mentor texts

At our first VES Professional Reading Group 2009-2010 meeting we covered a great deal in a very short period of time. 

The main highlights of our first meeting studying Units of Study were:

• Covering the lessons the first time around seems to take much longer than expected
• We decided we needed to create a mentor text list per grade level. Please Check this out:and THANK YOU Seattle!

http://www.eledblog.com/content/writers-workshop-book-lists-units-and-comprehension-strategies#comment-190

Attached are Writers Workshop Book Lists that I created labeled by grade level.  Each list is differentiate by Lucy Calkins Units of Study as well as Comprehension Skills and is useful for anyone needing to teach a specific type of literacy lesson.

My school became a Writer's Workshop school this year. We were trained by the staff developers at Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project.

Our students have made amazing progress this year. They have really bought into the idea of being writers. It doesn't hurt that we frequently tell them they are writers or that we have author's celebrations at the end of each month.

Part of what makes the curriculum so rich is the books we read and later re-read like writer's. (I wrote a lesson plan about how mentor text lessons tend to go: click here.)

Check it out --at the bottom of the page-- and add these books to your writing curriculum!

What are some good texts for teaching students how to make connections in reading?

Let's share our ideas! And successes!

Text to Self Connections

Wimberly Worried

Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Teach it:

Find some ideas for how to teach the lesson here:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=228

What are some good mentor texts to use in Writer's Workshop?  As a new teacher, finding books that pair well with certain comprehension strategies and writer's craft is a continuing challenge.  Thank you librarian.  Thank you internet.

Let's share our ideas! And successes!

Dialogue:

Frog and Toad

Owl at Home

Poppleton

Because of Winn-Dixie