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Just when I think I know everything I can about "mentor texts," I inevitably make a new discovery. I share new discoveries on this page.
My Work with Mentor Texts Fits these Categories: |
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What's a "Mentor Text" in a Writing Classroom? I first started hearing the phrase "mentor text" during a Ruth Culham conference I attended back in 2006. I finally asked the presenter, "So what do you mean by mentor text?"
My best paraphrase of his answer is this: A mentor text is a published piece of writing a teacher uses during a writing lesson to either a) teach a writing skill or to b) motivate the students to want to write something creatively similar.
My immediate thought was, "Why, I've been using those when designing my lessons for years. I did not know there was an official term for them until now!"
The simple truth about mentor texts is that most of us who teach writing well have been using others' published words to showcase specific skills or to motivate student writers since long before this new phrase came about for them in 2005 or 2006. I always have enjoyed how, in education, we often come up with interesting, new titles for tools that have been around for forever. A more cynical educator, like the gentleman who used to teach down the hallway from me, would have heard the definition for mentor text and would have said, "Oh great, here comes that educational technique again. When we first started talking about that idea, you were probably still in high school, Corbett."
While I too enjoy occasional moments of cynicism abut education, I'm not ready to be known as that rejector-of-ideas-that-are-older-but-recently-renamed educator that you can--usually--find in just about any school you visit. I find most of those teachers, unfortunately, don't listen to any of the cool, new techniques that educators are now applying to those well-established "old ideas." It's like they put up blinders as soon as they recognize that they heard about that idea years ago at an inservice class, and they don't accept that there are new things being done with those older tools.
I decided at that conference in 2006 that I really liked this new term--mentor text--and I decided, since everyone was apparently talking about them with vigor again, that I would make some new discoveries about why they were working so well in my classroom. I have to report that I had an amazingly fun time re-examining my own use of mentor texts (which, as I said, I'd been using for years before the new title for them was coined), and then I had an even better time designing several new workshops for my fellow teachers that shared some new ideas that researchers were claiming about them.
On this page, I happily share some of the more popular new materials I created for those teacher workshops between 2006 and 2011. I offer this resource page as proof that--even if you already know a lot about a teaching technique--there is still an amazing amount to be discovered. Don't dismiss the idea of mentor texts because you've been applying the idea for a while now; challenge yourself to find some new ways to use them even more solidly than you currently are.
I hope my new discoveries about mentor texts below inspire you to take on some personal, new learning.
Like what I have to share about "Mentor Texts" on this page?
Wish you had the ability to attend one of my face-to-face workshops?
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 I love presenting to groups of teachers about mentor texts. It is such an amazingly fun topic, upon which one can set so many personal and professional goals.
And yet...alas, I can only present so many times in any given year and still teach full-time Language Arts. There is, however, an alternative solution: I invite you to consider purchasing any of the PowerPoints and Workshop materials I sell at my Products Page here at Always Write. When I create slideshows and a booklets for all my teacher trainings, I try to do something unique: I go out of my way to design both in such a way that any teacher could independently read through the slides at their own pace, perform the activities in the booklets, and learn independently from my materials. I know face-to-face is much more effective, but this is an alternative for those of you who are interested in some self-paced learning.
Which of my Products focus on Mentor Texts? Between 2006-2008, I designed one of my most ambitious two-day workshops ever; I wanted to combine all the best techniques I'd learned about authentic writing instruction with the best things I'd learned about differentiated instruction. The result of this synthesis of best practices became my "7 Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson" Workshop. Over two days, we examine seven different elements that--when applied well and with a differentiated philosophy--could strengthen any writing lesson to work with a wider variety of students and learners. Mentor texts are one of the seven elements we explore with great detail during that workshop.
If you'd like to acquire my PowerPoints on all seven elements as well as the booklet used by participants during that two-day workshop, please know that they are available. Click here for details. |
I invite you to explore this page, which was inspired by many years of working with mentor texts as a means to improve my students' pre-writing, rough drafts, and revised drafts. If you have questions or comments, kindly e-mail me at: Corbett@CorbettHarrison.com. | 
Mentor Texts about Using
Mentor Texts:
If you appreciate the lessons I am posting here at my website, kindly consider using the links below to purchase any mentor texts I am recommending; a very small percentage of each sale from Amazon helps me keep this website free and on-line for all to use. Thanks in advance in helping me out! |
Mentor Author, Mentor Texts
by Ralph Fletcher
Yes, clearly, I am a Ralph Fletcher fan! When I saw this book was coming out, I can safely say I was one of the first to place my order. It's a wonderful read with wonderful lesson ideas!
