We always try to build a positive attitude about writing from day one. Sharing writer's craft is so crucial to gaining student's buy into writing as a whole. So, we try to pick great mentor texts that showcase different teaching points in writer's workshop. Here is our Top Ten:
1. Climbing Kansas Mountains by George Shannon. It is a great mentor text to introduce small seed story ideas to your students. Also it includes great descriptive language. We use this mentor text in our narrative leads.
2. The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli. I love how this speaks about telling the story from your heart. Also, that the story only needs to be important to you. We use this text to help writers generate ideas for narratives.
3. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. The sensory language in this book will blow your student away. We also revisit this text during our poetry unit.
4. Fireflies by Julie Brinkloe. This book is full of sensory language, figurative language, and descriptive language. Another great mentor text for narrative leads.
5. Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats. This is a great way to introduce small moments and using verbs to describe small actions. The language is so simple, so the students really grasp the concept.
6. When I Was Little by Jami Lee Curtis. We use this text to introduce complex sentence structure.
7. The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt. Great text for persuasive language. We usually introduce persuasive language with this text for our persuasive letter writing unit.
8. My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco. Great author and storyteller. She uses great similes.
9. The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey. Descriptive language written inside a small moment. Also another great mentor text for narrative leads.
10. Rimshot: Basketball, Pix, Rolls, and Rhythms by Charles R. Smith. I love how the boys discover poetry can be about anything. We use this book to help struggling writers during our poetry unit.
We included links to all our current writing units available in our TPT store below:
10. Rimshot: Basketball, Pix, Rolls, and Rhythms by Charles R. Smith. I love how the boys discover poetry can be about anything. We use this book to help struggling writers during our poetry unit.
We included links to all our current writing units available in our TPT store below:
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