Mentor Texts

Learning writing skills within the context of fabulous (and fabulously written) literature helps build a genuine awe of craft as well as a sense of belonging to a fun, interesting, imaginative community. "Mo Willemsis an author,"thinks the admiring second grader, "and so am I."

            Many teachers attend conferences and search the Internet for lists of mentor texts and ways to use them to model fine writing. I have nothing against these lists (in fact I've written many), but they can cause frustration. Often a teacher discovers that her school library carries only one or two of the titles on the list, or a librarian painstakingly categorizes literature in her collection according to six traits only to discover that the teachers have difficulty knowing how the person who initially tagged the book as a good model for word choice would use the book with primary students. So study the lists if it helps, but in addition, learn how to examine the literature in your classroom and in the books you love to identify author's craft. It's not as hard as you might think.

            Here is an interior page from one of my books, Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Dolores Starbuckle (2005). Look at the text on this page and imagine (beyond conventions) what you might focus on in a mini-lesson.

            Using the page shown, you might focus on the following:

·         Word choice and how vivid verbs bring energy to writing: raising, jumped, waved, motioned.

·         How quality details ("Dolores jumped up and down on her knees and waved her arms like a willow tree in a windstorm") help the reader picture the story. (I always tell young students that it's the job of the writer to create a movie in the mind of a reader.)

·         The way in which authors show what a character is feeling rather than telling us. We know that Dolores is excited and that Ms. Janice wishes she would be a little less so, simply by their actions.

            Three lessons from a single paragraph! Give it a try and you'll see that you'll be able to do this with any book in your classroom. You'll want to preview books ahead of time. My passage would be a fine selection for verb choice, but not for adjectives. Make sure the book you select is a good model of the skill you'll be teaching that day. The better you become at identifying author's craft in the stories and nonfiction you love, the more confident you will be during your mini-lessons. The students will pick up on your love and admiration for a book and will share their appreciation as well.

            In fact, you might want to end your mini-lesson with an invitation to students: "As you're reading today, see if you can't find examples of vivid verbs, quality details, or show, don't tell." The students will come running with text that can be used in subsequent mini-lessons. And how proud the student will be when you use the book that he or she found!

No More "I'm Done!"  focuses on nurturing independent primary writers.  In addition to suggesting a classroom set-up and routines that support independence, a year of developmentally appropriate minilessons is provided.

 Summer Reading