Snow Day and Mentor Texts!

Guess what? We actually did have a snow day today! It's April-freakin-9th...yet I got to stay home all day today.

"How much snow did you get?" I can hear you asking...so let me show you.

From my bedroom window...

Notice how you can still see the street? And the grass? And the neighbor's driveway? We really didn't get that much snow. But I'm not complaining! A snow day is always appreciated.

But it's back to the real world tomorrow. So, since I am back on the work train tomorrow, I want to link up with Amanda and Stacia for the Must Read Mentor Text linky!

 

 

 

This week's theme is Language Arts!

Our district has really been highlighting mentor texts in many of our PDs about writing. In fact, they highly encourage us to use mentor texts at the beginning of each writing unit we start. When I started teaching, that wasn't something I had ever thought of.

But when I learned about mentor texts and how to use them, it made perfect sense! So now we start out each unit learning from published authors about how to write...

We usually start with an anchor chart like this:

This is our anchor chart for Slice of Life writing - we also call it Personal Narrative. The 3 texts I like to use for mentor texts are:

by Jane Yolen

by Julie Brinckloe

by Patricia Polacco

I love all three of these books because they are great examples of Slice of Life writing - they tell a small story with lots of detail and amazing descriptions. Each one is a memory (or memory-like) from the author's childhood. I usually do this in the beginning of the year...and the kids are riveted to the stories because they are so well-written.

Plus, the kids get a great example of how their Slice of Life writing will look when they are done. :-) It really helps them to write with a product in mind and to have a great example to learn from!

Make sure you head over to share your top picks for mentor texts!