Mentor Texts

Chapter 1 Reinventing the Writer with Mentor Texts

With you as a guide, and literature as the landscape, you can open young writers' eyes to the full range of possibilities before them.

- Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi

What is a mentor text?

"Mentor texts serve as snapshots into the future. 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." (page 7)

Mentor texts can be:

• students writings

• teachers writings

• a picture

• a chapter from a novel

• picture book

6 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Mentor Text:

1. Teacher must connect with the book

2. Find example's of author's craft such as powerful language, effective repetition, predictable patterns, use of imagery, or rythm and rhyme

3. Figure out how the book serves your students' needs and connect with your curriculum

4. Is this a book that your students could relate to and/or read alone from your students?

5. Does it provide examples of the kind of writing you want from your students?

6. Can it be revisited often for multiple purposes, providing opportunities for lessons across the traits of writing?