WRITING
"Students learn to write when they are surrounded with examples and models," (Gambrell & Morrow, 2015). One way to effectively engage learners in writing is to use mentor texts. This is an instructional practice that I have become passionate about throughout this program.
mentor texts
I created the following lesson in our ECI 509 class to demonstrate how students can learn lessons from authors that they love by studying that author's craft. Gambrell and Morrow (2015) explain that "reading and listening to literature also helps students think like writers and write with an audience in mind. Good narrative and expository writing lets students see how an author holds the reader's attention and uses conventions." My students enjoy Kevin Henkes' books immensely, so I chose to design a lesson that utilized one of their favorite books to model how the author showed emotions through detailed language, rather than simply stating the character's feelings. We have read Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse several times this year, so it was a fitting text to use for this lesson. After the lesson, students were excited to revise their own writing to be more like an author they know so well. I noticed improved language and detail in the majority of students' narrative pieces. It was evident that the utilization of quality mentor texts had an impact on students' writing motivation.
Mentor Text Mini-Lesson
In ECI 509, I also studied Jennifer Serravallo's The Writing Strategies Book. This was a helpful text for offering strategies for teaching writing lessons across all aspects of the writing process. Serravallo offered many lessons on how to use mentor texts to model writing strategies, which supports my idea that high quality texts have a significant impact across all areas of literacy development. The following presentation outlines my take-aways from this book study.
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Book Talk on Jennifer Serravallo's The Writing Strategies Book |
Mandel Morrow, L., Gambrell, L. B., & Pressley, M. (2015). Best practices in literacy instruction.
Serravallo, J. (2017). The writing strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled writers. Heinemann.
Serravallo, J. (2017). The writing strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled writers. Heinemann.