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

In their first edition of Mentor Texts, authors Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli helped teachers across the country make the most of high-quality children's literature in their writing instruction. Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6, 2nd Edition the authors continue to show teachers how to help students become confident, accomplished writers by using literature as their foundation. The second edition includes brand-new Your Turn Lessons, built around the gradual release of responsibility model, offering suggestions for demonstrations and shared or guided writing. Reflection is emphasized as a necessary component to understanding why mentor authors chose certain strategies, literary devices, sentence structures, and words. Dorfman and Cappelli offer new children's book titles in each chapter and in a carefully curated and annotated Treasure Chest. At the end of each chapter a Think About It'sTalk About It'sWrite About It section invites reflection and conversation with colleagues. The book is organized around the characteristics of good writing focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. The authors write in a friendly and conversational style, employing numerous anecdotes to help teachers visualize the process, and offer strategies that can be immediately implemented in the classroom. This practical resource demonstrates the power of learning to read like writers.

Table of Contents:
Introduction to the Second Edition; Chapter 1: Reinventing the Writer with Mentor Texts; Chapter 2: Digging for Treasure: Discovering Personal Stories by Connecting with Literature; Chapter 3: What Are You Really Writing About? Discovering the Inside Story; Chapter 4: When Writers Use a Magnifying Lens; Chapter 5: Growing a Narrative from Beginning to End; Chapter 6: Using Scaffolds to Organize Texts; Chapter 7: Poetry: Everybody Can Be a Writer; Chapter 8: Choice, Voice, and All That Jazz; Chapter 9: Walk Around in the Author's Syntax; Chapter 10: A Treasure Chest of Books; Afterword

About the Author :
Rose Cappelli is an independent literacy consultant. She is active in the Keystone State Reading Association and her local reading council. Lynne R. Dorfman teaches graduate level courses at Arcadia University and works as an independent literacy consultant. She is active in her Alpha Delta Kappa chapter. Both authors also work with the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project at West Chester University and are frequent presenters at conferences and workshops nationwide on literacy related topics.

Review :
Mentor Texts will raise your awareness of the choices and moves authors make, and invite purposeful planning and revision that will bring out the best in any piece of writing . . . A must have book for every writing teacher! —Paula Bourque, author of Close Writing Lynne and Rose have again given us a treasure. Not only do they provide you with new titles to add to your mentor text library, they’ll show you new ways to use these texts with your young writers. —Stacey Shubitz, author of Craft Moves The collaborative work of independent literacy consultant Rose Cappelli (who is active in the Keystone State Reading Association and her local reading council) and Lynne R. Dorfman (who teaches graduate level courses at Arcadia University and works as an independent literacy consultant), and now in a fully updated second edition, "Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6" includes brand-new "Your Turn Lessons", section built around the gradual release of responsibility model, offering suggestions for demonstrations and shared or guided writing. Reflection is emphasized as a necessary component to understanding why mentor authors chose certain strategies, literary devices, sentence structures, and words. New children's book titles are featured in each chapter and as part of a carefully curated and annotated Treasure Chest. At the end of each chapter, there is a "Think About It - Talk About It - Write About It" section which invites reflection and conversation with colleagues. "Mentor Texts" is organized around the characteristics of good writing of focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. Written, organized and presented in a friendly and conversational style, employing numerous anecdotes to help teachers visualize the process, and offer strategies that can be immediately implemented in the classroom, "Mentor Texts" is a practical resource that demonstrates the power of learning to read like writers -- making it a critically important, core addition to school district, college, and university library Teacher Education collections and supplemental studies reading lists. —Library Bookwatch: June 2017 James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief Midwest Book Review