So many of my book recommendations have been from the weekly shares on teachmentortexts.com. Thank you to Jen and Kellee for hosting and thank you to all who contribute their reading lists! To see what others are reading, head on over to the website and link into all of the reading recommendations.
I’ve been reading the mentor texts that all of our fourth grade teachers have in their classrooms. Some of them are recent and some were published a long time ago, but they all relate to the traits of writing.
Twister by Darleen Bailey Beard and Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee are both great books for teaching students to write small moments with focus and elaboration. Zoom by Istvan Banyai is another one for focus. It is a wordless book with a series of pictures becoming progressively more distant.
The Plot Chickens by Mary Jane and Herm Auch is a funny picture book about a chicken’s writing process. This book contains many ideas and theories about what writers do and how stories develop. Henrietta the chicken simplifies the process of writing a story into eight steps that would work hand in glove with teaching narrative writing to elementary students.
My daughter hijacked the copy of The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume to serve as her mentor text for her story about her naughty but lovable dog. It’s a great book for teaching students how to develop vignettes around a big idea or theme.
Happy reading!
Melanie
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of The Plot Chickens and The Pain of the Great One. Oh dear I fear they will have to go on my 'must get' list! Thanks for sharing about them.
Kathryn
It's a terrific & helpful list, Melanie. Thank you! I don't know any of these-off to the list again. I think the chickens book sounds like such fun, & then again so helpful. Aren't books great!
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