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My boss (thanks to Common Core State Standards) is forever asking, "What are you having them read that's non-fiction?" This collection of ideas is truly a blessing to have! |
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My "Mentor Text of the Year" Challenge for Teachers |
While working as a professional developer back in 2008, I hatched up the idea of the "Mentor Text of the Year" Program, and it really took off. In Northern Nevada, where I did my PD work, I hosted an inservice class on using mentor texts right at the beginning of the traditional school year. At this class, teachers would receive a classroom copy of two books I had selected as the "Mentor Texts of the Year." These books were chosen based on three criteria: 1) each mentor text is well-written and engaging; 2) the author of each mentor text directly or indirectly speaks of skills that real writers uses; and 3) each mentor text could be re-read multiple times in the same school year without become boring or repetitive.
During the first month of school, participants would create a large lesson or two mini-lessons that made use of the book(s) as a mentor text, and we would share those lessons with each other. Throughout the school year, those teachers were required to share four or five additional lessons or mini-lessons with the group.
What we found was that good mentor texts can be mined for dozens and dozens of different ideas/lessons. We also found that students like coming back to a familiar text to re-examine it and learn something they didn't see on their previous visit.
Some mentor texts only need to come out one time, and then it's safe to put them away. A "Mentor Text of the Year" is a different type of text, one that you plan to come back to multiple times. When I returned to the classroom after leaving the professional development program, I not only put to use all the past years' mentor texts of the year, but I vowed to find new ones to introduce with each successive year.
Below are the mentor texts of the year, all of which I find so easy to revisit and use several times during each school year. With each book, you will find a link to one on-line lesson that I developed to go with that text. I have half a dozen lessons for each book in my repertoire, but I think it's important for teachers to find their own way to build multiple lessons from the same book.
Mentor Texts of the Year for 2012-2013
The Year of Vocabulary |
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| I'll admit that I let my vocabulary instruction slide a bit last year. So focused was I on implementing a new version of Reading Workshop that I only touched a little on vocabulary instruction. This year that will change for me as I am selecting two Mentor Texts of the Year that will keep me challenging the students to collect and celebrate new words they discover in their reading. The Boy Who Loved Words is about Selig, who collects words like others collect comic books, coins, or stamps, and his inspiration will inspire my students to become word collectors too. Now I am not a teacher who gives traditional vocabulary quizzes, and Vocabulary Unplugged is full of multiple lessons that I can translate into vocabulary "projects" that will serve my students better than having them simply memorize definitions. |
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A Lesson Inspired by Vocabulary Unplugged...:
Coming Soon! |
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Mentor Texts of the Year for 2011-2012
The Year of "Showing" |
Mentor Texts of the Year for 2010-2011
The Year of Writer's Notebooks
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| "Showing" is a powerful writing skill that helps you teach three different writing traits (and their specific sub-skills) at once: idea development (relevant details), word choice (specific verbs, nouns, and adjectives), and voice (personality revealed through writing). I had students who were producing a great quantity of writing but the quality was lacking in many of them. Show; Don't Tell really focused my students in on the word choices they were making, and Live Writing gave them extra ideas for the idea development and the voice their writing was often lacking. Both books were by authors whose main purpose was to share their own craft skills, which was an awesome bonus; when a writer shares his/her own writing process, the book--in my opinion--becomes so much more valuable. |
My return to the classroom (after an engaging hiatus as a full-time professional developer) had me focus on using writer's notebooks with my students. I knew I had not been doing enough pre-writing with my student writers in the past, and I was determined to change that. Instead of journals, which was the tool I'd required before I left on my hiatus, I began the year with Writer's Notebooks as described in Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You. We read the chapters together, and we kept looking through Amelia's Notebook, which showed my students how adding visuals and artifacts to one's notebook is a marvelous was to not only personalize it but also discover topics to pre-write about that students had not thought of before. I was also inspired to begin keeping my own notebook. |
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Mentor Texts of the Year for 2009-2010
The Year of Personal Narrative |
Mentor Texts of the Year for 2008-2009
The Year of Revision |
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| Ralph Fletcher, probably my favorite author of mentor texts, wrote these two books as companions to each other. How to Write Your Life Story offers sound, student-friendly advice and fun exercises for any young person who thinks the things that happen to him/her aren't worthy of being written down. With strong writing skills, anything that happens to anyone has the potential to become a worthy narrative piece of writing. To prove his own point, Fletcher then shares his own life story: Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid. Here is an autobiography that often describes the simplest, day-to-day occurrences from Ralph's own childhood in a way that exemplifies high-quality writing. Each chapter of the memoir is short and engaging, and the chapters can be read all at once or in complete isolation of each other. Your boy writers will eat both of these texts up; Fletcher just has that knack. You won't catch me teaching the narrative genre without having these two books in hand. The best part of all; in Marshfield, Fletcher follows every piece of advice offered in his "How To..." guide, which your students will pick up on. |
