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WritingFix Project: Our Mentor Text of the Year
exchanging ideas on using a powerful mentor text multiple times in a school year Mentor texts are published works that can be used to inspire or guide writers during well-crafted writing lessons. When introduced thoughtfully during instruction, a mentor text motivates students to want to write something like a published writer. At our Northern Nevada Writing Project teacher workshops, we share the following classification system for mentor texts, which separates these types of texts into three categories: idea texts, structure texts, and craft texts. Some mentor texts are used to inspire original ideas from student writers; the text's big idea inspires the student to write something similar but unique. A great example of this use of a mentor text is our lesson inspired by David Wisniewski's The Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups, a book that creatively explains the "real" (and very humorous) reasons why adults enforce certain rules on children. If you read this book aloud, then challenge your students to borrow the author's big idea and write the "real" reason behind a rule not mentioned in the book, then you are borrowing this mentor text's idea to inspire your students. Some mentor texts are used to inspire students to borrow a structure to use when writing; the text has a structure or frame that can be imitated so that students can hang their own ideas on that frame. The classic example of this type of mentor text is Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book, but WritingFix also features some great structurally-inspired lessons based on more modern books, like Doreen Cronin's The Diary of a Worm and Jan Brett's Daisy Comes Home. The third type of mentor text is what we have come to call a craft mentor text here in Northern Nevada; the language of the text is well-developed and crafted, and the author's "tricks" can be shown to the students so that they can borrow the "tricks" when they revise their own rough drafts. WritingFix's lesson that uses All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan is a great lesson that inspires students to borrow MacLachlan's craft techniques after they have a rough draft. All three types of mentor texts are important to learn how to use well during writing instruction, and we challenge our Nevada teachers to make new discoveries about using mentor texts as they classify their own favorite titles. We also challenge teachers to find certain mentor texts that can be used multiple times in a single school year. While some mentor texts lend themselves to a wonderful single writing lesson, we think it's important to have several titles that can be brought out multiple times no matter what the writing lesson is. The greatest mentor texts come back again and again, inspiring students anew with each sharing. We began our Mentor Text of the Year Project in 2008. We selected a book that we felt could be used over and over again in a single school year by innovative educators, and we challenged teachers to discover new ways to use it as their year progressed. We invited them to send their ideas for possible posting on this page. Teachers who shared ideas and student samples were entered in a drawing, and in May of 2009, our winner received a dozen copies of the upcoming year's Mentor Text of the Year. To participate (and to win a dozen copies of next year's mentor text for your classroom), obtain a copy of the current school year's selected book, read it carefully, and find different ways to use it to inspire your students. Send blurbs, photographs, or handouts you've created to use the book with your students to: webmaster@writingfix.com. We'll post all original ideas here, and we'll have this year's drawing in May. |
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2009-10's Mentor Text(s) of the Year |
2008-09's Mentor Text of the Year |
In How to Write Your Life Story, author Fletcher shares advice and activities that work perfectly with a unit on memoir or narrative writing. We love this book because it contains solid advice for teachers, yet it's written to inspire a student who picks it up and reads one (or all) of its chapters.
In Nevada, we sponsored an inservice last year on memoir and narrative writing, and we purchased copies of both these books for our twenty participants. We found it powerful to share a chapter of Fletcher's advice from his first book, then to read one of the chapters from the Marshfield book, looking for specific places and passages where Fletcher followed his own advice. When we asked our participants to write their own memoirs about a memorable teacher from their pasts, Fletcher's sound advice found its way to their writing too. You can read our participants' narratives by clicking here, and you might be inspired by write your own narrative about a memorable teacher in your past. This year, as you have students write daily in their journals or writer's notebooks, or as you have them create narrative drafts during writers workshop, we want you to find ways to use either (or both) of Fletcher's books to inspire your writers. How did you use a particular chapter or idea from either book during pre-writing, drafting, response time, or revision? Share with us! How to Participate in this Community!
