Hey, smart educators! I’m hoping you might have something to share with me. I took part in an awesome #TMchat guest-hosted by Carol Varsalona Sunday night all about mentor texts, which gave me some great resources. I especially wanted to attend the chat because in February, I’ll be presenting to teachers and pre-service teachers about using nonfiction picture books as mentor texts for students’ informational writing projects. I have a few examples already (including my own Can Be… books and Joyce Sidman’s poetry/prose books), but I’d like to give them a handout with several more. Can you help?
Students’ Can Be… books written using my Can Be… books as mentor texts
I’m looking for something more than “[X] is a good book to use with persuasive writing.” It doesn’t have to be a huge, involved project, though–I’ve kind of got those covered:>) It could be something as simple as, “We read [X] and then used its opening as a model for writing introductions to our reports about [Y].” Even better would be a link to specific materials used with students. Not just a teaching guide, I mean, but actual directions for a specific nonfiction/informational writing activity using skills developed through studying a mentor text that is a particular nonfiction picture book. (Those directions might, of course, be part of a teaching guide, or they might be completely separate, teacher-created materials.) And then some examples of student work or materials created to make this happen would be awesome.
Please leave me a Comment if you have a blog post that shares a specific mentor text activity using nonfiction picture books as mentor texts to strengthen students informational writing. Thank you so much!
Good morning Laura,
I’m an educator and an author as you know, but not a teacher in a school. What I have to share with you is how “smart educators” have used my WHEN THE WIND BLOWS book. Several have told me example, they are incorporating The WIND BLOWS into differentiated lessons on figurative language, poetry units on visualization, and sentence structure. Another teacher will use the Wind Blows book to explore poetry and then to look at weather as a system as part of her science unit. You can see some of the children’s “performances” on my instagram feed #redshoekidsrock, or on my website, http://www.lindaboothsweeney.com/childrens-books-by-linda-booth-sweeney/. A lot of this is outlined in my teacher’s guide, see here: http://www.lindaboothsweeney.com/teachers/
I hope this is helpful! If you need more, let me know.
Thanks, Linda–I love those student writing examples! But…I don’t understand which part of the teacher’s guide has the directions for those? I checked out the verbs section on chapter 11, but didn’t see it. Are there specific directions for that actual activity leading to kids writing strong verb phrases modeled directly on your book? Would love to share WHEN THE WIND BLOWS if there’s a specific *informational* writing activity based on it and using it as a mentor text.
I wrote this post about how your NCTE panel and Nancy Bo Flood’s book (that I won here!) influenced our “passion projects.” https://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/passion-projects/
Thank you, Margaret! Perfect example of what I’m looking for:D