Our first year of the Mentor Text of the Year Program focused on two things: finding a personal topic and being able to write and revise a piece of writing about it. We discovered this great little picture book by Roni Schotter that no one seemed to know about. Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street is about a young student writer whose sitting on her apartment's stoop, and she struggles to find a writing topic. "Nothing ever happens" around her, so she has a blank page staring at her from her writer's notebook. Four of her neighbors ask her what she's doing, and each neighbor ends up giving her a profound piece of advice for writing. Suddenly she's off and scrawling down ideas, and a whole story unfolds. When the neighbors compliment her on her story, she actually says, "It'll be better when I revise it." Mixing this little story with advice from Barry Lane's Reviser's Toolbox had our Northern Nevada students turning their "nothing ideas" into "something ideas." We happily discovered that once students drafted something they actually enjoyed writing, they were more willing to use revision tools to make it better. |
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Classifying Your Favorite Mentor Texts: Ideas, Structures, & Craft Skills |
| We all have those favorite books we love to read out loud to our students. When I start discussing mentor texts at my teacher workshops, I always begin by asking my participants, "What are your best read-alouds?" Teachers love to share the story titles that captivate their students the most. I usually have to pry teachers away from that discussion question with my metaphorical crow-bar so we can proceed with the training.
 At the secondary level, teachers also have favorite chapters/passages that we love to read aloud too. I guarantee you will not find anyone who reads the first chapter of Animal Farm out loud better than I do; I have the best 'Old Major voice,' and when I sing the song Old Major teaches the animals, I actually achieve vibrato! Also, for an inservice class my wife and I co-taught for many years, I also wrote this writing lesson based on chapter four of Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. On the drive home from class, she once said, "I don't know what it is about that chapter, but when you read it out loud, it's like you become the author's voice." I don't argue when my wife compliments me, but it's amazing how--even after you've shared something aloud dozens of times--if you love the words and the way the author put them down, you can still make it come alive for others.
Now I must stress something here: a good read-aloud text and a mentor text for writing are not necessarily the same thing. They might be, but there's no guarantee that just because your kids enjoy hearing the story read aloud that it will make a strong mentor text for writing. From experience, I have to warn teachers of this. Too many times I have seen my workshop participants really struggle to build a writing lesson from a story that makes a better read aloud than it does a text for teaching/inspiring writing.
A mentor text should ultimately be discussed by students for one of two purposes: 1) to showcase a writing skill found in the text that you want students to practice in their own writing; 2) to motivate students to write something different-yet-similar that was inspired by the mentor text's idea.
In 2006, when I made the decision to learn even more about mentor texts and how they affected my writing instruction, I spread out 15-20 of my very favorite mentor texts from my very best writing lessons on the carpet in front of my bookshelf. In Language Arts, I require my students do "sorts" all the time with words and sentences and quotes, and so I was immediately inspired to attempt to sort my mentor texts interestingly. I sorted them first by genre. I sorted them next by reading level. Neither of these sorts did much to challenge my thinking. However, when I asked myself,  "How are you specifically using these mentor texts to teach writing?" something really interesting happened. I made a discovery that became very meaningful to me. The sort I ended up doing showed me that I had three distinctly different ways I was using mentor texts to inspire student writing. I was using some of my texts as idea mentor texts, some as structure mentor texts, and others as craft mentor texts. You can read about these three different categories I created by viewing my PowerPoint slideshow, which you can access by clicking here or on the picture of my opening slide, which is at right. In my PowerPoint slides, I define each category, and I share a purposefully diverse selection of mentor texts that I have personally used while teaching writing to K-16 writers. I carefully explain how it's the writing task I have students complete after being exposed to the mentor text that determines in which category I place the mentor text. This is a pretty important concept to understand before you can start sharpening your own use of mentor texts.
I find a lot of my teacher workshop participants expect the incorporation of mentor texts into writing instruction to be easy, but it isn't. Just because you have a well-written or engaging text to discuss before students begin writing does not guarantee you have a better writing lesson. Allow me to explain this with an example mentor text that I know many already teachers know about: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg.