As soon as we start receiving these submissions, we will post them in this white space below!
Nominate a Mentor Text of the Year for the 2010-2011 school year. We'll let WritingFix users vote this spring on next year's book!
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WritingFix features a complete on-line lesson that uses this book as a mentor text. The lesson is called "Using 90th Street's Advice", and it remains one of WritingFix's most popular picture book lessons. Students write a paragraph about a character, a setting, and an object that uses all four pieces of advice from the picture book. Below, find two wonderful student samples sent to us during 2008-09 by teachers using this page. You can read even more samples by visiting the on-line lesson's Student Sample Page.
Person/Character: a warrior Swish!! Swish!! You could hear the fighting noises from miles away as the warrior and the enemy brawled on the old, rickety, wooden bridge, arching over a long, skinny river. The bridge was a squeaky mouse as they clashed their heavy feet, battling over the treasure. Dressed in her bleach-white ghi with a pitch-black belt wrapped around her thin waist, the warrior karate chops the enemy. “HOI YA!” she shouts. All of a sudden the enemy flips the warrior and she lands on the ground next to a nearby bush. Searching around for a rock, the warrior reaches back and finds something solid in the bush. She pulls it out and notices it’s a sandal. She wonders for a moment until she sees her enemy approaching. Knowing that she has no time, she quickly throws the sandal forcefully. Flipping in the air and spinning and spinning like there’s no tomorrow, the sandal knocks the enemy over, onto the bridge. The force of his fall causes the bridge to break. Suddenly, the enemy and the sandal fall into the river. At the same time, the treasure is catapulted into the air and the warrior watches it land on the other side. The enemy sinks into the water and floats downstream with the skinny sandal. While she watches the enemy float away, the courageous warrior thinks, “What if the enemy comes back for revenge?”
Person/Character: a sailor Captain MacLeod had been sailing the oceans ever since he was a wee lad. This night was different; it was darker and deeper than ever before. Captain MacLeod was standing on the bow of the boat in his yellow rain suit. He had no use for it tonight, but he just loved wearing it. The black waves silently hit the side of the slippery hull, making the boat rock back and forth, back and froth. The sea spray scorched his eyes, but he didn’t care. The waves started to grow larger, rocking the boat violently. Then, a huge black mass arose out of the water. It had red eyes and smelled of rotten flesh. Suddenly, something crashed into the side of the boat. Captain MacLeod reached for his rifle. He aimed at the creature’s eye. “What if?” he thought. “What if I miss?” An e-mail message from Roni, author of 2008-09's Mentor Text of the Year:
Some time ago a teacher told me about your website and I checked it out and actually linked it to my website. I felt honored and delighted to read what you wrote and shared about my book. Now when you tell me that you have named 90TH STREET a "Mentor Text of the Year," I am truly honored! When educators appreciate my books it is so special for me. You are the gatekeepers--the people who introduce children to the world of words and literature--a sacred trust, if you ask me. So, again, it is such an honor for me to know that you and other teachers consider my book of help and interest. I wrote it out of my passion for words and story, and out of my desire to share that passion with children and encourage them to recognize the stories in THEIR lives, and be inspired to write about them.
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Five Great Ideas Shared during the 2008-09 School Year |
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"I love this book, but I find it to be a long story to read aloud in one sitting with my fifth graders. The first third of the book is about Eva getting writing advice from her neighbors, then the last two-thirds is about the story she creates. I break it up so that on the first day we read up to her getting the fourth piece of advice (from the soup lady). "For a few days we just talk about the advice and try it out in our own journals. A few days later, we review the advice and then read the rest of the story."
