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Skillfully Using Mentor Texts,
The value of having a teacher model
I've been looking for an assignment (other than
Heart Maps) to launch my writer's notebook program and to give students ownership of their notebooks' ideas. I finally found a
mentor text that inspired a new assignment:
Written Anything Good Lately? by Susan Allan and Janet Lindaman. This simple little alphabet book provides --from A to Z--a variety of writing genre possibilities. After sharing these authors' alpha-genre list, I've decided I want my students to create one of their own.
Their alpha-genre prompt will be: "Come up with 26 different things you'd be willing to write this year. Sky's the limit. Let your creativity fly! Make sure you only list things you actually have an interest in writing!"
It probably won't surprise you to know that I'm going to base the success of my own lesson on the teacher model I provide. My teacher model is below. I am also working with a friend's seventh grade child this summer--Austin--and he'll be creating a model of this notebook page I'll be posting at my online version of this lesson too.
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| Click here to access my complete online lesson that inspired the above model. |
I hope you like this idea enough to say, "I should make my own teacher model of that assignment, so I can show it to my students this Fall."
--Corbett
July 14, 2011 at 10:30 AM
I love this idea! I am so excited to try this out. I usually create a space in my 5th grade classroom to list different types of writing (genres) that my students can try out. I think I might do this lesson and then post the my students' ideas somewhere in the classroom for them to refer to when needed. I am so happy that I stumbled upon your website and blog. I have been using writers' workshop for many years in my classroom and often get tired of some of the lessons that I teach year after year. I have gained so many new ideas to use in my room this year! Thanks for all that you do!
Jill