7. Sharing Our Thinking:
What are Mentor Texts ?
Mentor texts are pieces of literature that you can
return to and reread for many different purposes.
Mentor texts are to be studied and then imitated.
Mentor texts help students make powerful
connections to their own lives.
Mentor texts help students take risks and try out
new strategies.
Mentor texts should be books that students can relate to and
can read independently or with some support.
8. Why Use Picture Books as
Mentor Texts?
Picture books provide the models that will help students grow as writers.
They stimulate creativity and create interest.
They are rich in beautiful illustrations that add another layer to the text.
They can be used to connect reading strategies to author’s craft.
They contain multiple life lessons.
They are culturally diverse.
They demonstrate the importance of choosing words wisely.
They are short enough to be shared entirely in one reading.
9. from Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through
Children’s Literature
Mentor texts become our coaches and our partners
as we bring the joy of writing to our students. They
help students envision the kind of writer they can
become; they help teachers move the whole writer,
rather than each individual piece of writing,
forward. Writers can imitate the mentor text and
continue to find new ways to grow.
10. Possible Writing Lessons from
Painting the Wind
Writing in the present tense Strong verbs
Effective repetition Hyphenated adjectives
Variations in print
Variation in sentence length
Effective use of dialogue
Listing
with semicolon and comma Setting up the ending in the
using a sentence fragment beginning
with a dash
placement variation
without the use of a conjunction Placing adjectives after the noun
with a colon
Use of exact nouns and names Character snapshots
11. Adjective Placement to Emphasize Meaning
“I can’t concentrate,” she said, her voice flat and unhappy.
(Baby by Patricia MacLachlan)
There will be Sarah’s sea, blue and gray and green, hanging on the wall.
(Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan)
He is wearing a strange cowboy hat, too small, that sits high on his
head. (Journey by Patricia MacLachlan)
Somewhere behind us a train whistle blew, long and low, like a sad, sad
song. (Owl Moon by Jane Yolen)
12. Adjective Placement to Emphasize Meaning
We reached the line of pines, black and pointy against the sky, and Pa
held up his hands. (Owl Moon by Jane Yolen)
Our trees poke their branches, black and spiky, against the sky.
(Peepers by Eve Bunting)
I held the jar, dark and empty, in my hands. (Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe)
I have a pomegranate, hard and dry. (Anna’s Table by Eve Bunting)
I have a caterpillar, curled and mummy black,
A lizard, thin and wide, run over by a car.
(Anna’s Table by Eve Bunting)
13. From Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
by J. K. Rowling
Christmas morning dawned, cold and bright. (p. 211)
Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas
trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe
crisscrossing the Great Hall, but enchanted snow was
falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. (p. 212)
14. From Lynne’s Notebook…
Gazing upon the slippers, ruby-red and sparkling like fiery stars, she
clicked them together three times and wished to return to Kansas.
The morning mist, silver and silent, crept in among the meadow’s
wildflowers, grasses and oaks like a mysterious stranger.
The summer day, long and hot, had finally ended in a torrent of angry
rain.
The August rain, angry and merciless, pelted the young cornstalks into
the soggy earth.
15. Summer is here. And the painters come back to the
island. They come on the mailboat with their paints
and easels and bags of books and favorite pots and
pans. Some bring their children. All of them bring
their dogs.
16. From John Henry by Julius Lester
John Henry sang and he hammered
and the air danced and the rainbow
shimmered and the earth shook and
rolled from the blows of the hammer.
Finally it was quiet. Slowly the dust
cleared.
17. From James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
They gaped. They screamed. They started to run. They
panicked. They both got in each other’s way. They began
pushing and jostling, and each one of them was thinking
only about saving herself. Aunt Sponge, the fat one, tripped
over a box that she’d brought along to keep the money in,
and fell flat on her face. Aunt Spiker immediately tripped
over Aunt Sponge and came down on top of her. They both
lay on the ground, fighting and clawing and yelling and
struggling frantically to get up again, but before they could
do this, the mighty peach was upon them.
There was a crunch.
And then there was silence.
18. From Rose’s Notebook…
Mark crisscrossed to the other end of the court
dodging his opponents and dribbling the ball in a
staccato rhythm as the shouts and cheers from the
fans echoed in his ears. He made the shot. The
whistle blew. Victory.
