Mentor Text: Mining Picture Books for Ideas, Structures, and Craft Techniques

Mentor Text'ism: Inspiring Students to Develop Unique Ideas, Borrow Interesting Structures, and Replicate Craft Techniques Used by Real Authors! 

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Plagiarism: the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.  

Mentor Text'ism: the practice of studying an author's work (or mentor text) with the intention of using ideas, structures, or craft techniques in one's own writing; giving credit to the author or source.

Author Series'ism: the practice of using the same idea and/or structure to create a series of books.

Ex. Laura Numeroff

        

Ex. Natasha Wing

     

Ex. Nancy Loewen

   

 

Defining and Classifying Mentor Texts

Mentor Text Classification & Use (click this link for the handout)

Unique Ideas

Mentor Text: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett

I Practice What I Teach: Each grade level describe a day where unique objects (based upon a recent topic of study) rain down during the day off from school.

Souvenirs: K-1 Exciting Sentences, 1st-6th grade student samples, Three-Course Weather Paragraphs

Interesting Structures

Mentor Text: The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown

I Practice What I Teach: Bio-Riddles - In grade level teams, compose a riddle about a contributing member of our society (i.e. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, etc.)

Souvenirs: Lesson Plan (K-2), The Important Thing about Writing...is the memorable ideas (Candy), 1st grade/3rd grade & 4th grade student samples

Craft Techniques

Mentor Text: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

I Practice What I Teach: Alone Time with an Adult I Care About (free write in the style of the average writer in your classroom)

Souvenirs: Lesson Plan for Sentence Fluency (i.e. varied sentence beginnings and sentence length)

All-in-One (Ideas, Structure, Craft)

Mentor Text: All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan

I Practice What I Teach: All the Books to Love: Find three people to share their opinion about a favorite book; one for each of the mentor text categories: Idea, Structure, 

Souvenirs: 1st-3rd grade student samples & 4th/5th grade student samples 


Professional Voices/Classroom Portrait and Mining for Craft in Mentor Texts

Developing the Craft of Writing in the Sixth-Grade Classroom (click this link for the handout)

(Begin with the End in Mind!) 

*Read with a Writer's Eye 

*Multi-genre Reading Structures 

*The Writer's Notebook

Craft Study Group:

1. Grabber Leads (Mentor Texts: Read a Zillion Books by Jerry Pallotta, How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long, Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, When I Was Little by Jamie Lee Curtis, When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant, G is for Grand Canyon by Barbara Gowan)

2. Show, Not Tell (Mentor Texts: When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic, Momma Where Are You From? by Marie Bradby)

3. Unforgettable Language (Mentor Text: Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan, Animalia by Graeme Base)

4. Voice (Mentor Text: I Wanna a New Room by Karen Kaufman Orloff, I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat by Donald Hall)

Show Not Tell Example for Emergent Writers

Mining for Craft Techniques and Additional Mentor Text Ideas & Resources for Instruction

Going Deeper with Grabber Leads...

Little Red Riding Hooks (click this link for the handout)

Forms of Effective Leads  (handout from Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing K-8)

          *Continued Learning Resource for K-2 - A Guide to Teaching Nonfiction Writing (click this link for the sample chapter)

Reading Like a Writer...

The 5 Parts to 'Reading like a Writer'

1. Notice it! (Identify something special about the text and/or illustrations)

2. Talk About It! (Discuss why the writer and/or illustrator used the craft technique)

3. Name it!  (Develop common language for future references)

4. Connect to It!  (Make text-to-text connections to deepen understanding)

5. Try It!  (Immediately use the craft technique in writing - use it or lose it!)

I Practice What I Teach: Reading Like a Writer Chart - Mining for Craft Techniques

Mentor Text: In November by Cynthia Rylant

1. Listing and Artful Use of And
2. Repeating Phrase
3. Personification
4. Close Echoes
5. Metaphor
6. Sentence Fragment
7. Power of Three
8. Sensory Details
9. Satisfying Closure

What this look like for Emergent Writers! 

     

          *Continued Learning Resource: Using Mentor Texts to Empower Student Authors (click this link for the lesson resources)

Teaching Idea: Mentor Authors (study the craft techniques used by favorite authors)
(i.e. Mo Willems, Cynthia Rylant, JK Rowling, etc.)

Resources for Mentor Text...Reader's Theater Scripts
Dr. Chase Young (Over 200 Alphabetized RT Scripts)  (click this link to access the RT scripts)

     *Idea: Use Classroom Volunteers (to type books) or Use for student typing practice

Teaching Idea: Fractured Fairy Tales

Mentor Texts...

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka (The Three Little Pigs)

The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz (The Three Little Pigs)

Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion by Alex T. Smith (Little Red Riding Hood)

Little Red Writing by Joan Holub (Little Red Riding Hood)

The Ninjabread Man by C.J. Leigh (The Gingerbread Man)

Seriously, Cinderelly is So Annoying! by Trisha Speed Shaskan (Cinderella)

Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears by Corey Rosen Schwartz (Goldilocks and the Three Bears)

Leona and the Honeybears by Melodye Benson Rosales (Goldilocks and the Three Bears)

(there are so many more!)

     *Continued Learning Resource:  Fractured Fairy Tales and Fables with Jon Scieszka (click this link to access the online student writing workshop)

Teaching Idea: ABC Genre (Interesting Structure)

Mentor Author: Jerry Palotta

(Text Titles: The Bird Alphabet Book, The Boat Alphabet Book, The Dinosaur Alphabet Book, The Frog Alphabet Book, The Furry Animal Alphabet Book, The Icky Bug Alphabet Book, The Ocean Alphabet Book, The Underwater Alphabet Book,  The U.S. Navy Alphabet Book, The Yucky Reptile Alphabet Book)

E is for Election Day by Gloria M. Gavris (Gloria grew up knowing Jerry Palotta. She aspired to be a writer and used Jerry Palotta as a mentor to develop her own ABC book!)

G is for Grand Canyon by Barbara Gowan  & H is for Hoosier by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds (Use these books to encourage students to research and write facts about cities, states, countries, continents, and our solar system!)

G is for Google: A Math Alphabet by David M. Schwartz (Encourage students to use ABC books to write informational books across the curriculum. Students can define Tier 3 academic words or essential vocabulary introduced during unit studies.)

Animalia by Graeme Base (Alliteration is a fun way to reinforce beginning sounds for emergent writers. You can also encourage students to develop alliteration lists of companies i.e. Dunkin Donuts, American Airlines, famous people i.e. Ronald Reagan, sport teams i.e. Seattle Seahawks, cartoons i.e. Donald Duck, etc.)

          *Continued Learning Resource: Alpha-Genre's  (click this link to access the writer's notebook resources)

A  little encouragement to 'Practice What You Teach' 
'ABC' of Dreams (To achieve your dreams, remember these ABC's) (click this link for the handout)

Source for Lesson Plans

Writing Fix (click this link to access mentor text bibliography w/lesson links)

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