__________________________________________________________ "What a great choice for your book of the year! I have used this book for the past four years at the beginning of the year to kick off my picture-book writing lessons! "After reading the book to the students, I tell them that for homework they have to pick a spot by their house, inside or out, where they can sit quietly for fifteen minutes observing everything around them. Their assignment is to write down every thing they see, hear, feel, smell, etc. in fifteen minutes. "The next day in class we revisit the characters in the story and their writing tips for Eva. Then the students read over their lists, eliminating any thing that they don’t think will fit in their 'Nothing Ever Happens…' stories. (The title of their story will be their address put in place of '90th Street.' This really seems to personalize the story for them, as everyone likes to write about themselves!) "Next, we talk about the elements of the story that they should include….a bit of poetry (alliteration seems to work best for fourth graders!), a hint of romance (usually they choose to have animals fall in love at this age!), stretching the truth to make the story better, and finally using 'spicy' words to make their story come alive! "After editing and revising, the students add they own touches to the cover and we present the stories for everyone to read! They remember these writing tips all year in all of the other writings that they do, especially that the whole world is a 'stage' and there are stories everywhere! This book is also a great way to introduce the writing traits, beginning with 'ideas.'"
__________________________________________________________ "I teach 6th grade. I planned on having the kids 'map their neighborhood' to get ideas for writing personal narratives. I modeled the neighborhood where I grew up. The class was excited as they drew their own neighborhoods and label events within those areas. One kid drew a great map and then said, 'I can't think of anything that ever happens in my neighborhood.'
__________________________________________________________ "After reading Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street, I had my students form groups based on which advice they liked best. Students worked in small groups to paraphrase the advice onto sentence strips, or write a quote from the book about the advice. I placed the sentence strips on the bulletin board along with each character's picture. "Now after students finish a piece of writing, they highlight their favorite part. Students place their best writing excerpts onto sentence strips, which are added under the advice from the book."
__________________________________________________________ "Let me first say that your website has been an inspiration to my teaching and to my work with colleagues! Thank you!! "I used your lesson for Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street with my 6th Grade students this school year. This book truly was a mentor text for Writing Workshop in my classroom throughout the year. We often referred back to the different pieces of advice during peer collaborations/revisions, mini-lessons, and writing discussions. But, I felt like this text could play a larger role for writing beyond the walls of my own classroom. I kept playing around with the idea until almost the end of our school year and then it hit me. I have been asked to leave the classroom and step into the role of academic coach for our K-6 building. The first action I took, after signing my contract, was to order a copy of this book for every classroom teacher. "My plans are to utilize this text as an anchor piece in facilitating writing workshop for our entire school building. During our back to school in-service, I will provide the teachers with this text and the lesson plan from your site. We will then spend some collaboration time discussing ideas for utilization in their individual classrooms. Once the teachers have gotten Writer's Workshop underway and have utilized your lesson, I am making plans for the students in our school to receive advice from the various faculty and staff employed on our campus. The students will take a 'field trip' around the building to see if Nothing Ever Happens on Ouachita 88. Visits will include a stop in the cafeteria to receive advice from the food service staff about putting flavor into your writing with word choice. Another stop will be in the principal's office where students associate discipline and guidance and they will hear advice on using structure to build a good solid piece of writing with content and remembering to follow the mechanical rules when editing. Students will also visit with the art teacher who will advise the students to use their pencil to paint with words like an artist paints a beautiful picture on a canvas. One stop will include a visit to our school music teacher who will talk to the students about rhythm and beat and our unique voice in writing to make music in our ears. "When I spoke to our principal about this project, she was thrilled at the idea. I've also spoken to the other various faculty members who will be playing key roles, all are excited and on-board. I can't wait for school to start again next fall! I am anxious to see the results in our student writing! Talk about a learning community! "Thank you for all of the wonderful tools and resources you provide!"
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Dear Corbett and WritingFix, Our Mentor Text of the Year is selected based on how practical it would be for a teacher to refer back to the book's ideas, structure, or craft techniques throughout an entire school year. There are plenty of great mentor texts that work for single lessons. We're looking for a book with elements that deserve to be visited and re-visited multiple times in these nominees. To nominate a title, send us an e-mail at webmaster@writingfix.com. Already nominated for 2010-2011: |
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