Small Bunny's Blue Blanket is one of my favorite new picture books, which I blogged about last week. The main character is adorable. He acts just like a little kid, but he's a rabbit. Second, it's a versatile mentor text. Third, the story has universal appeal for adults and children. Tatyana Feeney, author and illustrator… Continue reading Talking Writing with Tatyana Feeney
Category: mentor texts
My WordFest Mentor Text Stack Is Growing!
I've been tinkering around with the picture books I'm going to bring when I speak at WordFest later this month. My presentation focuses on using recently published picture books as mentor texts to teach students a variety of craft moves, which will lift the level of their narrative writing. When I say recently, I… Continue reading My WordFest Mentor Text Stack Is Growing!
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Craft Tables for You — Part III of III
This week I'm sharing the Happy Like Soccer craft table my graduate students created. My students worked in partnerships to flesh out explanations for craft moves they identified in Maribeth Boelts's book on the second day of class. I asked them to create a craft table with a partner for two reasons. First, I… Continue reading Craft Tables for You — Part III of III
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Chatting with Leigh Hodgkinson + a Giveaway
Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved books about bears. Therefore, when I picked up Goldilocks and Just One Bear, which feels like the sequel to "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," I was giddy. Leigh Hodgkinson's new book helped me to envision what became of some of my favorite fairy tale characters after… Continue reading Chatting with Leigh Hodgkinson + a Giveaway
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Craft Tables for You — Part II of III
This is the second in a series of three posts that include craft tables you can download for use during your conferences or strategy lessons. If you missed last week's post, which talked about what craft tables are and how to create them, then click here to read it now. This week I'm sharing two… Continue reading Craft Tables for You — Part II of III
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Annie and Helen Blog Tour
I spent a lot of time reading biographies of prominent Americans when I was in third grade. The biography I liked most was that of Helen Keller. I admired her determination and courage. Therefore I read her biography over and over again since I was fascinated with her life. I don't remember the title, author,… Continue reading Annie and Helen Blog Tour
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Craft Tables for You — Part I of III
Craft tables are a way to organize one’s thinking about a books teachers will be use as a mentor text. Since a good deal of the mentor text work we do with students in writing workshop happens during one-to-one writing conferences and during small group strategy lessons, it helps to know books really well. Hence,… Continue reading Craft Tables for You — Part I of III
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Nonfiction Mentor Text + a Giveaway
I've been thinking a lot about the balance of nonfiction and fiction texts in the classroom lately. Starting today, I'm making an effort to share more nonfiction picture books you can use as mentor texts in writing workshop. While I haven't taken stock of how many fiction picture books I've recommended as mentor texts here… Continue reading Nonfiction Mentor Text + a Giveaway
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An Interview with Tad Hills + a Book Giveaway
Tad Hills's new book, Rocket Writes a Story, is as touching and well-written as the first Rocket book, Rocket Learned to Read. This book is sure to become a mentor text in primary writing workshops since Rocket has trouble generating ideas for writing and moving through the writing process. I am quite sure that the tale… Continue reading An Interview with Tad Hills + a Book Giveaway
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Wish Poems
“Poetry breaks through the skin of suffering in which children are often imprisoned: silent, confused, and scared. A child’s poetry is an intimate, trusting gift to her parent or to anyone who wishes to ‘read’ her heart.” --Alice Walker (Cited in Heard, 1999, 3) Last week I led a poetry exploration with my students. First,… Continue reading Wish Poems
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Mentor Texts and Journal Articles and Professional Books… Oh My!
A BIG thank you to the people who graciously responded to the post I wrote in March when I was compiling the book list for the graduate course I'm teaching. The titles you suggested were great additions to the rough draft of the book list I had compiled. Unfortunately, some of the books were not… Continue reading Mentor Texts and Journal Articles and Professional Books… Oh My!
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Q&A with Patricia Polacco + a Giveaway
Patricia Polacco has long been one of my favorite children's authors. I've led author studies of her works with my former students in both reading and writing workshop. I have used books like Mrs. Katz and Tush and The Butterfly in my consulting work. She an author whose books take up a good deal of… Continue reading Q&A with Patricia Polacco + a Giveaway
