Customer Reviews

Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6

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This is one of the best resources for teaching writing that I have ever purchased. It's very "user friendly" with the "Your Turn" lessons and it's packed with great strategies and plenty of quality picture book titles to use for classroom "read like a writer" lessons on author's craft. As a literacy facilitator for my school, I have recommended that my principal purchase more copies for our third grade teachers to use this year for process writing minilessons and strategies that link reading to writing. Congratulations to the authors for an outstanding resource! Katie Wood Ray would approve, I'm sure!

"Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6" is the collaboration of Lynne R. Dorfman (a writing extension teacher for the Upper Moreland School District in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania with more than thirty years experience) and Rose Cappelli (a primary-grade reading specialist in the West Chester Area School District in West Chester, Pennsylvania with more than twenty years of experience). These two seasoned and expert reading teachers explain just how the authors of children's books create the wonder felt when boys and girls become immersed in them. They address just what students and teachers learn from these authors and their books if utilized as writing mentors. "Mentor Texts" is very nicely organized around the characteristics of good writing: focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. Classroom teachers and novice reading tutors are shown that 'mentor texts' can serve as a practical scaffold for student work; are provided with student writing examples demonstrating how students take risks as writers; teacher writing examples illustrating the power of the teacher as writer; and a comprehensive annotated list of children's literature including specific suggestions for teaching points. Of special note are the 'Your Turn' lessons at the end of each chapters showing how to put the ideas discussed in that chapter into practice. Expertly written in a conversational style, employing numerous illustrative anecdotes, and thoroughly 'user friendly', "Mentor Texts" should be considered mandatory reading for anyone charged with the responsibility of teaching writing at the elementary school level.

Shelley Harwayne's recommendation for this outstanding resource says it all in her first line. Harwayne states that Mentor Texts is "a trustworthy book". It truly is. Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli have crafted a remarkable resource for teachers, parents and writers. Every school district should order multiple copies for their staff development departments and hand it out to veteran and beginning teachers.

One of the primary reasons this book works so well is that Dorfman and Cappelli are in classrooms living what they write about - this is a real difference-maker in a teacher resource book.

The thrust of this book is using real literature as mentor texts for writers. Dorfman and Cappelli write that mentor texts are books that are filled with possibilities for writers to learn from and that they can become "as comfortable as a worn pair of jeans". This book will, no doubt, become as tattered and worn and comfortable as a worn pair of jeans for me as I teach writers of all ages. However, just like I buy multiple pairs of jeans that I know fit well, I plan to buy multiple copies and keep them on my bookshelf.

Buy this book if you write, teach teachers, teach writers or even if you are an editor.

I can't wait for their next book, Non-fiction Mentor texts!

Bravo!
The Legend of the Teddy Bear

Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6

This book has lots of ideas to create great lessons. Definitely a better way to learn about grammar and writing than just teaching rules through worksheets. Teachers can choose books their students pick to incorporate into the lesssons, but one of my favorite features of the book is the huge list of books that are put into categories of what they can be used to teach.

This is a very teacher friendly text. You can pick the lessons you want to teach and go from there.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone teaching writing to children (K-6). It has easy-to-read formatting and has lots of examples woven throughout. It has lists of mentor texts that can be used to share the craft of writing and show children how authors use writing for many different purposes. The books and strategies in the book lend themselves to helping students take risks in their writing. Great book!

I love this book! Any teacher who is struggling with teaching writing to their students, needs a deeper understanding of the value of mentor texts, and how to use them should have this book.It is worth every penny.

I am so glad I purchased this text. No matter how often you hear about mentor texts you can never hear enough. Reading this book has enabled me to fill in all the missing pieces. It has also given me the confidence to implement this method of teaching writing. I am grateful to these ladies and their interest in sharing their ideas. Thank you.

Teaching using good literature as a model is the premise of this book. It provides lesson and book ideas that save a teacher huge amounts of time, and they are well-chosen. I'd recommend this book to anyone who feels their preparation for teaching writing in the teaching program lacked what they needed, or anyone else, for that matter.

Being a parent, I enjoyed teaching my girls using these methods. Even though you need to run to the library for most of the literature mentioned in this book, it's worth the time and money spent!