Selecting mentor texts and creating craft lessons for grades K-5 to use in Reading/Writing Workshop.

1. Reading Through a Writer’s
Lens
From Mentor Texts to Craft Lessons
presented by Susan Dee & Jamie Palmer
RSU 5- Freeport, Durham, Pownal
presented by
Susan Dee & Jamie Palmer
Literacy Strategists
RSU 5- Freeport, Durham, Pownal

2. We want to hear all the voices in the
room...
Join the conversation on TodaysMeet
https://todaysmeet.com/ReadingThruWritersLens
Share your favorite titles on PadLet
http://padlet.com/LiteracyDocent/ReadWriteLens

3. Today’s Goals
★ To add new titles to your collection of mentor
texts
★ To identify different uses for mentor texts across
grade levels
★ To refine understanding of author’s “craft”
★ To design specific craft lessons that align with
writing curriculum

4. The writing you get out of your
students can only be as good as
the classroom literature that
surrounds and sustains it.
Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi

5. What are Mentor Texts?
● pieces of literature you can return to
and re-read for many different
purposes
● pieces that can be studied and then
imitated
● help students make powerful
connections to their own lives

6. Idea Mentor
Texts
If you like a book’s
idea and think
students could create
an original idea based
on the one from the
text, you are probably
selecting an idea
mentor text.

7. Structure Mentor
Texts
If a book presents a
structure that can be
easily impersonated
with students’ original
ideas, you are
choosing a structure
mentor text.

8. Craft Mentor Texts
If the author’s writing
style or techniques
with words, phrases, or
sentences can inspire
your students to write
similarly, you are
selecting a
craft mentor text.

9. Writing well involves learning to
attend to the craft of writing,
learning to do the sophisticated
Katie Wood Ray
work
of separating what it’s about
from how it is written.

10. What do we mean by CRAFT?
The writer’s intentional use of the following to
create an effect on the reader
figurative language
imagery/details/snapshots
word choice/word placement
sound/dialogue
text features
text structure

11. Deliberate, artful
choice of words
★ Figurative language
★ Word Choice
★ Vivid verbs
★ Imagery
★ Details
Ray (1999)
Word Craft

12. Structural Craft
Organizational
framework of the writing
★ Text structure
★ Paragraph types
★ Transitional devices
★ Parallel structure
★ Repetition
★ Page Layout/White
Space

13. Audible Craft
Using language that
lingers
★ Alliteration
★ Assonance
★ Onomatopoeia
★ Rhythm
★ Cadence
★ Hard/Soft Sounds

14. Visual Craft
Thoughtful, artful
placement of text on the
page
★ Print Features (bold, italics,
fonts, punctuation)
★ Line breaks
★ White space
★ Graphics—pictures,
illustrations, charts, maps

15. Sources
Dorfman, Lynne R. & Cappelli, Rose. Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing
Through Children’s Literature, K-6. Stenhouse Publishers, Portland, ME.
2007
Ehmann, Susan and Gayer, Kellyann. I can write like that! A Guide to
Mentor Texts and Craft Studies for Writers’ Workshop, K-6. International
Reading Association. Newark, DE. 2009.
Heard, Georgia. Finding the Heart of Nonfiction. Heinemann. Portsmouth,
NH. 2013.
Laminack, Lester. Cracking Open Author’s Craft. New York: Scholastic,
2007.