 Now, I'm being serious here...if ever there was a perfect idea mentor text, it's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. An idea mentor text--and I say this assuming you've already watched my explanatory PowerPoint slideshow from above--is one whose purpose is to inspire students to brainstorm and pursue an original idea inspired by an author's original idea. What Van Allsburg creates so beautifully with this picture book is an imaginary story that there are these dozen or so "lost stories" that were created by this fictional illustrator/writer named Harris Burdick; all that currently remains of each story is a single (and beautiful!) captioned illustration and a story title. The book's twelve illustrations, captions, and story titles, when shown to student writers, genuinely excite them to want to create what they believe one of the lost stories must have been. See how this author--Van Allsburg--had this original idea that launches original ideas from student writers? That's an idea mentor text, and as I said, this one is pretty much perfect.
Genuine excitement from writers is good, and mentor texts often provide this type of excitement. But my "Seven Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson" Workshop isn't simply about exciting students to write, it's about exciting them and then providing them with high-quality instruction so that writing their Harris Burdick-inspired tales teach them some genuine skills that writers know about and practice and perfect as they go through a writer's workshop inspired by the story they are writing. Over the years, I have seen some pretty mediocre (as well as some dreadful) pieces of writing inspired by The Mysteries of Harris Burdick; it takes a great mentor text and a great writing lesson to help students excel past mediocrity.
I'll conclude this section on this resource page by reiterating what I said a few paragraphs back again. Good writing instruction is never easy; it involves many purposeful elements (seven, according to my popular workshop) coming together as the writing process unfolds, and use of mentor texts is but one of those elements. If what I've said on this page intrigues you, I invite you to purchase the entire set of materials from my "7 Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson" Workshop and begin categorizing your mentor texts for writing. Or--better yet--have your school or district's professional development coordinator contact me about coming and presenting the idea to your staff in the future.
I also invite you to send me the names of favorite mentor texts you use in your classroom that fall into one of my three categories of mentor texts: idea, structure, or craft: corbett@corbettharrison.com.
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Unique Mentor Text Recommendations: One Idea, One Structure, and One Craft |
 The mentor text at right is a great mentor text, but it's not a very unique recommendation.
I strive to be unique in my students' eyes. I want my kiddos to remember unique things about me, like how I am probably the only teacher they had who actually showed them pages from his own writer's notebook, or how I am probably the only teacher who sang (loudly!) Emily Dickinson poems aloud to them to the theme song from "Gilligan's Island."
I mentioned Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick above as a superb idea mentor text, which it is. That book was first recommended to me by a college professor, and I used it (albeit badly) my very first of teaching based on the recommendation. Over the years, I became better at using it as a mentor text, so I am always grateful for that professor who first made me aware of this amazing book to use to enhance my writing instruction. Because that book has been around for so long, I know that well-over 75% of the teachers using this webpage have already heard of it. I know it's not the most unique idea mentor text I could share.
I also know that Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book is not the most unique title I could share as a structure mentor text. I certainly hope 95% of you already own this little gem and are using it as a structure mentor text. Same thing with me trying to recommend anything by John Steinbeck as a unique craft mentor text, right?
So here is what I am attempting to do with the following three recommendations: I am attempting to share with you the most unique mentor text title I've thought of for the three types of mentor texts. I doubt any other teacher out there would have ever thought to recommend these titles to you!
I hope you appreciate this; it's my gift of uniqueness to you. If you want to share back a unique title with me...you may: corbett@corbettharrison.com.
My Unique Idea Mentor Text:
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey |
My Unique Structure Mentor Text:
Caves by Stephen Kramer
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So I expect most of you have likely heard of this classic chapter book, but I'm now throwing it to you as a unique idea mentor text. Enjoy that famous donut chapter by reading it again.
Then, a few days later, use it to inspire the following unique writing idea from your students: invent and write about an automated machine that you wish existed to make your life easier. If they like the machines they "invent," they can go further, and tell the tale of their original machine going haywire, as it does in the mentor text.
Click here to access this lesson
at WritingFix. |
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Don't make the mistake a lot of teacher I work with do by thinking structure mentor texts have to be as obvious as Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book. Structure can and should, in fact, be so subtle you almost miss it sometimes. Good writing has structure, but it doesn't sound formulaic.
That's the case with Stephen Kramer's introductory two pages to his non-fiction picture book, Caves. Kramer begins with a paragraph that shares things you would never find in a cave; then he describes what you would see in a limestone cavern. Borrow this two-part, subtle structure to describe any setting: your bedroom, your classroom, your refrigerator. Your students can/will produce some interesting writing by focusing on what isn't there before they focus on what is. Trust me.
