Mentor Texts for Teachers: Resources for You to Use in the Classroom

Check out some of the new resources for writing teachers.

Professional Books

The Writing Thief by Ruth Culham

This new book on using mentor texts in the classroom is full of great ideas for using mentor texts in the classroom. In the fall, Ruth,  Kate Messner, Lisa Yee, and Varian Johnson did a free webinar about mentor texts, which you can watch for free here:

I highly recommend it for teachers because it gives a glimpse into writers and their processes.

59 Reasons to Write by Kate Messner

If you haven’t read REAL REVISION by Kate Messner, you need to get that book. Her new book, which has a free preview on the Stenhouse website, stemmed from Kate’s work with the free Teachers Write program she does in the summer. If you are a teacher of writing, Kate encourages you to try writing for yourself. She believes (and I agree) that it makes you a better writing teacher. This one just came out, and it would be perfect for a summer study with a group of other teachers.

Grammar Matters by Lynne Dorfman and Diane Dougherty

If you need some help teaching grammar with mentor texts, then this can be your go-to book. Dorfman has already put out two great mentor texts books (here and here). This one focuses on grammar. I have plans to use some of the lesson idea in this book in the coming weeks.

Mentor Texts for Word Play

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post at the Grog about using mentor texts to learn about Word Play. While I wrote the blog post for writers to use in their own writing, you can use the mentor texts and the ideas with students. Hop on over there to find out how to play with words.