Mentor Text Thursday: Find a Personal Mentor

Here’s how some of  the conversation went:

Student: I’m writing a legend.

Me: Wow, so what exactly is a legend?

Her: Shrug.

Me: Wait.

Her: I guess it’s like an explanation of something that happened, but the story doesn’t have to be true.

Me: Have you read many?

Her: Yeah, some.

Me: So what I’m thinking is if you want to figure out how to write the next part of your legend, then maybe you should read some other legends and see if you notice anything you could use to write yours.

Me (thinking): Where am I going to find legends for a 5th grade girl to read?

Her: Like this one? She pulls a legend out of her writing folder.

Me (attempting not to fall off my chair): Yeah, like that one. See how your lead feels like this lead? It has the same feel, the same sound, the same tone. You want to do this throughout your legend, not just the beginning. So spend some time rereading this legend, looking for some inspiration for your legend.

Her: Okay, that’s a good idea.

This reminded me of the importance of having mentors when we write. In this class, the students are engaged in independent writing projects, so finding their own personal mentor is a crucial step. The teacher and I reflected on this after workshop and decided to invite students to find their own personal mentors. What do they want to make? What will it be like?

I like inviting students to have more of a vision of their projects than “I’m writing a story.” I expect them to know what it is going to in the end. Will your story be a picture book? Will it be a comic? Will it be all text? Will it be a scrapbook page?

Story is not enough of a vision . . . they need to know more. How do you help student envision their writing projects?