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Listen to my latest podcast episode:.

153: 6 Powerful Mentor Texts for Secondary ELA

• May 17, 2022

Are you ready for mentor texts your students sit up and pay attention to? That’s what today’s episode is all about. I’ve invited five special guests on to share their top favorite mentor text with you, and I’m so excited!

Each of these creative education thinkers will bring their own take on the power of mentor texts, exploring children’s books and YA novels, poetry and podcasts, student work and video. By the end of this show, you’ll be thinking in a totally different way about how you can use mentor texts to help your students grow as creators, and I have a feeling that YOU’LL be feeling pretty excited too.

As you listen, each guest will introduce herself, share her favorite mentor, and then let you know where you can learn more, then I’ll pop back in at the end to share the last one. I hope you’ll enjoy this special collaborative episode!

You can listen in below, click here to tune in on any podcast player, or read on for the full post.

#1 Mentors beyond the Printed Page, with Angela from Make Writing Studios

This Is a Generic Brand Video, by Dissolve from Dissolve on Vimeo .

Here’s what Angela has to say about this mentor text:

“Writing is so much bigger than written words alone! I love using street art, billboards, podcasts, commercials, photographs, videos, infographics, comics, zines, and even nature to demonstrate what compositions are and how arguments, stories, and informational texts are offered to us all day long through unexpected modes and outlets. Make time to look for Kendra Eash’s This is a Generic Brand Video , and invite the young writers and designers in your world to think about how writing is the use of image, sound, gesture, alignment, and even vibration.”

If you’d like to learn more about how to bring multimodal composition into your own classroom (check out the pictures below), Angela has left a TON of free lessons, units, starter sets,  resources, tools, and mentor texts right here for you: https://linktr.ee/AngelaStockman .

Connect with Angela on Twitter @AngelaStockman .

#2 Mentors with Passion, with Amanda from Amanda Write Now

Here’s what Amanda has to say about this mentor text:

“My favorite modern mentor text is any text written by a passionate student. These students are sometimes my own but they can also be students I’ve never met before. One of the most powerful mentor texts I’ve used to model voice and passion in writing was in the form of a video capturing a 7th grade girl’s middle school experience. The assignment this young girl was given was to write a monologue about something she was passionate about. She wrote from the heart and told her truth. When students can write from their heart and share their truth confidently, they can do anything they set their minds to.”

See the video here.

Check out Amanda’s website here.

#3 Children’s Books as Mentor Texts, with Melissa from The Reading & Writing Haven

What Melissa has to say about this mentor text:

“Picture books are one of the most powerful mentor texts at our fingertips, and I don’t think we leverage them enough. Even (and especially) with older students, picture books often have just as much depth and complexity for discussion and analysis as a novel. That’s why picture books are my favorite, go-to mentor texts . 

It’s hard to pick just one picture book because there are so many amazing works of art, but for the sake of recommendation, I adore When I Draw a Panda by Amy June Bates. The author skillfully weaves together a beautiful theme and the power of captivating aesthetics.

The front pages of the book include rigid, step-by-step directions for how to draw a variety of animals and images “perfectly.” These same images frame the end of the book, but here, the perfect step-by-step instructions are scribbled all over, symbolizing that there is no one right way to draw. 

In between those bookends, the story follows a child who chooses to color outside the lines, to embrace her own style, and to bring her imagination to life. When I Draw a Panda is threaded with the message that the power of creativity and an independent spirit are to be celebrated.

Specific teaching opportunities for this book as a mentor text might include:

• Using it to introduce sketchnotes. There’s no fear in drawing!
• Analyzing how a poet can craft a stronger voice by playing with word and line arrangement.
• Studying the use of dialogue, sentence structure, and parallelism.
• Evaluating how word choice impacts mood and tone.
• Identifying how oxymora can be used to provide contradictions between ideas.

And more! Try introducing this mentor texts to your students as a general interactive read aloud, and you’ll be amazed at how often you can refer back to it to study specific ELA skills and concepts. There’s something magical that happens when we read picture books in the classroom. I hope you cherish this book as much as I do.”

Discover more great read-alouds from Melissa here.

Follow Melissa on Instagram @readingandwritinghaven .

#4 Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down as a Mentor Text, with Christina from The Daring English Teacher

What Christina has to say about this mentor text:

“I love using Jason Reynolds’ verse novel Long Way Down as part of the poetry unit that I use in my sophomore English class. At first, when I tell students that we are going to read an entire novel written in poem-form, students groan and complain. However, it only takes the very first poem of the book, and the students are hooked. There are two mentor text activities I assign with this novel – and both revolve around using Reynolds’ form as a mentor text for students to write their own poems. The first poem I use is “My Name Is,” and I have students begin writing their own name poem on the first day we start writing. Modeling Reynolds’ form, student write a poem about themselves. I am always so shocked to learn more about my students in the second semester of the school. The second activity is using Reynolds’ poem BEEF as a mentor text. With this activity, I have students, once again, model Reynolds’ form, to write their own extended simile poem. I absolutely love reading what they come up with.”

Check out Christina’s blog post filled with ideas for Long Way Down here.

