How to Use Mentor Texts in Your Writing Block
Mentor texts are an essential component during writing instructional time. Using a strong mentor text during your writing block will allow students to see an example and a standard of what is expected of them by the end of the writing unit. Let’s take a look at what mentor texts are, how to choose them, and how to effectively implement them in your classroom.
What are Mentor TExts and How Do i Choose the right text?
Mentor texts are simply any high-quality text that is used to help get the intention of the writing assignment across. Mentor texts can be printed books that align with the unit/goal, student work samples, or teacher-created work samples. If using student and teacher-created mentor texts, make sure those texts are excellent examples of what you want your students to accomplish.
Choosing the appropriate mentor text for your writing block is essential. Are you teaching about informational writing, letter writing, narrative writing, etc.? Think about what you want your students to accomplish by the end of the unit and then use books that address the purpose of the unit. If all of the mentor texts were presented to your students at one time, they should be able to get a good understanding of what the unit is going to be about. *This may take some practice, especially if you teach kindergarten.
These books are great mentor texts for opinion writing because they are all about providing an opinion.
I Chose my Texts/Books…now what?
Once you have your books/writing samples picked out, now is time to start the writing unit! To kick off a unit, I like to put 5-10 books on my easel and then have students look at them to see what they think the unit might be. They look at the titles, front covers, genre, etc. We make an anchor chart and discuss how these books could relate to our unit. This takes some practice, but they are good at identifying units by the end of the year.
As you read the text, make sure to emphasize certain aspects of the book. Using the “think aloud” method to model important parts of the book is very beneficial, especially in lower grades. For instance, if you are working on an opinion piece, you can use the book “Red is Best.” In the book, the little girl mentions her opinion that her red items are her favorite and then she provides a reason as to why they are the best. She says that she likes her red stockings the best because she can jump higher when she wears them. This is important for young writers to understand that they can’t just state their opinion, but they also have to provide reasonings as well. By modeling and using strong text selections, students should be able to completely understand what their task is for the unit.
Tip: When introducing mentor texts for a nonfiction writing unit, it is easiest to choose printable text that is about one, specific topic. These National Geographic books are perfect in the lower grades.
BEfore Students Start Writing
Before you send them back to their seats, read over a student example. Discuss how the student sample aligns with the unit goal. This will allow students to see exactly what they need to accomplish when it is writing time. We also like to create a class-made writing piece. I use the “think aloud” method during this time and I also allow students to come up and write/model on the class piece. This is a great time to practice monitoring for capitals, punctuation, etc.
Hope this post helps you pick awesome mentor texts to use with your students!
💜 Anna
Want more books in your classroom, check out this blog post.
Here are some no or little prep writing resources that your students will LOVE!
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