mentor texts – Page 4 – moving writers

March 3, 2022March 3, 2022Abigail Lund

Stop Motion Animation in 5 Steps for Beginners

This month Abigail takes you through 5 steps to start stop motion in your writing class. Jump into the wonderful world of stop motion!

January 24, 2022January 24, 2022Xochitl Bentley

A Message in a Bottle Narrative

The phrase, “a message in a bottle,” conjures an image of a weather-beaten bottle, bearing a message from an earnest sender. It came to mind as I prepared to share a National Geographic encyclopedic entry about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with my students. Eager to provide them with more opportunities to process the implications […]

January 11, 2022Rebekah O'Dell

Mini-Mentors for Revision

By now, you’ve met Sam. Isn’t she a delight? I continue to win the co-worker lottery. I used to teach next door to Allison. Now, Sam teaches directly across the hall from me + stuns me with her brilliance and insight on a daily basis. Last year, at the height of COVID school and the […]

January 4, 2022September 13, 2022Sam Futrell

Ready to Find Love? Swipe Right on These Five Social Studies Writing Workshops

Choosing the right writing workshop (say that five times fast) at the right time in a content-based classroom will have a large impact on the success of your writing instruction. A workshop that is too complex or does not serve your class’s current needs could also derail your unit, resulting in total heartbreak for you and your students. Preview five, eligible workshops that will adapt to your curriculum and help your students write like historians.

December 30, 2021December 21, 2021Paige Timmerman

5 Super Affordable Things I Wish I Had as a New Writing Teacher

I love reading New Year’s listicle articles. It’s fun to look back on the Top 10 best films of the past year and look forward to the Top 22 Things to Do in 2022. So with the new year approaching in just a few days, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and offer you […]

December 2, 2021December 2, 2021Abigail Lund

A Poem a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Writing poetry can reduce stress? Shouldn’t all children have access to this tool? In this months beat Abigail brings 3 familiar poetry templates into the content area classrooms.

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021Brett Vogelsinger

Learning From Poems: Music

Teaching students to hear the music in words, we can help them create writing that is not just efficient, accurate, and clear, but also playful, dramatic, and arresting.

November 18, 2021November 17, 2021stefaniejochman

The Presents of Mind: I’m Thankful for… Letters!

Last month, I introduced two new means of reflection–a set of brainstorming questions inspired by Reading with Presence and a “poetry prescription” activity–that I hoped to implement in the weeks that followed. Today, I’m here with an update. Readers, they worked! The poem analysis letters inspired by The Paris Review’s “Poetry Rx” column were full […]

November 9, 2021October 14, 2021Rebekah O'Dell

RIP, Mentor Text Dropbox

This is a love story. In 2012, Allison and I applied for the same job at a local high school. One position. Two of us. We had never met and were not remotely aware of one another’s existence even though we had shared a couple years at the same university. On a Monday, I got […]