Follow Christina @thedaringenglishteacher on Instagram

#5 Powerful Poetry as a Mentor Text, with Amanda Cardenas from Mud and Ink Teaching

What Amanda has to say about this mentor text:

“Shane Koyczan’s poem “How to Be a Person” is my go-to mentor text for resetting after a long break or establishing classroom culture.  As a writing mentor, I like to use this poem to showcase the possibilities for structure in a poem:  in this case, the poet uses a list, and it’s an easy to imitate structure that makes writing poetry feel more accessible for students.”

Check out the step-by-step over on Amanda’s website right here.

Follow Amanda on Instagram @mudandinkteaching

#6 Using Podcasts as Mentor Texts, with Betsy from Spark Creativity

Hey, it’s me, Betsy! I’m back! I’ve created so many podcasting projects over the last few years, and I always start in the same place, with inspiring, or hilarious, or weird, or fun, or wacky podcast episodes as mentor texts. I want students to understand some of the moves podcasters make before they hit the record button, and the easiest (and most interesting) way to do that is by playing podcasts for them and then considering which moves are worth trying.

For the vocabulary podcast project pictured above that I recently designed for The Lighthouse, I picked four really different, super short podcast episodes that are all trying to teach new words in different ways. As they listen, students can think about which moves they like and which ones they definitely don’t.

Do they like Vocabulary Vera’s hilariously over-the-top accent that makes you laugh (or maybe cringe, depending on your age) the moment you turn it on?

Do they like how Dictionary.com uses literary examples?

Do they like how the BBC explains the connection between many words through a single prefix?

Do they find Merriam-Webster’s explanation incredibly boring? (Ha, or is that just me).

Which podcast has the best music? The best listener challenge?

After listening to several podcasts while thinking like a podcaster, students can begin to imagine what they want (and equally important, what they don’t want) for their own podcast style, tone, structure, and content. Same goes for examining podcast covers, show notes, and music.

So now you’ve got six fun ways to explore more modern mentor texts for your classroom. I think I can speak for all of us today when I say if you try one of these out, we’d love to hear about it. Share what you’re up to with us and tag us over on teachergram, we’d love to know how your mentor text explorations turn out!

I’ll help you find the creative ELA strategies that will light up your classroom. Get ready for joyful teaching!

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Short story mentor texts to teach narrative writing elements.

Raise your hand if teaching narrative writing has you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. I’ve been there. Every writing unit seems to bring its own challenges and narrative writing has a few unique ones. Unlike other types of writing, narrative writing is more flexible and involves more creativity. But that doesn’t mean it’s without “rules”! Getting students to master the narrative writing elements is what will take their stories to the next level.

Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing

I spoke about this on another blog about using mentor texts novels, but I am a big fan of using mentor texts to teach narrative writing. Mentor texts allow you to model the skills and narrative writing elements for students, so they aren’t trying to guess at exactly how their writing should look and sound.

Using mentor texts can be as simple as giving students a sentence or excerpt from a text and talking through how it’s a great example of a specific skill. A lot of times, I will pull these mentor texts from novels that the class is reading because students already understand the story.

However, I know there isn’t always time to squeeze in a novel. When you’re in a bind or short on time, using a narrative short story as a mentor text will accomplish the same task as the novel! I recommend reading this short story before or during your writing unit.

Teaching Narrative Writing Elements with Short Stories

Just like you ease students into a narrative writing unit, I don’t want to throw you into the deep end with mentor texts either. I want to walk you through what it looks like to use short stories to teach the narrative writing elements. I’ll give you a few mentor text examples below and show you how I’d use them in the classroom.

Develop a Point of View

A lot of times, the conversation about point of view is simply, what is the point of view? First-person or third-person? But it goes deeper than that. Developing a point of view means giving the reader intimate knowledge of the character’s experience. It can allow the reader to experience the same sadness or anger that the character feels.

For this narrative writing element, dig deep into the short story you’ve chosen. Find an example from the text where the point of view allows the reader a peek into a character’s mind or feelings.

I like this example from “The Scholarship Jacket”: “I was almost back at my classroom door when I heard voices raised in anger as if in some sort of argument. I stopped. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I just hesitated, not knowing what to do. I needed those shorts and I was going to be late, but I didn’t want to interrupt an argument between my teachers.”

After looking at your mentor text example, dig into what the reader experiences here. Look at what knowledge the reader gains about the character. For example, this mentor text from “The Scholarship Jacket” is a feeling people can relate to. Overhearing an argument and wondering if you pretend you didn’t hear – or you acknowledge that you overhead.

Establish Context

Another narrative writing element is establishing context for the story. Context means putting the topic into perspective for someone who knows nothing about the story. It also means providing the background information that is needed to grasp the story.

When looking through your short story, identify an excerpt where the reader gains necessary information about a character, setting, or event. This is the kind of information that if removed the story could change how the reader understands it.

Here’s an example from “Masque of Red Death”: “But Prospero, the ruler of that land, was happy and strong and wise. When half the people of his land had died, he called to him a thousand healthy, happy friends, and with them went far away to live in one of his palaces. This was a large and beautiful stone building he had planned himself. A strong, high wall circled it.”

This narrative short story excerpt gives the reader key information. It lets us know who the character Prospero is and why he is bringing people to his palace. This sets the stage for later plot points. After reading your chosen excerpt with students, ask them: What key information did this text provide? How does it help you better understand the story?

Develop Character Motives

Character motives can be really fun to uncover. With character motives, the reader understands the reason behind the character’s actions.

