Useful Mentor Texts For Writing and Reading Inspiration

Inside: We all need mentors to model how to do things well.  It’s an effective mode of learning. When it comes to writing, what better models than authors who pour their hearts into published works? Whether it’s a novel, short story, or picture book, teachers should look for mentor texts for writing and reading connections. Keep reading for expert advice on which texts to read and teach. 

Amazon links are added for your convenience and at no cost to you. Should you choose to purchase a book through the link, I get a small amount to put towards my classroom library. 

Memorable Mentor Texts 

During student teaching, I helped with a pirate themed literacy night. With a patch on my eye and a Jerry Seinfeld esc puffy shirt, I attended one of the rotations. We created a house foldable, and inside the foldable we wrote about any special house that we remember. After our quickwrite, she read us Nothing Ever Happens On 90th Street. As she read, she paused and asked us to notice the descriptive vocabulary. After the book, we talked about the diction and went back to our own writing to add more interesting adjectives. That was my introduction to mentor texts, and I was hooked.

I started exploring mentor texts and what they can be used for in a previous post. The idea of a reading and writing connection just makes sense, especially in a reader’s and writer’s workshop model.

With the number of new books being published, it can be difficult to find the time to read them all and identify which skills would work best with them. Never fear! I’ve gathered up expert opinions about which books lend themselves to being mentor texts for writing and reading skills.

Topic/Theme Chart Freebie

For this post, I’m giving away a free downloadable template of my topic/theme chart. I’m really big on teaching students skills and strategies to analyze the text, rather than just teaching them a single text. This chart includes a detailed teacher’s guide and works with any fiction or narrative text. Keep your eyes open for an upcoming post on teaching theme!

Mentor Texts For Writing and Reading:

Courage by Bernard Waber:

• In this book, every page contains a metaphor for what courage is. (Ex: Courage is sending a Valentine and signing your real name.) Choose a topic or word that you want your students to go into depth with and have them create a similar metaphor.
• Sentence stem: ____________ is ____________________________.
• Example: Poetry is bungee jumping.
• Text-to-self Writing:: Students can write about a time when they showed courage, tried something new, taste a new food for the first time, etc. There are many ways that this could serve as a mentor text for writing.

Shark Detective! by Jessica Oilen:

• Use to teach: plot, prediction, tone, conflict
• Mentor text for writing a drawstring conclusion: This picture book illustrates how a conclusion can solve a conflict that starts in the beginning of the plot. It would be a good model for students as they write an imaginative story.

Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson

• Skills to teach: point-of-view, perspective, vocabulary, making predictions, connecting to previous knowledge. This adorable book is too funny to not share. My students laughed through it and were on the edge of their seats to discover the ending.
• Writing: This book models vivid verbs and interesting adjectives. It’s also a great model of how to write a twist on or a sequel to a classic fairy tale

The Twits by Roald Dahl

• I choose scenes filled with examples of sensory details, figurative language, and grotesque diction. In class, I use a few pages at a time to model writing with details, paired with Dr. JAC’s strategy, depth charging. (Explained in Dr. JAC’s Guide to Writing with Depth)

Malala, a Brave Girl from Pakistan/Iqbal, a Brave Boy from Pakistan: Two Stories of Bravery

• In my 6th grade class, we study Malala, so this is an easy text to text connection.
• Use it to teach: Compare/contrast, theme, how the historical setting impacts what happens in the story, courage, bravery, standing up for what is right etc…
• This would also be a good introduction for a persuasive paper on girl’s access/rights to an education, child labor laws, and other current events.

Mentor Text Ideas From the Teacher Experts

Blood And Gore Like You’ve Never Seen by Vicki Cobb (3rd – 6th grade)

• Reading Skills: Non fiction text structure; outlining, sequence, word choice, elaboration, visualization
• Writing Connection: Students make text to text connections when they compare the Blood and Gore text to their own writing with elaboration and word choice from non fiction text. In her blog post on mentor text, she explains the activity, “… I continued my read aloud by asking students to draw the images they saw as I read descriptions like the blood gushed through the vein moving to the heart like a door opening into a field of sheep. It was amazing what each student drew as it related to the vascular system. This is the step where students begin to discern what they hear in the mentor text and visualize their ideas into the very basic form of prewriting. A great example of using a nonfiction mentor text for writing.

Teacher: Natasha Norins, M. ED: Natasha is a teacher in Cary, North Carolina of grades 5-7 English Language Arts. She has taught AIG in Wake and Durham County Public Schools, as well as NC Connections Academy. Natasha has a background in early childhood education, which is why she loves picture books with life lessons and uses them for all ages of learners. After many years of research relating to curriculum and instruction, she decided to transition and teach middle school language arts to 6th and 7th graders this year. She loves reading and sharing her love of reading with her students where she currently teaches at St. Micheal Catholic School. You can find out more about her by visiting her on Instagram and her blog.

Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne (3rd – 5th)

• Reading Skills: Point of View & Perspectives
• Why it works: The students are engaged through the whole text, slowly piecing clues together to understand the big picture.
• Writing connection: Compare and contrast the two voices in the park. Be sure to include quotes and specific details from the text. Conclude your response with a lesson that can be learned from the two voices.

Teacher: My name is Kelli Cessac and this will be my 4th year teaching 5th grade. I have a passion for literature and student engagement! Insta-mrscessac5th Twitter-MrsCessac5th

“The Pedestrian,” a short story by Ray Bradbury

• Reading Skills: Descriptive language and speculative fiction
• Writing Skills: This short dystopian story works well as a mentor text for writing an alternate ending or continuation to the story.

Teacher: Megan Ann creates literacy resources that you can find at www.readwriteela.com

Whose Poop Is That? By Darrin Lunde

• Reading Skills: Descriptive language and speculative fiction
• Hmmm Strategy: Don’t show the students the pictures for this book. Read a page of the book, but every time you come to the animal’s name, make a humming sound instead. At the end of the page, get your students to guess what you’re talking about. Students will laugh, but more importantly, they will engage their brain to try and guess what the books is describing. This skill transfers to a variety of other texts.

Expert: Kelly Harmon & Associates began in 2001 with a mission of instructional coaching and providing rich literacy resources for educators and parents. Our work incorporates research-based best practices for teaching and learning. Her website has literacy resources for teachers.  

The Power of Mentor Texts for Writing 

Mentor texts have the power to engage students in higher level thinking and reading skills, but more than that, they inspire writing ideas! I recently taught a leveled special needs class in which all 18 students had some sort of extra need. Many of them struggle with paying attention and all of them struggled with reading. When I pulled out that mentor text, suddenly most of them were ready to think, talk, and write.

That group of students truly showed me the power of imitating a published author (See Jeff Anderson’s Patterns of Power for more details), the power of using mini lessons to guide reading and writing skills, and ultimately the lasting effects of introducing students to rich literature.

For more ideas, see my post on how to use mentor texts and incorporating multicultural texts.

If you’re looking for a new way to teach your students to infer theme, check out my free topic/theme chart downloadable freebie.