Mentor Texts

Mentor Texts will raise your awareness of the choices and moves authors make, and invite purposeful planning and revision that will bring out the best in any piece of writing . . . A must have book for every writing teacher!
-Paula Bourque, author of Close Writing

Lynne and Rose have again given us a treasure. Not only do they provide you with new titles to add to your mentor text library, they'll show you new ways to use these texts with your young writers.
-Stacey Shubitz, author of Craft Moves

The collaborative work of independent literacy consultant Rose Cappelli (who is active in the Keystone State Reading Association and her local reading council) and Lynne R. Dorfman (who teaches graduate level courses at Arcadia University and works as an independent literacy consultant), and now in a fully updated second edition, "Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6" includes brand-new "Your Turn Lessons", section built around the gradual release of responsibility model, offering suggestions for demonstrations and shared or guided writing. Reflection is emphasized as a necessary component to understanding why mentor authors chose certain strategies, literary devices, sentence structures, and words. New children's book titles are featured in each chapter and as part of a carefully curated and annotated Treasure Chest. At the end of each chapter, there is a "Think About It - Talk About It - Write About It" section which invites reflection and conversation with colleagues. "Mentor Texts" is organized around the characteristics of good writing of focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. Written, organized and presented in a friendly and conversational style, employing numerous anecdotes to help teachers visualize the process, and offer strategies that can be immediately implemented in the classroom, "Mentor Texts" is a practical resource that demonstrates the power of learning to read like writers -- making it a critically important, core addition to school district, college, and university library Teacher Education collections and supplemental studies reading lists.

-Library Bookwatch: June 2017
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review