To find an excerpt for this narrative writing element, think about a pivotal moment in the story. Then, think about the actions and motivations that led to that moment. Try to locate a sentence or passage that showcases those motives.

This is a great example of character motives from “Story of an Hour”: “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.”

In this short story, the character is expected to mourn for her dead husband. Instead, she finds joy in it (which is later shown through her whispering, “Free!”) This gives us a glimpse at her motives. When examining a text for character motives, ask students: What action does the character engage in later? What is their reason for that action?

If you want students to be stronger writers, they need to see examples of what good writing looks like. That’s the power of using mentor texts when teaching narrative writing. They’ll know what context looks like or motives sound like, and they can emulate it in their own writing!

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What is a mentor text anyway?

A mentor text is any text used to model the type of writing your students are learning. Mentor texts are the backbone of writing workshop because students need to see what the pros do, to get inspired in their own writing. Mentor texts can also be called writing samples, or examples. 

One of the most challenging parts of being a writing teacher is finding mentor texts. So I’ve curated a list of my go to places for mentor texts online below.

Before you dive in, I think it is important to remember mentor texts can be found in many, many places. Sometimes I’ll roam the class library for my favorite books or use writing from previous years done by students. I also write my own writing samples . You might think about using these strategies too.

But teachers are busy, so having a go to list can help! 

Another thing you should definitely do is check out this post about How to Use Mentor Texts . 

You can also check out this quick video reviewing ten of my favorite places to find mentor texts…

Mentor Texts by Kids

Thoughtful Learning This is one of my favorite places to find writing samples written by students because there are many samples for each genre of writing and from students in 1st-12th grade. I link this site to my class website so that students and parents can refer to it throughout the year.

Achieve The Core This site is an incredibly comprehensive and well organized resource created by non other than the writers of the Common Core! It not only has samples for grades K-12, it also has prompts, lessons, assessments and much more! I highly recommend you peruse this one.

Reading Rockets This site has Pre-K through 3rd grade writing samples (both hand written and typed). There is also a thorough analysis of what each writer does well and needs to learn next provided with each sample.

Scholastic Write It This site has loads of writing samples for poetry, essays, short fiction, memoirs, humor and journalism. It is also a place for student writers to connect through a bulletin board chat feature! Students can even publish their work here too!

Mentor Texts by Adults

Common Lit Completely free and full of high interest nonfiction and fiction for 5th-12th graders. You can sort by lexile level, themes, genres, devices or standards too!

Tween Tribune This site provides many writing samples to teach information writing in grades K-12 and the articles are even organized by Lexile level!

Dogo News Awesome site with tons of nonfiction articles written about topics kids care about. Students K-8 can comment or even mail each other articles they think their friend may like. Sort by current events, science, social studies, sports, world, environment or fun. Students can also write book and movie reviews. This feature is for students K-12.

Actively Learn Sign up for a 30 day free trial and have access to tons of online texts. Not only that you can insert questions, polls, notes and other links for students to interact with. You can also grade student answers and collect data on how long they read, words they looked up, notes they took and parts they didn’t understand. Students can listen to texts being read aloud too!

Newsela You have to sign up to read full articles but there are a plethora of information articles to choose from and you can have access to the premium version for 45 days. You can add your classes, assign specific articles and track student progress.

New York Times The Learning Network This site is mainly for middle and high schoolers and has lots and lots of resources. There is a writing competition every year and the pieces written by the winners and runners up are featured here. Showing your students really incredible and powerful writing done by kids can be just the inspiration and motivation your class needs.

Middle School Mentor Texts for All Genres  This is a blog post right on this website. What’s awesome about this post is that all the mentor texts are directly linked within the post and every genre is included (except poetry).

Writing A-Z There are so many writing samples on this site it is overwhelming! This site does cost money and is definitely worth it if your school or district decides to go for it. My recommendation until then? Sign up for the 14 day free trial and download as many samples as you can!

Moving Writers This is an awesome site that provides access to a shared Google Drive with many, many mentor texts. Just click the button that says “Click Here to Enter the Mentor Text Drop Box” and you will be transported to mentor text heaven.

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Writing Curriculum

Teach Narrative Writing With The New York Times

This teaching guide, part of our eight-unit writing curriculum, includes daily writing prompts, lessons based on selected mentor texts, and an invitation for students to participate in our 100-word personal narrative contest.

By The Learning Network

Stories can thrill, wound, delight, uplift and teach. Telling a story vividly and powerfully is a vital skill that is deeply valued across all cultures, past and present — and narrative writing is, of course, a key genre for literacy instruction at every level.

When your students think “New York Times,” they probably think of our 172-year history of award-winning journalism, and may not even realize that The Times today is full of personal narratives — on love and family , but also on how we relate to animals , live with disabilities or navigate anxiety . If you flip or scroll through sections of the paper, you’ll see that personal writing is everywhere, and often ranks among the most popular pieces The Times publishes each week.

At The Learning Network, we’ve been posting writing prompts every school day for over a decade now, and many of them invite personal narrative. Inspired by Times articles of all kinds, the prompts ask students to tell us about their passions and their regrets, their most embarrassing moments and their greatest achievements. Thousands of students around the world respond each month, and each week during the school year we call out our favorite responses .

In this unit we’re taking it a step further and turning our narrative-writing opportunities into a contest that invites students to tell their own stories. Below, you’ll find plenty of ideas and resources to get your students reading, writing and thinking about their own stories, including:

✔ New narrative-writing prompts every week.

