Just as we reflect our teaching practices in the summertime, we can rethink some of the mentor texts we use and find new ones to share with students in minilessons, writing conferences, and strategy lessons.
Consider sharing these six books with your fact-loving students.
Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win all six books for your classroom library.
Matthew Cordell’s new picture book provides inspiration for kids to CHOOSE to write when they’re snowed-in during the winter. Read through my Q&A with Cordell to start thinking about how you could encourage your students to decide to write when they’re homebound this winter.
After you read the Q&A, leave a comment on this blog post for the chance to win a copy of King Alice.
Add six new picture books to your back-to-school read alouds and to your mentor text collection this fall.
After you read through this post, be sure to leave a comment about how you’d use these books in your classroom for a chance to win all six of them.
Author and illustrator Melissa Iwai explains how cooking provides many teachable aspects to explore, such as counting, observing, and following a series of steps.
Did you know that Ada Lovelace was able to imagine how a machine could not only calculate any number you gave it, but also create music and visual images–100 years before computers were invented? Read the story behind the story with author Tanya Lee Stone who steps into our Author Spotlight today.
Meet Lester Laminack at the corner of story and information. You’ll chat a while. He’ll introduce you to a couple of characters and walk with you through the South Carolina Lowcountry. And hopefully you’ll leave filled with new information.
Anyone who knows me in real life knows how concerned I’ve been about the state of affairs in our country. I’ve been making phone calls, signing petitions, and showing up to my… Continue reading
These books serve to comfort children during what is a serious and uncertain time. After reading this post, leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of all five books.
As educators, we are uniquely positioned to teach children to respect and love each other. We have the power to show them how to make the world a better place. We can shape the next generation of children so they will choose to be accepting of people who look different, have a different set of beliefs, or originate from a different cultural background. This is an enormous responsibility, but we are fortunate if we can do this work to bring about change in our corners of the world.
Summer is the perfect time to seek out new mentor texts for your writing workshop. This post contains 20+ new picture book — fiction and nonfiction — suggestions that you can use to lift the level of your students’ writing. Plus, there are book giveaways! (Be sure to read the giveaway information carefully at the bottom of the post.)
Author and Illustrator Suzanne Del Rizzo talks about the way she tackled the Syrian Refugee Crisis in her new picture book, My Beautiful Birds.
These ten picture books will not only teach students about important topics in science, but they’ll also help kids become better writers.
Picture books are short, visual, and engaging, which makes them perfect for using as mentor texts with elementary AND secondary students.
Educators from around the country share the ways in which they teach about September 11th to their students. This post includes programming and writing ideas, as well as links to videos and picture books you can read aloud.
Today is Picture Book 10 for 10, which is a community of educators who share “must-have” picture books for classrooms. My list includes stories that will inspire children to write about their own experiences in new ways.
Janiel Wagstaff’s books will help you teach primary writers about the four types of writing in an engaging way. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win her series of Stella books.
Today is the annual Nonfiction Picture Book 10 for 10, hosted by Cathy Mere from Reflect and Refine, Mandy Robek of Enjoy and Embrace Learning, and Julie Balen of Write at the Edge. This is my fourth year participating in this event, which provides me with a chance to share ten nonfiction picture books I have been using as mentor texts with elementary school writers.
When my principal handed me a copy of Bethany Barton’s I’m Trying to Love Spiders, I was intrigued. She had chosen this book as our Everybody Reads title for the month and I was… Continue reading
I spend a lot of time writing about ways teachers can use picture books as mentor texts to lift the level of students’ writing. Today I want to share the Whole Book Approach with you since it’s a way you can enrich the read alouds you’re already doing with your students.
This post includes an interview with Megan Dowd Lambert, creator of the Whole Book Approach and a giveaway of her new book, Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking About What They See.
