to piggyback on her posts and share something that I have found useful in the […]
A Writing Workshop Cure for the April Doldrums
T.S. Eliot wrote, “April is the cruellest month.” Sadly, this observation rings true for many students. I don’t know what it is about April, but it seems to bring on the stress, boredom, and lack of motivation that one would normally associate with months like December and February. The guidance counselor at our school recently […]
A Visual Guide to Planning a Writing Study
“You can’t teach writing this way if you’re not organized.” – Donald Graves (Atwell 2014, p. 26). Before I immersed myself and my students in writing workshop life, I heard other teachers say things like, “Oh, writing workshop is organic. The writing happens. It just works.” They advised me that conferences with student writers gave […]
Questions to Help You Choose Mentor Texts
Do you remember Captain’s Choice? Those moments standing on the field during gym class as the boys and girls carefully selected players for their teams? We can still see their eyes darting back and forth as they sized up their potential teammates. For some of them it was – and still is – serious business. […]
Turning Mentor Texts into Book Talks
After losing days of school due to snow, I’m in a familiar we’re-never-going-to-get-everything-done panic. I feel this way every winter. The fact is this: none of us have enough time with our students. We constantly feel the pull of more-to-do; we live in the tension of what we have to teach and what we want to […]
Mentor Texts are for Social Studies, too!
Mentor texts aren’t just for English class. If mentor texts are meant to inspire writing and teach us something about our writing, then they should exist in every genre. And they should exist in every classroom where writing happens. It can be challenging, though, to wrap our heads around mentor texts in the content areas. […]
moving writers 