✔ Daily opportunities for students to have an authentic audience for their writing via posting comments to our forums.

✔ Guided practice with mentor texts that include writing exercises.

✔ A clear, achievable end-product (our contest) modeled on real-world writing.

✔ The chance for students to have their work published in The New York Times.

Here’s how it works.

Start with personal-narrative prompts for low-stakes writing.

Related Article | Related Picture Prompt

Every week during the school year we publish new narrative writing prompts on a vast array of topics via our Student Opinion and Picture Prompts columns. These prompts can be a starting point to help your students start reflecting on their lives and the stories they have to tell.

Each prompt is inspired by a Times article, which is free if you access it through our site, and all are open for comment for students 13 and up. Every comment is read by Learning Network editors before it is approved.

Teachers have told us they use our prompts as an opportunity for daily writing practice, a communal space where students can practice honing voice, trying new techniques and writing for a real audience. And if students are writing formal personal narrative essays, whether for college applications, for our contest or for any other reason, our prompts might serve as inspiration to help them find topics.

Student Opinion Questions

We publish a new Student Opinion question every school day, including many that invite personal writing. Students will read a related Times article and then respond to questions that help them think about how it applies to their own lives, like these:

“ What Cultural Traditions Are Important to You? ” “ Has Forgiving Someone Ever Made You Feel Better? ” “ How Do You Get Over Rejection? ”

You can find them all, as they publish, here . Or check out our collection of 445 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing for years-worth of evergreen questions, organized into categories like family, school, personality and childhood memories.

Picture Prompts

These accessible, image-driven prompts inspire a variety of kinds of writing and we publish them Tuesday through Friday during the school year. Each week we post at least one prompt that asks students to share experiences from their lives, such as this one that invites students to write about memories of their childhood homes , and one that asks them to tell a story about a moment from their lives inspired by an image, such as this one .

You can find all of our Picture Prompts, as they publish, here . At the end of each school year, we round them all up and categorize them by genre of writing. Take a look at our collections from 2017 , 2018 , 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022 and 2023 and scroll down to look for the categories like “What story does this image inspire for you?” and “Share experiences from your own life” to find many prompts that can inspire narratives.

A special “rehearsal space” for teenagers to experiment writing 100-word narratives.

To help with our Tiny Memoir contest, we posted a student forum last year asking, “ What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? ” In it, we lead students through a few questions, and provide a few examples, to show them how. It is still open for comment. We hope that as they search for topics and try out techniques, students will post their drafts here for others to read and comment on.

Read mentor texts and try some of the “writer’s moves” we spotlight.

The Times is full of wonderful writing that can serve as mentor texts for helping students look at the various elements of the genre and think about how to weave specific craft moves into their own writing. We have a couple of ways students can use them for narrative writing.

Mentor Texts Lessons

For our 2023 Tiny Memoir Contest for Students, in which students are invited to describe a meaningful true moment from their lives in 100 words or fewer, we have a set of mentor texts, all of which can be found in our step-by-step guide: How to Write a 100-Word Narrative: A Guide for Our Tiny Memoir Contest . The 25 texts we use can also be found in this PDF .

During the years when we ran a Personal Narrative Contest that allowed students 600 words to tell a story, we broke narrative writing into several key elements and spotlighted a mentor text that does a particularly good job at each. All of them are still applicable to our new contest, which spotlights the same qualities, just in miniature. They have also been woven in to our step-by-step guide :

Tell a story about a small but memorable event or moment in your life.

Use details to show, not tell.

Write from your own point of view, in your real voice.

Use dialogue effectively.

Drop the reader into a scene.

Tell a complete story, with a true narrative arc.

Reflect on the experience and give the reader a take-away.

After students read each of the mentor texts on this list and focus on a specific technique, we invite them to “Now Try This” via an exercise that helps them practice that element. Then, we provide additional mentor text examples, as well as a list of questions to consider while reading any of them. The goal is to demystify what good writing looks like, and encourage students to practice concrete exercises to use those techniques.

Annotated by the Author

But our favorite mentor texts to assign? The work of the teenage winners of our narrative contests. Here are the 2019 , 2020 and 2021 collections of our Personal Narrative Contest. And here are the winners of our first-ever 100-Word Narrative Contest . Which of these pieces do your students like best? What “writer’s moves” might they emulate in their own work?

We also invited three teenagers who won our 2019 contest to annotate their winning narratives for our “Annotated by the Author” series. In these pieces, they demystify their writing process and share ideas other students can try in their own essays.

Annotated by the Author: ‘Speechless’

Annotated by the Author: ‘Pants on Fire’

Annotated by the Author: ‘Cracks in the Pavement’

In addition, we have a piece annotated by the college-aged author of a winning Modern Love piece. In Annotated by the Author: ‘Why Can’t Men Say “I Love You” to Each Other?’ Ricardo F. Jaramillo tells us how to make your reader want to keep reading, how to balance scenes and ideas, why you can’t write a personal essay without “looking inside,” and much more.

Enter our “ Tiny Memoir” Personal Narrative Essay Contest .

At this point in the unit, your students will have practiced writing about their lives using our many prompts. They will also have read several mentor texts, and practiced elements of personal writing with each one. Now, we hope, they can produce a polished piece of writing that brings it all together.