Click here to access this lesson
at WritingFix. |
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Some authors have the ability to write what sounds like poetry even though they're writing prose; it's a craft skill. Jane Yolen does it. Angela Johnson does too. MacLachlan is a master at it, as evidenced in this beautiful book. What I love about MacLachlan is that students notice crafty things she does that they can impersonate. In this text, have them note how often she begins sentences with prepositions, and have them discover her "sets of three." They're there. When they write about a special to love, have them impersonate these craft tricks. It works!
Click here to access this lesson
at WritingFix. |
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The Four Mentor Texts that Inspired My Four Most Popular Inservice Classes |
| My work with the Northern Nevada Writing Project, which began for me in 1996, has inspired me to create and teach somewhere between forty and fifty in-service classes and teacher workshops over the years. Some of these classes I designed with fellow NNWP colleagues; my wife--Dena--remains my favorite collaborator when designing a new class. Other workshops I designed on my own.
I often base any new inservice workshops on a brand new professional book for teachers that I've recently discovered, but I've just as often based new classes upon discovering a new technique or two I have "re-discovered" in a favorite older book that I've recently looked through. Below, I share the four mentor texts that I have used when designing some of my most successful inservice classes for teachers and administrators.
When our economy has been good for education in the past, the NNWP has been generous enough to purchase copies of these books for all class participants. Over my many years of designing and delivering teacher workshops, I feel confident in saying that I have put well-over two or three hundred copies of each title below in the hands of my fellow Nevada educators. I'm proud of that fact; these four titles are books that I believe have the power to transform non-writing teachers into writing teachers, or to at least begin a colleague's journey down that path.
Do you have copies of these books on your teacher bookshelf? If so, start mining them for great new ideas to bring to your classroom.
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I don't know the year it happened, but I remember so well the room where it took place and the person I was sitting next to. My Writing Project--the NNWP--brought author Barry Lane in for a Saturday workshop. We all received copies of the book pictured above, and we all enjoyed Barry's presentation that whole Saturday. It was the first time I'd met Barry, who is now a good friend of our family.
My Teaching Revision & Editing in-service: Because so many teachers I work with find revision terribly hard to teach well, I created a new teacher workshop back in the 2008-2009 school year that focused on authentic techniques for two distinct steps of the writing process: revision and editing. Each participant received a copy of the wonderful resource pictured above.
You can access many of this workshop's resources by visiting the Revision Homepage at the WritingFix website. |
I love the spirit of this book of lesson ideas: teach and write persuasively with a good sense of humor. I was lucky to have several teachers from my past who were simply fun teachers with fun ideas for lessons. The lessons in the book pictured above remind me of those fun teachers.
My Persuasive Writing Across the Curriculum in-service: I created this inservice during the 2009-10 school year that focused on teaching persuasive voice in all curricular areas. Participants not only received a copy of the book pictured above, but they also designed R.A.F.T. writing prompts and other persuasive formats that helped students think deeply about classroom content.
I now offer this course as a Writing Across the Curriculum professional development experience for 4-12th grade teachers struggling with Common Core State Standards' W.A.C. requirements. Visit the Persuasive Writing Homepage at WritingFix for some of the class's resources. |
Many summers ago, I spent an incredible three days attending a 6-trait workshop put on by Vicki Spandel in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the time, mere words could not describe the powerful philosophical discussions about writing we experienced at the guidance of this incredible thinker and author.
It was a philosophy-changing experience for me as a writing teacher. Several years later, Vicki published an amazing book--The 9 Rights of Every Writer--which so perfectly captured some of those epiphany-causing discussions that I had experienced in New Mexico during that summer.
Since then, whenever I have been asked to facilitate a "book study"-styled class for a group of teachers, this is the first text I recommend. Dozens of groups have since analyzed this book's thought-provoking messages with me. Each discussion, I walk away with something totally new too!
Vicki Spandel is truly a wise teacher and author. |
I am so lucky to work on a team of educators who all use this little gem of a book. There are 51 fun ideas inside that help students write about non-fiction topics in their own words. My science colleague, my math colleague, and my history colleague all have their favorites from this collection.
My Writing Across the Curriculum in-service: Back in 2006, I created a brand new inservice as part of my Writing Across the Curriculum Coordinator duties for the Northern Nevada Writing Project. Participants were thrilled to receive not only the book pictured above, but they also received copies of the NNWP's Going Deep with Compare & Contrast Thinking Guide.
This class ran regularly between 2006 and 2011, but I have now retired it as an inservice. Schools may still request the content if they are willing to commit to three professional development days at their sites. Check out the Wacky We-Search Homepage at WritingFix, where many of the workshop's resources are featured. |
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