Mentor texts are one of the best ways to integrate curriculum in the classroom! By using mentor texts, I save time planning and teaching throughout the school year. Both I and my students can refer back to a mentor text over and over for numerous reasons- reading, writing, math, science, and social studies skills!
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Mentor Texts Defined
If you are not familiar with mentor texts, the National Writing Project defines it as:
“Mentor texts are pieces of literature that you—both teacher and student—can return to and reread for many different purposes. They are texts to be studied and imitated…Mentor texts help students to take risks and be different writers tomorrow than they are today. It helps them to try out new strategies and formats. They should be basically books that students can relate to and can even read independently or with some support. And of course, a mentor text doesn’t have to be in the form of a book—a mentor text might be a poem, a newspaper article, song lyrics, comic strips, manuals, essays, almost anything.”
Any type of text can be used as a mentor text for students. You first have to determine the reason you want to use the mentor text with your class. Are you focusing on specific skills related to reading, writing, or grammar? Are you using mentor texts to enhance your district curriculum? Or maybe you just love a book and want the students to have a love of it too! No matter the reason, I highly suggest you choose each mentor text with purpose and use it at a time outside of the mini-lesson…otherwise it is no longer a mini-lesson!
My Journey with Mentor Texts
When I began teaching 11 years ago, I had to create my own curriculum. EEK! Yep…I know the feeling of being overwhelmed and needing guidance on how to plan my lessons for students that are engaging and meaningful. I found success with using mentor texts in the classroom.
First, I started small and began to use mentor texts as a daily read aloud and then use a mentor sentence from the book to teach grammar skills to my students. If you are unfamiliar with mentor sentences, I highly suggest the book Patterns of Power to get you started! I noticed that my students became stronger by analyzing a sentence each week.
I knew that I could use these mentor texts for even more, so I started using them to teach reading skills, writing skills, and eventually chose books that I could use to help teach social/emotional, math, science, and social studies concepts. By doing this, I save time planning and my students make connections across subjects!
How to Choose a Mentor Text
Are you wondering how to choose a mentor text for your classroom lesson? Here are some steps you can follow to help you decide!
Love the book.
If you don’t love the book, your students can tell! The more you love a book and are excited to share it with students, the more they will engage in the read aloud and the subsequent lessons.
Choose a book based on a skill you want to teach.
Do you want to teach inferencing? Find a mentor text that is perfect for making inferences and read it to your class. When you are ready to teach your inferencing mini-lesson, you will be able to refer back to the book that students are already familiar with from before.
Multicultural literature is a must.
Think about what you need to teach that is not directly related to your curriculum, but is imperative for students to learn! Choose books that are windows, doors, and mirrors to the world.
Mentor texts can be almost anything.
A mentor text does not have to be a picture book. You can use fiction and non-fiction books, articles, poems, short stories, chapter books sections, song lyrics, plays, speeches, and so much more!
Need read aloud suggestions? Check out my blog posts for suggested read alouds!
What questions do you still have about mentor texts? Feel free to drop a comment below or reach out to me and I am happy to help you!
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