Write Source - Student Models. About WritingFix: Our Bibliography of Mentor Texts. Mentor Texts: WritingFix's Lesson Bibliography Building a 6-trait "mentor text" library?
All books cited on this page link to free-to-use lessons! A Bibliography for Teachers & Librarians: There are a lot of published books that share lists of mentor texts for teaching writing; the book at right is one example. This page at WritingFix--we believe--is much more thorough than just about every book in print we've found. We've spent almost ten years creating the list of books below. During our Northern Nevada teacher workshops, we ask teachers to bring favorite mentor texts and share how they use them during their writing instruction.
Use the Amazon links below and WritingFix benefits! Using Song Lyrics as Mentor Texts...our iPods Across the Curriculum Project. Hello, my name is Rob Stone, a high school language arts and social studies teacher and the Page Host for this iPod-inspired Writing Across the Curriculum homepage here at Writingfix.
And here is what I believe… If you asked today’s students to rank the things that are most important to them, two things are sure to make nearly every list. As a matter of fact, for them, these two things supersede any mere list and move into an almost spiritual realm that includes things that are vital to their very survival. Those two things, of course, are technology and music. The reality is that, though classic literature, chapter books and picture books will always maintain their well-deserved importance in growing minds, today’s students find inspiration in places beyond the published works traditionally used in the classroom. I passionately believe that one of the places to look for that missing link is where today’s technology meets music: the iPod. Propose an iPod-inspired Writing Lesson! Projects: Poetry Lessons & Prompts. Picture books can inspire great poetry from your students!
Each year in Northern Nevada, we host a variety of teacher workshops that we call "Make and Take" workshops; at each class's conclusion, all participants have created a new lesson they're willing to share with the other participants as well as share with their students. Some of our participants' lessons really shine as powerful exemplars of well-designed instruction. The very best of those lessons--with the contributing teacher's permission--become part of the WritingFix collection. Below, you will find poetry lessons created over the years by teachers who were inspired by picture books from their classroom bookshelves.
Back to the top of page Chapter books can inspire great poetry from your students! Below, you will find poetry lessons created over the years by teachers who were inspired by favorite chapter books and short stories from their classroom bookshelves. Song lyrics can inspire great poetry from your students! Mentor Text Lessons...inspired by Chapter Book Excerpts.
How did this page of free lessons come about?
In 2006, WritingFix and the Northern Nevada Writing Project received a generous grant that helped begin the very popular lesson collection you will find on this page. The generous $25,000 AT&T Grant, acquired with the help of the Washoe Education Foundation, allowed us to design and host a very different kind of inservice class for 100 Northern Nevada teachers, and that inservice made possible this page. Members of the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Technology Team created and demonstrated seven brand new chapter book lessons to the first 100 teachers who signed up; they then gave away 100 copies of each of the chapter books so that class participants could teach any of the lessons back in their classrooms. At the inservice's end, each of the 100 participants brought in a different chapter book excerpt to share, and each wrote a brief proposal for a 6-trait lesson inspired by their books.
Student samples being sought. Mentor Text Lessons...inspired by Picture Books. How did this page of quality lessons come about?
In 2005, WritingFix received a generous grant that helped begin the very popular lesson collection you will find on this page. The generous $25,000 AT&T Grant, acquired with the help of the Washoe Education Foundation, allowed us to design and host a very different kind of inservice class for 100 Northern Nevada teachers, and that inservice made possible this page. Members of the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Technology Team created and demonstrated eight brand new picture book lessons to the first 100 teachers who signed up; they then gave away 100 copies of each of the picture books so that class participants could teach any of the lessons back in their classrooms without needing to purchase the mentor text. At the inservice's end, each of the 100 participants brought in a different picture book to share, and each wrote a brief proposal for a 6-trait lesson inspired by their books.
List of Mentor Text for Writer’s Workshop.