For three years, we ran a personal narrative contest that asked for a “short, powerful story about a meaningful life experience” in 600 words or less. But last year, we debuted our Tiny Memoir Contest that challenged students to tell us a story from their lives in just 100 words. The results blew us away. Teachers told us it was one of the most engaging assignments they gave all year and that the word limit made students’ writing much more focused and powerful. So this year, we’re running it again. We hope this contest will be fun for your students, and a useful exercise if they are going on to write longer pieces, such as a college essay.

Beyond a caution to write no more than 100 words, our contest is fairly open-ended. We’re not asking students to write to a particular theme or use a specific structure or style; instead, we encourage them to experiment and produce something that they feel represents their real voice, telling a tale that matters to them.

All student work will be read by Times editors or journalists and/or by educators from around the country. Winners will have their work published on our site and, perhaps, in the print New York Times.

Though our 100-word contest is slightly different than the original, we still recommend that before students submit, they watch this two-minute video in which student winners from past years share advice on the writing, editing and submission process. Ask students:

What techniques did these students employ that helped make their entries successful?

What did these students gain from having entered this contest? What were some of the challenges they encountered?

What advice can your students use as they work on their own submissions?

This contest will run from Oct. 4 to Nov. 1, 2023. We will link the official announcement here when it publishes, but in the meantime, here are last year’s rules and guidelines , which will remain largely the same.

Additional Resources

While the core of our unit is the prompts, mentor texts and contest, we also offer additional resources to inspire and support teachers, including lesson plans and great ideas from our readers around personal narrative writing.

Lesson Plans

“ From ‘Lives’ to ‘Modern Love’: Writing Personal Essays With Help From The New York Times ”

“ I Remember: Teaching About the Role of Memory Across the Curriculum ”

“ Creative State of Mind: Focusing on the Writing Process ”

“ Writing Narratives With ‘Tiny Love Stories’ ”

“ Telling Short, Memorable Stories With Metropolitan Diary ”

Reader Ideas

“ Flipping the Script on the College Essay With Help From The New York Times ”

“ Teaching Great Writing One Sentence at a Time ”

“ Using the Modern Love Podcast to Teach Narrative Writing ”

“ Fostering Selfhood and Inspiring Student Writers Using ‘Metropolitan Diary’ ”

Teaching Narrative Writing With The New York Times (On-Demand)

Personal Narratives From the Newsroom to the Classroom (On-Demand)

Mentor Texts to Teach Writing Styles

Getting started, instructional materials about mentor texts.

Why use Mentor Texts for student learning?

• The texts can show a particular style or skill
• Discussing texts  encourages thinking and talking aloud about elements of writing
• Models reading skills, like inferencing, cause, and effect character traits, etc. to incorporate in student writing
• Incorporates the engagement of reading and writing.
• Can be used for quality, demonstrating common misconceptions, and also exceptional examples

Instructional Mentor Text Resources

Use the following resources to learn how to teach using mentor texts.

• Edutopia: 7 Books About Black History to Use as Mentor Text A curated list of texts to guide students to explore Black history and practice a variety of writing moves at the same time.

Non-Fiction

Sr. Liaison Librarian for Curriculum Materials

Databases for Articles about Mentor Texts

To find additional and specific topics regarding mentor texts, search the following databases.

• Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Searches across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research and provides links to resources at Boston College. To set up these links, go to Settings and enter Boston College in the Library Links area.
• ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center) This link opens in a new window The ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, provides extensive access to educational-related literature. It includes coverage of journal articles, conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books and monographs. It has links to over three hundred thousand full-text documents going back to 1966. One may also search ERIC through the US Dept. of Education portal at http://www.eric.ed.gov/.
• Education Source This link opens in a new window Education Source covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues. The database provides indexing and abstracts for a very large number of journals, as well as full text for over one thousand journals. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. This database also includes full text for hundreds of books and monographs, and full text for numerous education-related conference papers.
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR is a collection of scholarly ebooks and journals across disciplines. The journal archive includes back issues and some current issues.
• ProQuest Education Journals This link opens in a new window ProQuest Education Journals provides access to a large number of educational publications, including more than 600 of the titles in full text. The resource covers not only the literature on primary, secondary, and higher education but also special education, home schooling, adult education, and hundreds of related topics.
• Next: Narrative >>
• Last Updated: Dec 22, 2023 3:17 PM
• Subjects: Education K-12 curriculum
• Tags: children's literature , writing , young adult books

ELA Matters

Engaging both middle school and high school learners!

3 Engaging Mentor Texts Middle & High School Students Love

Mentor texts are one of the most powerful ways to teach writing because they offer students both a model to follow (in other words, build in scaffolding) as well as inspiration for what to say. 

If you’re looking for fun and engaging ways to incorporate mentor texts into the secondary ELA classroom, read on for 3 mentor texts your secondary ELA students will love. 

How to use Mentor texts in the Secondary Classroom

Before we jump into which mentor texts to choose, let’s touch base on how to use mentor texts for teaching writing.  

Mentor texts can refer to anything from singular sentences to picture books to full-blown novels or epic poems. Literally ANY (well-written) text can be used in the classroom as a mentor text. 

The key to incorporating mentor texts is to start with the end in mind. This means choosing the focus for writing BEFORE getting started. When thinking about choosing your focus, ask yourself: what specifically do you want students to emulate from the mentor text when they write? This might be the grammar, the syntax, the use of punctuation, or something more content-oriented, like plot, character development, topic … the sky’s the limit!

