Your web browser might not work well with our site. We recommend you upgrade your browser.
Your custom url is /bergschneider
Writer's block. It's been crippling my 5th graders this year. For me, it's not enough to hand my students a writing rubric and explain the expectations for a writing assignment. Who wouldn't like to see a great example of a finished product BEFORE they begin their assignment? That's where mentor texts come into place. If I want my students to write persuasive essays, fascinating narratives, and interesting informative writing pieces, I have to provide them with examples of those texts that will give them ideas and motivate them to write about something creatively similar. Using mentor texts to teach writing in my class will also show students how how real writers work-they look at other writers' work for ideas! Mentor texts will bring excitement into my writing class and motivate my struggling writers! My students LOVE read aloud time in my classroom. They hang on every word I am reading! The mentor texts will help motivate them to mirror an author's overall idea, text structure, or written craft, and write about something similar! In my writing class, I will use these mentor texts to showcase a number of particular skills found in the text that my students can practice in their own writing. If I want my student to write a captivating personal narrative, I would read them strong model examples like "The Relatives Came" and "Those Shoes." As a class, we would analyze the ideas in the text and how the author delivered those ideas throughout the book. Books like "The Gardener," "The Lotus Seed," and "Tucky Jo and Little Heart" also represent content related to our Social Studies curriculum. I want to fill my classroom library with rich and engaging texts that students can have at their fingertips to help them become better writers.
Read more