High School Mentor Texts – moving writers

July 13, 2015July 8, 2015Rebekah O'Dell

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

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 […]

April 29, 2015April 28, 2015Rebekah O'Dell

A Technique-Based Literary Analysis Workshop

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 […]

May 28, 2014June 4, 2014Rebekah O'Dell

Mentor Text Wednesday: Mentors for Writing, Mentors for Coping

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 […]