Once you’ve identified your end-goal, guide your students through annotating the poem with that specific purpose in mind. In other words, you want to guide students to pay particular attention to something specific based on the writing goal.

Mentor Text #1: My Name by Sandra Cisneros

Why my name is the perfect mentor text: .

This short piece is actually an excerpt from Cisneros’ novel, The House on Mango Street . It walks the line between poetry and prose beautifully while exploring the rich history of the narrator’s name and the women in her family. 

Students love this piece because it is beautiful, short, and deceptively “easy” to read. This means all the language is simple enough, yet Cisneros’ use of language and literary devices make the text so incredibly rich for analysis. 

How to use My Name for teaching writing:

I love to introduce this short piece at the beginning of the year as part of my back-to-school curriculum, so I love to zero in on the connection between family, names, and identity. 

I guide my students to look for Cisneros’ use of diction, imagery, simile, and metaphor before asking my students to write their own version of the excerpt. 

Depending on the writing focus of the unit or school year, I sometimes ask students to take a personal narrative approach, breaking down the topic of each paragraph. For each paragraph, I provide prompts that connect to what Cisneros wrote in My Name, so that students can use My Name as a guide. 

Other years, I invite students to write for a more fictional genre, offering a prompt in which they explore the origin of their own name (if they know it) or to create an origin story for a character of their creation’s name. 

Either way, students have so much fun with these writing activities and I love getting to know my students through the stories they share!

In order to ensure students are practicing with the specific devices we studied while reading, I require them to incorporate a few of those devices and to explain their use in the reflection at the end of the activity. For example, I might ask students to choose 2 or 3 places where they used diction intentionally and to explain their intention behind the word they chose. (spoiler alert: this is a GREAT way to start preparing students for writing literary analysis later in the school year!) 

Click here to check out some ready-to-go resources for using My Name by Sandra Cisneros to teach writing.

Mentor Text #2: Where I’m From by George Ella Lyon

Speaking of mentor texts for back-to-school season, I love using George Ella Lyon’s Where I’m From for introducing poetry (in a not-scary way!) and exploring “list poetry” with my students. 

Why Where I’m From is the perfect mentor text: 

Like My Name, Where I’m From is an accessible and engaging text that students can understand from the very get-go. This makes it an excellent choice for the start of a new school year or for introducing poetry, which many students find intimidating. 

But the real thing that makes Where I’m From so special in the classroom is how much depth this poem hides. It uses everyday language and simple sentence structures, so students are surprised when they start to annotate the poem and unravel the complex story that lies beneath this sweet, seemingly simple poem. 

How to use Where I’m From for teaching writing:

If you’re first introducing students to writing their own poetry, Where I’m From is the perfect mentor text because of its “list” form. 

List poems are fun and low-stakes, and turn out amazingly well – your students will be so proud of the poems they write. 

I like to start by analyzing some of the devices and writing structures Lyon uses by dissecting the poem to see what’s making it so interesting. We identify allusions, alliteration, repetition, and some areas with specific word choice. 

Once we’ve thoroughly analyzed Lyon’s craft, I guide my students through various categories to brainstorm what they might include in their own poems. Some categories students love to brainstorm are important places, foods they grew up eating, and common phrases or advice they heard in their home growing up. 

You can find my resources for teaching Where I’m From here if you’d like a little more guidance.

Mentor Text #3: The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

Why the hill we climb is the perfect mentor text: .

Amanda Gorman read her poem, The Hill We Climb , at President Joe Biden’s inaugural address in 2021, and was met with widespread praise by critics and fans alike. 

The poem explores themes of unity, hope, resilience, and reconciliation. Gorman’s poem easily engages students because of its accessible language and format and its timely response to the many divisive events taking place in the U.S. 

The Hill we Climb is an excellent way to introduce a poetry unit, social justice unit, or as a way to celebrate important events like National Poetry Month or Black History Month. 

How to use The Hill We Climb for teaching writing:

As a spoken word poem (sometimes called performance poetry), this poem is a perfect way to introduce or review sound devices like repetition or alliteration, as well as her use of paradox. 

After we’ve analyzed the poem together as a class, I invite students to try their hand at writing their own slam poem . This can seem like an intimidating task at first glance, but the poems my students write each time have been absolutely amazing.

Here’s how:

• This task is a perfect collaborative writing project, so put your students into groups of 3-4 students. 
• Ask students to brainstorm a list of problems in today’s society – they can think on a micro level, such as specific problems in their school, or on a macro level, such as problems with global warming or water scarcity. 
• Let students draft – I like to tell my students that there’s no need to be poetic at this stage of the game – we can go back and add in all the great meter and sound effects we’ve been talking about, but first we need a draft to work with. Students think through the problem, how It got started, who is affected, how we can fix it, etc. 
• Once students have a draft worked out, invite them to think through the draft, keeping in mind those sound devices we discussed earlier – how can they add repetition, alliteration, or a few sentences that contain paradox – after all, there are paradoxes are easy to find in many of the problems we face today. 
• Last step – see if any students will be willing to “perform!” I love to ask them to alternate readers as well as to choose a few lines to read at the same time as other members in their group for a very cool “choral” effect. 

