I hope to continue to grow this list of resources for teaching mentor text work, and I also want to add how I am adapting to remote or distance learning as the teaching community adjusts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At each step of the process in this post, I will stop and show you some things I consider when I plan for that part of the lesson. These considerations come from the questions and experiences from teaching the mentor text routine to sixth graders. I teach these lessons to students with third-grade level reading and eleventh-grade level reading in the same room. I have coached teachers that have ranged from 4th grade to 10th grade with this process. The results are the same, but you may have to adjust the strategies for your content and level.
These considerations are not meant to be overwhelming, but I want to share what has worked for me along the way. I have also broken them down in terms of estimated time. When I was doing mentor text work daily it took 5-10 minutes each day because of the routine that I chose to implement in my room. One single mentor text lesson taught alone might take 20-25 minutes.
This quickstart guide walks you through everything you need to get started with teaching mentor texts in your classroom right away. There are 7 key elements to teaching mentor texts. At the end of this post, download the free template to get started with a book of your choice! You will also have access to my mentor text work. This includes 180+ slides and sentence frames featuring 55+ books.
The I Am series by Susan Verde and Peter Reynolds is one of the most identifiable book series in classrooms and stores. The art by Peter Reynolds is so specific to him, and the books have almost become synonymous with social & emotional text lists, mindfulness, and meditation for young people. There are 7 books in the series. This post covers 4 of them and how to use them in your classroom for teaching mindfulness through read-aloud and also writer moves for kids through mentor texts. While the recommended reading age for the books often states 3-7, these mentor texts could be used in any level classroom.
Let’s dive into using the I Am series as a whole group mentor text, and then let’s take a quick look at how 4 of the books can be broken down further for writing moves.
What could be better than working with mentor texts AND talking about food? I love The Food Group series from Jory John and Pete Oswald. All of the picture books in this series feature a type of food and then a description that hints at the story behind the food. The whole series can be used in a variety of ways in any classroom grades 4-12. These books would also make great introductory activities and back-to-school mentor texts because kids love talking about food (I mean, most of us like talking about food). This post is a breakdown of how to apply The Food Group series to lessons as a whole, and then it includes details in a few of the books so you can see the mentor text examples. I will also remind everyone of the mentor text process of how to use books to teach writing to kids.
Hope you are hungry! Let’s write.
Narrative writing is always the first big unit taught in sixth-grade English, but I would also argue that narrative writing is the perfect way to open up a brand new school year because we are finding out about our students’ stories. I am also pretty sure that October may be one of the toughest months to teach in considering that it consists of conferences, the end of the first marking period for my middle school, the flu season that starts circulating, and it is my birthday month. The last part is not a bad thing, I just find it easier to resent less “me time” with all of the to-do lists piling up. This post contains step-by-step directions for teaching a personal narrative writing unit at the secondary level. This includes directions, elements of the assignment, teaching strategies, and mentor texts. I also wanted to include information about writing conferences and grading information.
Reading and writing are all too often cyclical. Everyone knows good reading fuels good writing and vice versa. As a middle school teacher, I really wish that I was able to teach reading and writing separately or even give them their own block of time, but I do also love the impossible harmony that is being a reading AND writing teacher. This post will explain how I start my week with students, and how I often will start each class. I always start each hour the first day of the week with a book talk about a middle grade or young adult novel or nonfiction book. It kicks off my mentor text work with kids, and it gets them excited about a book they may or may not have heard about before. This post goes into detail to explain why the simple act of talking about books in a way that makes kids want to read them is one of the most important things we can do as teachers each day.
I always end the first six weeks of school with narrative poetry. 1.) It is a mindset thing. I want to show the kids who don’t think they can write poetry that they indeed can write poetry. 2.) It is an excellent way to get to know students better. We may think we know each other after six weeks, but in reality, we have spent a lot of that time on testing and expectations. it is powerful to know our students and let our students know who we are as people. Cue Where I’m From Poems and I Am Poems. I use this form of poetry from George Ella Lyon each year to help build community and access important identity work. This post includes all of the assignment materials and my step-by-step process including mentor texts and a read-aloud.
Arthur O’Shaughnessy in his 1874 poem “Ode” wrote: “Yet we are the movers and shakers/Of the world forever, it seems.” I love the term “mover and shaker” because it reminds me of dancing, but what it really lends is to people who make an impact on the world. It is no secret that one of my favorite units to teach is research. I love the choice, the process, and the hard work it takes to produce the product. I also love seeing middle schoolers wrap their brains around the formatting of this project (MLA), and how they get excited about solving problems. One of my favorite things, after all, is to solve problems.
The MLA Research Paper unit I do each winter going into spring focuses on activism. Students identify a problem in their school, community, or world and then research that problem, Inevitably, they see causes, effects, and hypothesize solutions as well. This post will walk you through some mentor texts and resources, strategies, and pacing of the overall unit.
Similes and metaphors might be my favorite figurative language skills to teach because once students notice what they are, they find them everywhere in fiction literature. Similes make everything better. At first glance, students keep reading over them, but the understanding of similes and metaphors unlocks another layer of reading. It is a layer that is deeper and makes readers really think. Figurative language skills matter because they help build critical readers. When building sentence fluency, these skills create stronger readers that add sentence variety and fluency to their writing skills. While you can catch similes in almost any work of fiction these days, I like the books featured in this post for the deliberate instruction of simile usage in literature. This post will outline three books and examples of similes, and it will also show you how I help young writers transfer these skills to their own writing through the mentor text process.
Easy as pie.
The idea of constantly evolving and changing how we shape lessons is one of the many reasons I am still a teacher. I have changed how I teach argumentative writing from shorter on-demand projects to longer multi-genre projects. We have done paragraphs. We have done essays. Normally for this particular project, I connect the topic choices to the novel we just got done reading. However, I always have to remind myself to be inclusive and responsive to the class that I am teaching. Here is the bottom line: My class just wasn’t into Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. After trying to get a grasp on history, having great class discussions, and talking about plot elements in the text, my class was simply ready to move on. This feeling of wanting to press on along with the feelings of wanting to do more cycles of argumentative writing gave way to the approach I took for this project. I have combined many aspects of how I teach argumentative writing over the years. You will see essay packets, example essays and mentor texts, and the various ways I try to grade throughout the process to make sure I stay above the paper line. However, this post will also outline the intention of showing our students that learning this process can be ultimately tied to the debate process, and the issues we are talking about genuinely have an impact on our lives now. With a class that seemed a little out of touch, nothing can be a better tool to put them back in touch than an argumentative essay.
Gustavo, the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago is a heartwarming story of bravery, friendship, and self-expression—making it a rich mentor text for writing exercises across various disciplines. With its themes of shyness, the supernatural, and the courage to be seen, Gustavo’s journey offers endless opportunities for deep reflection and creativity in classrooms. Let’s explore how you can use this story as a springboard for disciplinary writing in all subject areas!