In my previous two posts, I detailed how one fifth-grade teacher was using mentor texts in her classroom and what one researcher found in student’s writing from this literary borrowing.
Continuing off of this theme in today’s post, I am going to share some amazing insight from the inspirational and entertaining Ruth Culham, who capped off this dual lecture at NCTE with an introduction to her bible on mentor texts, The Writing Thief, and some wonderful examples of mentor texts for various themes.
Continuing off of this theme in today’s post, I am going to share some amazing insight from the inspirational and entertaining Ruth Culham, who capped off this dual lecture at NCTE with an introduction to her bible on mentor texts, The Writing Thief, and some wonderful examples of mentor texts for various themes.
Before getting into the heart of her lecture, Culham framed an important question that could, and honestly, should be posted somewhere in any reading teacher’s room: What are you reading today?
This simple question has given me an enlightening idea for something that I am going to do in my classroom at the start of the school year. I will share more information on this idea as it develops in real-time.
Culham then made a huge but often forgotten point when beginning a story: Introductions kill anticipation!
In some sense, this can seem counterintuitive, especially if you are going to begin a novel with a classroom. However, what Culham seems to be getting at is that a teacher should let the students explore their reactions to a text first, with there always being time to provide more context.
So how the heck does this work?
From what I gleaned from Culham, this process is a feeling-out, experiential, hands-on endeavor.
Using “Bully” by Laura Vacarro Seeger for a kindergarten classroom, Culham talked about getting student reactions to everything from the cover of the book to the presentation of the words (e.g., “What happens to your voices when the words get bigger?”). Nonetheless, this process can both be planned-out (you should have guiding questions in mind) yet still reactionary as you read aloud to the students. Essentially, the point is to build student anticipation and thought rather than just lead them down some pre-ordained path at the start of the read aloud.
With that said, Culham then provided a list of guiding questions that every reading teacher should have in his or her classroom after the first read (kind of like what happens during the first stage of a close read).
● What is the purpose of the piece (Narrative, Informational, Opinion)?
● What is the big idea?
● How is the idea organized?
● What are the different voices (think points of view)?
● What words are used accurately and specifically?
● What writing conventions are being applied?
● How does the story’s presentation help develop the main idea?
Of course, these questions will require different levels of instruction and elicit varying types of responses depending on grade levels, yet they are a good framework for any discussion of a text.
Relating this back to the idea of mentor texts, Culham asked where students could go from here in their own writing about bullying. Here were three interesting avenues she posed.
1) Students could write their own narratives (a story about a bully).
2) Students could write an informational piece based on guiding questions (e.g., What are the signs someone is a bully?; “What should you do when witnessing bullying?”)
3) Students can write an opinion piece based on guiding questions (e.g., "Do you think bullying is a problem?"; "How can you convince someone to be a better friend?"; etc.)
With this simple framework of questions and these three types of writing, it is truly exciting to see how mentor texts can help students take their writing to exciting avenues.
In my next post I am going to share some of the great mentor texts that Culham shared when teaching specific literary skills or conventions. Until then.
Source: Ruth Culham
As presented at the 2014 NCTE Convention during the lecture “Literary Models and Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing”
Friday, November 21, 2014
This simple question has given me an enlightening idea for something that I am going to do in my classroom at the start of the school year. I will share more information on this idea as it develops in real-time.
Culham then made a huge but often forgotten point when beginning a story: Introductions kill anticipation!
In some sense, this can seem counterintuitive, especially if you are going to begin a novel with a classroom. However, what Culham seems to be getting at is that a teacher should let the students explore their reactions to a text first, with there always being time to provide more context.
So how the heck does this work?
From what I gleaned from Culham, this process is a feeling-out, experiential, hands-on endeavor.
Using “Bully” by Laura Vacarro Seeger for a kindergarten classroom, Culham talked about getting student reactions to everything from the cover of the book to the presentation of the words (e.g., “What happens to your voices when the words get bigger?”). Nonetheless, this process can both be planned-out (you should have guiding questions in mind) yet still reactionary as you read aloud to the students. Essentially, the point is to build student anticipation and thought rather than just lead them down some pre-ordained path at the start of the read aloud.
With that said, Culham then provided a list of guiding questions that every reading teacher should have in his or her classroom after the first read (kind of like what happens during the first stage of a close read).
● What is the purpose of the piece (Narrative, Informational, Opinion)?
● What is the big idea?
● How is the idea organized?
● What are the different voices (think points of view)?
● What words are used accurately and specifically?
● What writing conventions are being applied?
● How does the story’s presentation help develop the main idea?
Of course, these questions will require different levels of instruction and elicit varying types of responses depending on grade levels, yet they are a good framework for any discussion of a text.
Relating this back to the idea of mentor texts, Culham asked where students could go from here in their own writing about bullying. Here were three interesting avenues she posed.
1) Students could write their own narratives (a story about a bully).
2) Students could write an informational piece based on guiding questions (e.g., What are the signs someone is a bully?; “What should you do when witnessing bullying?”)
3) Students can write an opinion piece based on guiding questions (e.g., "Do you think bullying is a problem?"; "How can you convince someone to be a better friend?"; etc.)
With this simple framework of questions and these three types of writing, it is truly exciting to see how mentor texts can help students take their writing to exciting avenues.
In my next post I am going to share some of the great mentor texts that Culham shared when teaching specific literary skills or conventions. Until then.
Source: Ruth Culham
As presented at the 2014 NCTE Convention during the lecture “Literary Models and Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing”
Friday, November 21, 2014
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