If you’re interested in other ways to incorporate Gorman’s work in your classroom, check out these 3 fun activities to use with Amanda Gorman’s writing.

If asking your students to write creatively has you feeling guilty, don’t fret: One of the most overlooked benefits of teaching writing with mentor texts, is that even if students aren’t writing analytical writing, they’re still working that muscle – here’s how: When you ask them to write a fictional or creative piece in which they have to think through their own word choice or use specific devices, they take a much more active role in thinking about the effect of these devices. In other words, they know what effect they’re trying to achieve and they begin thinking through how to get there with their writing, whether through sound devices, imagery, syntactical choices, or diction. This thoughtful use of devices makes them better able to identify the effects of an author’s choices around these same devices the next time they’re analyzing a piece! 

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How to Successfully Use Mentor Texts to Teach Writing

This post may contain affiliate links.

If you’re wondering how to successfully use a children’s book to teach writing. It’s called using a mentor text. Let’s dive into what a mentor text is and how to use them to teach writing. 

Here’s what you’ll read in this article…

• What is a Mentor Text?
• How to Use a Mentor Text
• A Short Example
• How to Choose a Mentor Text

Where to Find Mentor Texts

What Is the Definition of a Mentor Text?

A mentor text is an excellent piece of writing that models for students what good writers do — the craft and skills involved in writing, to which we apprentice ourselves and use it to learn from so that we can improve our writing.

Often, when I’m stuck for inspiration on how to write an article an editor has assigned me, I read something first. Not even writing about the same topics; I just read good writing.

For example, I choose magazines that have high-quality writing such as “Outdoors” or “National Geographic”. 

They usually get me back into my writing zone because reading good writers inspires me and reminds me to do what I know — write catchy leads, use vivid verbs, writing with clear organization, etc.

It’s the same when we’re teaching children to write.

We read exceptional books and passages of text with children to teach them HOW TO WRITE.

Usually, we focus on a specific craft move in the writing.

The experts at the National Writing Project say, “ Mentor texts are pieces of literature that you — both teacher and student — can return to and reread for many different purposes. They are texts to be studied and imitated… Mentor texts help students to take risks and be different writers tomorrow than they are today. It helps them to try out new strategies and formats. They should be [texts] that students can relate to and can even read independently or with some support. “

The good news?

Mentor texts can be almost any piece of writing including picture books, chapter books, articles, nonfiction books, magazines, and poems.

What’s more, they can be published books, something you’ve written for your students, or something a student has written.

Using student work helps the entire class to see examples at that grade level. If you’re using a student exemplar in your homeschooling, it’s also beneficial as examples for writers to learn from.

How to Use a Mentor Text?

So what do you do with your mentor text?

Classroom teachers will use it in the writing workshop, reading workshop, too.

Homeschoolers will use it during writing time.

Here’s how you use a mentor text in a writing lesson… (for any grade level and age.)

• Read the text and observe.
• Discuss what the writer did that made it SO good.
• Label the writing craft move (technique)  for students if they don’t have the words for it. (Example: The author used dialogue to make the writing flow. Or, the author used vivid verbs to make the writing come alive.)
• Apply the craft move (technique) to your own writing. (First, model how to do this before releasing children to try it on their own.)
• Share and reflect on how it went.

An Example of Using a Short Passage to Teach a Craft Move

READ this passage from Southwest Sunrise by Nikki Grimes.

What does Grimes do that makes the writing so rich?

What could you teach writers to apply to their own writing?

“ I wake up to a knife of sunlight slicing through the room Dad says is mine. I rub my eyes, stare out the barless window at a mountain striped in rainbow. “

LABEL the craft move. Grimes uses VISUAL details to show to give readers a picture in their minds.

Can you see the sunlight? How about the mountain?

After you read this passage with students, discuss what she does to give you a mind movie (sensory details). Then, show students how to apply the craft move by modeling how you would describe something that you all can see. Talk aloud about your thought process.

Then, ask student writers to apply the craft move of using sensory details (sight, in this case) in a short descriptive piece.

How to Choose a Mentor Text?

I’ll be honest, I agonize FOREVER about mentor texts.

First, I look for AMAZING writing. Specifically, writing that exemplifies the craft moves I want to teach.

Then, I consider if the passage or book is APPEALING to kids.

In addition to looking for writing crafts that I want to teach, I also consider the REPRESENTATION in the story.

If I’m going to use a story with a white character, I also want to make sure that I also use stories with BIPoC characters. That’s so my growing writers all have a chance to see themselves in the books.

Another consideration is the LENGTH.

I use Lulu and the Brontosaurus to teach fictional narrative not just because it’s well-written and exemplifies what I want to teach but also because it’s SHORT and can be read in one or two days.

Finally, I consider if the students can COMPREHEND the text — and if it is AGE-APPROPRIATE .

In other words, I won’t be reading a difficult passage describing the injuries in World War II with first graders.

To sum up, here’s what to look for when you’re making a selection:

• amazing writing (that demonstrates the writing craft you want to teach)
• appealing to kids
• diversity in characters
• at a comprehensible reading level, appropriate for the age

Here on Imagination Soup!

I’ve published many lists of mentor texts for both reading and writing with many more in the works.

GO HERE TO SEE the mentor text book lists that I have so far.

Your own bookshelf.

Start reading with new eyes…as a writer noticing the author’s craft.

Start with picture books. Ask yourself…Is the writing rich and amazing? Would it meet the requirements you have to be a mentor text? 

