Mentor texts are literary works that are used in literacy instruction as a reference for teaching early writers how to create their own texts. The purpose of using mentor texts is to give early writers a model for the types of work they too can create. Mentor texts get readers excited about reading while simultaneously inspiring them to become authors in their own right. Using them is also an easy way for teachers to structure lessons and writing workshops focusing on several writing topics, styles, text features. Mentor texts are one of my favorite tools to use when teaching writing. Here are some of the benefits I’ve found in using them to inspire and guide early writers.
With mentor texts, teachers can focus on the same topic with many books. From personal narratives, settings, and genre-specific features to rhyming words, sensory details, and sentence structure, teachers can review one concept at a time with multiple models and points of reference to inspire writers. I’ve got a host of books in my library along with a working title list organized by the topics they are best used to teach. When teaching a lesson on the many types of illustrations in nonfiction texts, I used a variety of texts that highlight different writing and drawing styles and formats. Using 5-6 mentor texts was a great way to showcase different drawing styles, skill levels, and creative ways to convey a message with a picture. My students had tons of ideas and books that they could refer to during their independent writing when it was time to add illustrations to their writings.
Mentor texts aren’t just books! Magazine, comics, recipes, poems, posters, picture books, and more, can all be used as mentor texts! Using other children’s books as mentor texts is also a great way to show new writers that they don’t have to be an adult to be an author. New writers need to see that they have many options in the works they can create to encourage them to find their niche. Showing them multiple media created by writers like them goes a long way in boosting their writing confidence and skills.
Mentor texts don’t require you to read the entire text for a lesson. Depending on what you’re teaching, you can flip to the parts of the text that best suit your instructional needs. In a short 15-, 20-, or 30-minutes, the foci for lessons can be covered with plenty of time to spare for independent writing and small-group conferencing. When teaching writers about the importance of sensory details in bringing their stories to life, using mentor texts allowed me to forego reading the entire text and, instead, focus on vignettes, sentences, and passages that used adjectives and adverbs that made the story more exciting to read. By the end of the first half of the lesson, I still had time to model revising my own sentences,; my writers had a chance to share their ideas for improving their writing with their friends, and they had loads of time to revise their writings with more details, adjectives, and adverbs of their own.
Mentor texts are great for adding to independent reading and writing centers in classrooms. They offer a plethora of ways to create independent activities on par with whole group instruction topics during centers. They can help avoid too many interruptions during your small group time because students can refer to the books themselves for guidance. For example, when learning about character traits, fill a reading bucket with leveled books with cool characters and a follow-up writing activity that has writers describe the main character. When teaching writers about writing dialogue, use comic strips/books as mentor texts! Then, provide blank copies of the strips and have your writers write the dialogue.
In conclusion, mentor texts are the bees’ knees in writing instruction! Look to your school library and literacy resource teacher for mentor texts in your school. Or, purchase books at the thrift store and second-hand bookshops for in-home mentor texts. Enjoy teaching with them as much as I do and let me know how you use your mentor texts.
-Mrs. B
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