Teacher Demonstration Title: READ IT! WRITE IT!
Presenters: Stephanie Vasquez, Campbell Middle School (Cobb County), 6th/7th grade, Language Arts/Reading, Jennifer Konen, Taylorsville Elementary School, (Bartow County), 5th grade
Inquiry: Will using mentor texts inspire my students with ideas for writing, teach them about structure and organization and introduce them to the literary elements (tone, voice, setting) but also allow me to differentiate to a variety of student populations, i.e, ELL, Special Education, advanced or the “at-risk” student?
Context of Teaching:
Creating lessons that are challenging and engaging but will also address the variety of needs of the learners in our classrooms can sometimes be overwhelming. Utilizing mentor texts has many benefits: mentor texts can be used to guide and inspire student writers, incorporate a scaffolded approach to teaching writing, provide fresh, innovative prewriting lessons, teach the six traits of good writing, explore a variety of genres (poetry, persuasive, expository), and will also make read-alouds more purposeful and instructional. Picture books can be used to illustrate the content that you are teaching for lower level learners or for younger children while more complicated texts can be used to teach higher level students concepts such as foreshadowing and how to add a variety of sentence structures to their writing.
Reading and Research:
Calkins, Lucy and Marjorie Martinelli. Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Firsthand Heinmann, 2006. Print.
In this series of units, Calkins and Martinelli explain how to facilitate the writing workshop in the classroom. They give scripted examples of lessons on a variety of topics and strategies ranging from revising, leads, and editing. Several suggestions of mentor texts are used throughout each unit.
Cappelli, Rose, & Dorfman, Lynne R. Mentor Texts. Teaching Writing Through
Children’s Literature, K-6 (2007). Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Authors, Rose Cappelli and Lynne Dorfman, define the concept of mentor texts and their importance in teaching young children how to write. The authors believe that, “mentor text offer a myriad of possibilities for students as well as teachers”. “Mentor texts are pieces of literature that we can return to again and again as we help young writers learn how to do what they may not be able to do on their own”. The book is presented in sections that help teachers explore different parts of the writing process, i.e., writing strong introductions or closing paragraphs. It then presents “Your Turn” lessons that provide an opportunity for the teacher/reader to implement that particular strategy.
Cappelli, Rose, & Dorfman, Lynne R. Mentor Texts. Teaching Informational Writing
Through Children’s Literature, K-8 (2009). Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Authors, Rose Cappelli and Lynne Dorfman, provide a mix of theory and practice in this book devoted to nonfiction writing. The authors state that nonfiction writing can be challenging for students; they become overwhelmed with too much content to research and present. They simplify the process by providing suggestions on how to narrow their focus and become specific about what they want to state in their writing. The book also addresses “voice” in nonfiction writing. Included in the book is an extensive list of mentor texts that can be used to show students how to be effective writers of nonfiction.
Mitchell, Diana. Children’s Literature. An Invitation to the World (2003). Boston:
Pearson Education, Inc.
In this study of children’s literature, the author explores the rich text that is presented in literature for children. She presents a variety of books, picture books, poetry, realistic fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, biography, informational books and traditional stories.
She provides a multitude of resources that are available in every genre in which to explore and to use as mentor texts.
Portalupi, Joann and Ralph Fletcher. Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8. Portland,
Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 1998. Print.
Fletcher and Portalupi gather a collection of lessons designed to help teachers guide students through the craft or drafting process of writing. Many of the lessons in this book utilize mentor texts to demonstrate a given craft. They firmly believe that these craft lessons, while possible to be taught whole class, should be taught in a smaller conference style setting.
Portalupi, Joann and Ralph Fletcher. Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8.
Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2001. Print.
Fletcher and Portalupi explain how to empower students to write a variety of nonfiction pieces. They encourage teachers to provide many nonfiction examples of literature for students to familiarize themselves with so that they can easily determine a format to use when faced with the task a nonfiction piece. The book has many easy to use lesson ideas that explain the concept each teaches, supplies and mentor text(s) needed, and summary of tasks.
Ray, Katie Wood. Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom.
Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1999. Print.
“Reading like writers” is Wood’s slogan and she explains that writers learn by imitating other writers. Throughout her book, Wood explores the many ways students can learn in this fashion. The book also has all of the children’s literature that were mentioned or explained in the book listed in a bibliography at the end.
Instructions for Writing Approach:
Narrative:
In many cases, good readers are good writers. Most teachers recognize this and therefore encourage their students to read more. In order to build better writing more than just reading needs to occur. Teachers need to demonstrate for students how to get the most out of reading. Teachers must point out skills and crafts authors used in specific literature. Analyzing literature and modeling the skills it exemplifies is a foundational skill of writing. There are many books and websites available with listings of mentor texts and the writing crafts each demonstrates. However, it is not necessary to grab books from some list in order to teach effectively with mentor texts. Instead a mentor text can be any good piece of literature that the students are familiar with.