19. The Your Turn Lesson
Hook
Use literature to invite participation
Purpose
Tell what you will do
Brainstorm
Invite writers to generate ideas
Model
Demonstrate with your own writing
20. Shared/Guided Writing
Writers actively participate as a class or in
partnerships
Independent Writing
Writers compose
Reflection
Writers reflect on how the writing worked.
Writers become aware of what works for them and
what will move them forward as writers.
22. From Barn Savers by Linda Oatman High
Papa plops the tools in the trough, and dust floats like
chicken feed.
Darkness falls soft and silent like chicken feathers around
the barn.
Finally, the darkness fades to dawn, and the sun rolls before
us like a wagon wheel.
I stack and stack, and the sun sinks low in the sky like a
sleepy, red-faced farmer.
23. From Beekeepers:
The springtime sunshine pours like warm honey from the
sky…
Goosebumps sting my arms and I shake…
From The Girl on the High-Diving Horse:
Summertime gallops by…
Heart pounding like hooves, I nod…
24. Hyphenated Adjectives from Linda Oatman High
From The Girl on the High-Diving Horse:
As we walk, I can’t help but gawk at boxing kangaroos, card-playing
cats, and a dog on a surfboard.
“Our hotel home,” says Papa, stopping at a castle-shaped place rising
pink and high as a sunrise into blue New Jersey sky.
“That’s the girl on the high-diving horse,” he explains. “She’s crazy-
brave.”
I kiss the big horse on his velvet-soft nose.
In the purple-early morning of our last day of summer…
25. Hyphenated Adjectives From Other Authors
Baseballs, Snakes, and Summer Squash by Donald Graves
Look for the use of hyphen to create sound words or exact adjectives in run-
down, long-haired, clickety-click, doe-eyed, ‘no-thank-you’ and orange-bellied.
Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher
deep-rooted, last-minute, dew-spangled
Up North at the Cabin by Marsha Wilson Chall
air-bubble balloons and peanut-butter-and-worm sandwiches
The Divide by Michael Bedard
copper-colored grass, rose-patterned paper, sunflower-bordered road,
weather-beaten boards, and fresh-plowed soil. Note the name of a flower,
snow-on-the-mountain.
26. Langston’s Train Ride by Robert Burleigh
long-ago train rides, sun-tinged Mississippi, dust-flecked window, tar-paper
shacks and broken-down sheds.
He also uses hyphens to create verbs and nouns: I skit-skat a little half-dance
on the sidewalk.
Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes
Bessie would attend the hot-in-summer, cold-in-winter, one-room Colored
schoolhouse where I taught in Waxahachie.
Animal Acrostics by David Hummon
polka-dotted, ear-ringing, never-ending, fairy-tale, topsy-turvy, and open-
mouthed.
27. Specificity is everything!
show-your-love day
raise-the-hair-on-your-arms night
cover-your-ears-but-not-your-eyes night
wake-up-your-parents-as-soon-as-possible morning
30. Taffy Sentences
From Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
…It was going to be another hot August day.
Another long, hot August day. Another long, hot, boring
wretched August day.
From Nocturne by Jane Yolen
In the night,
in the velvet night,
in the brushstroked bluecoat velvet night,
a big moon balloon
floats silent over trees…
31. Trying It Out
February Blizzard
by Charlotte Otten by Rose
February turns everything to gray: A blizzard turns everything to white:
gray lakes, gray fog, gray sun. white trees, white skies, white
Gray squirrels lose their bearings rooftops.
hunting for acorns buried White-tailed deer step gingerly
beneath thick gray snow. searching for a drink
on frozen white lakes.
32. Grade 5 Shared Writing Experience
Music makes every day a celebration:
soft blues, country ballads, hard rock.
People start toe-tapping their feet and
clap, clap, clapping their hands and
dancing to the beat - fast or slow.
33. From The Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London
At the top, he closes his eyes, throws back his head,
and howls. A wild, untamed music, it seems to
bounce off the moon, echoing from the mountains
and filling the gullies and valleys.
34. from “You Reading This, Be Ready” by William
Stafford
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you
spent reading or hearing this, keep it for life -
35. Lynne lynnedorfman@comcast.net
Rose ryc1011@hotmail.com
www.mentortextswithlynneandrose.com
