mentor texts

Mentor Texts to Teach Juicy Word Choice in Writing

When we teach children to use rich, wondrous words by filling them up with the sound of many wonderful words. We must read to them them authors who use astounding word choices. We must encourage them to read high quality mentor text picture and chapter books filled with precise, lyrical, sensory words. Katie Wood Ray, […]

20 Picture and Chapter Books to Teach Voice

The term voice in writing refers to the narrator’s or author’s personality coming through, some call this the author’s style. This list of children’s picture and chapter books provide mentor text examples for you as you teach students all about writing with voice. In a first-person narrative, voice means the writing sounds like you — […]

20 Mentor Text Picture Books to Teach Inference

If you’re looking for mentor text picture books to use in the classroom with students, here is a list of wonderful choices to teach and model context clues and inference. But first, what is an inference? Inference is when you use your background knowledge and clues from the text and illustrations to make an assumption […]

18 Picture Books With Predictable, Repetitive Text

Picture books with predictable, repetitive text develop language and literacy skills in all ages of growing readers from birth on up. Read these to your toddlers and preschoolers. Read these with your kindergartners. Read these with your growing readers of any age, particularly readers who need the support that predictability and repetition provides. Bottom line […]

Picture Books to Teach Similes and Metaphors

Read aloud picture books to exemplify how writers use smilies and metaphors to convey meaning. Use these mentor texts to teach similes and metaphors in your writing workshop. Picture Books to Teach Similes and Metaphors I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James Get up and cheer for this exuberant […]

Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

Use mentor text picture books to teach problem and solution text structure which improves reading and writing skills including making informed predictions. Show children what to expect in a problem-solution story as well as how authors structure a problem-solution story or essay. While there are many picture books that model problem and solution, these are […]

Mentor Text Children’s Books to Teach Vivid Description

We can model for our kids how good writers use all their five senses in their writing to show not tell. Use mentor texts in your writing workshop to teach growing writers descriptive writing using sensory images, vivid verbs, precise adjectives, and rich figurative language. Certainly, many poetry books capture this kind of vivid description […]

Picture Books to Teach Perspective

Teachers and parents, use picture books as mentor texts to teach perspective. Stories like these help you model for your students and children that our perspectives and the perspectives of different characters, including the narrator, is how we see the world and the events in it. It’s easy to call this point of view […]