Mentor Text: Fairy-tale Logic by A.E. Stallings Techniques: Using poetry as analysis Background – In my Grade 9 class right now, we’re working on our essays discussing scary stories. We do a little short film study, allowing us to practice analysis skills, and give us some fun ground to cover in an early essay this semester, […]
Mentor Text: The Greatest Nature Essay Ever by Brian Doyle Techniques: Deconstruction and criticism Playing with conventions Background – Almost exactly a year ago, I threw a tweet out into the void about my desire to find more joyful texts to put in front of my students. The heavy stuff is so very rich, but finding […]
Mentor Text: Top Down by Scott Nolan Techniques: Writing about place Extended metaphor Background – For the last few years, second semester has held a nice treat for me as an English teacher, my Lit class. There’s something special about teaching the course that students have chosen to be in. It’s a Grade 11 & 12 […]
Photo by Zac Ong on Unsplash During the last couple of years of teaching, making mini-zines has been a highlight. An 8-page zine has been a go-to method for helping students shrink a narrative down to accessible compactness. As my students plot environmental stories culminating in a call to action, the details associated with specific […]
Mentor Text: The Empty Sentiment of The Last of Us by Jackson McHenry Techniques: Criticism Making connections to make arguments Background – As a insomniac geek teacher who loves stories in pretty much any form, the combination of streaming services and the internet is a gift. There’s lots of stories to immerse myself in, and there’s […]
Mentor Text: The Night Attendant at the Gas Station by Michael Penny Techniques: Extended metaphor Imagery Memoir Background – I’m going to pass along what may seem like a somewhat pithy piece of teaching advice. Zero inbox is your friend. Since school resumed after the holidays, I delete or file everything almost instantly. (professionally and personally) […]
Mentor Text: Pause and Reflect by Melissa Martin Techniques: Narrative introduction Reflecting as a writer Writing about place Writing about the hard stuff Background – Fellow teachers. Do you, like me, find yourself wondering how it’s possible that this school year, of the last few “unprecedented” years, seems to be the hardest? Those of us who […]
We get different versions of this question, a lot: “I love mentor texts. I totally see why they are beneficial. But my students are struggling to notice craft in them.” or “My students have gotten pretty good at noticing surface-level craft moves, but after they’ve noticed one or two things — they’re done. How do […]
Mentor Text: My Father’s Moustache by Ada Limon Techniques: Ekphrasis Background – As I write this, I still have a few days left of the holiday break. We taught until mere days before Christmas, but have the whole first week of January off. It’s been a period of necessary recharging and relaxation in our household. In […]
Mentor Text: How a Poem Snapshots a Moment of Drama by Adam Sol Techniques: Analysis Background – I try to build little brain breaks for myself into the school day. That’s been vital these last couple especially challenging years. Access to a digital library has been incredibly helpful in this regard, as I don’t have to […]