You’ll find so much just by starting to notice books in a different way.

A New Homeschool Curriculum That Uses Mentor Texts

The reason I LOVE to use mentor texts to teach children writing is that it connects writers with real-world writing!

It teaches kids to READ LIKE WRITERS ; to read carefully and study the craft of writing. 

And, to WRITE LIKE READERS ; to write for an audience who will love and appreciate what they write.

Using mentor texts GETS RESULTS.

It transforms reluctant writers into successful writers who feel pride and confidence.

More Recommended Books:

Craft Moves: Lessons Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts by Stacey Shubitz

Writing with Mentors by Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell  

You Might Also Like:

Book Lists for the Writing Classroom

Writing Contests for Kids

Journaling with Children and Teens

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

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How Mentor Texts Provide Valuable Lessons Beyond Writing Instruction

The knowledge middle and high school students gain through working with mentor texts can strengthen their critical thinking skills.

When students are learning how to write, mentor texts can be a valuable tool. These published pieces provide students with a road map as they’re trying to find their own voices as writers. Author Lynne Dorfman says mentor texts are designed to be “ studied and imitated ,” and they “help students to take risks and be different writers tomorrow than they are today.”

The value of mentor texts is so powerful that The New York Times developed a series of mentor texts for students to emulate and learn from. If you’re new to this, here are eight tips for teaching with mentor texts to further pique your interest.

In a recent post on the Moving Writers website, Rebekah O’Dell asked, “What comes after mentor texts?” A similar question that students tend to ask when they want to know the true value of what they are learning in the classroom is, “How does this help me outside of class?” Part of the response is the value of transfer of the learned concepts or information in new situations .

For example, studying the structure of an argument brings knowledge that can be transferred to writing your own argument across situations or preparing a verbal argument in real-life contexts. While learning from mentor texts transfers beyond the classroom in this way, teachers should always consider transfer of learning through the acquired thinking that is targeted and carried on with students.

Sometimes “Why does this matter?” is indirectly related to thinking more efficiently and better down the road. In this case, let’s take O’Dell’s question and explore it through the lens of the Artful Thinking Palette , created by Harvard’s Project Zero.

4 Routines for Using Mentor Texts

1. Observing and describing: When the content of learning about the structure of a narrative eventually fades in a student’s rearview mirror, what’s left is the thinking they gained. In class, students may study a genre like argument with three to five op-ed articles as mentors. They read and then reread them to observe elements across the mentors.

The observing and describing phase provides an opportunity for students to slow down, take notice, and absorb what the mentor text has to say. To draw students’ attention to what thinking they are actually doing in these early phases of studying their mentor texts, teachers may use the What Makes You Say That? routine.

2. Comparing and connecting: Imagine the student volleying back and forth from their writing to a mentor text as they either try out moves or revise their own writing to mirror the mentor text. In comparing the mentor with their own writing, they are linking their writing to form new ideas by seeing another way through their reading. Some mentor texts may not be compatible with what students envision in their writing, but they may feel a connection with other texts, which allows the students to grow their love for an author or style of writing.

When students engage with mentor texts, teachers make the essential connection from the content, or what they are learning (e.g., writing a short story), to the thinking that students are rehearsing. Students may compare and connect their writing with their mentors by using the I Used to Think... Now I Think routine.

3. Questioning and investigating: For questioning and investigating, an aligned thinking routine is See, Think, Wonder . This type of thinking with a mentor text pushes the student to question and investigate their mentors. Remember, not all mentor texts are created equal. Based on the needs of the writer and the range of mentors, students strengthen their habit of questioning and challenging their mentors. Perhaps the mentor text leads a student to wonder about the writer’s craft, or it pushes a writer to dig up new mentors. See, Think, Wonder invites writers to investigate their mentors, leading to additional study.

4. Exploring viewpoints:  An exploration of viewpoints allows students to use mentors to explore multiple perspectives. In particular, genre, writer’s craft, and text structure are studied in mentor texts. Students study the way mentors take on and approach a topic differently. The Circle of Viewpoints allows students to see perspectives that use different genres or various moves to get to the heart of a topic.

For instance, the topic of social media may be explored through various modes of expression such as poetry, an infographic, a short story, an op-ed, reviews, podcasts, interviews, or other forms. By experiencing different viewpoints, students may consider how genres cross paths to amplify understanding and vary options for expression.

Broadly Applicable Routines

So, what comes after mentor texts? When students are aware of and rehearse their learning through the lens of deliberate thinking, learning is easily transferable. Routines associated with studying mentor texts invite students to observe and describe, compare and connect, question and investigate, and explore different viewpoints. When learning how to use mentor texts is rooted in thinking, students can easily apply the thinking to any endeavor.

If we explicitly point out the critical thinking that’s sparked by studying mentor texts, students can deliberately strengthen their thinking when engaged in any activity. Ultimately, students will learn how to think better well after the mentor text study ends.

Master Writing Conventions with Mentor Texts

Covering writing conventions with mentor texts can save teachers time and increase student engagement. Add young adult literature to bring engagement. 

Teaching Writing Conventions with Mentor Texts

Teaching writing conventions to young adults can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. By using mentor texts, you can make the process of learning these important skills engaging and fun.

In this blog, we will explore what writing conventions are and why young adult literature demonstrates them so well. We will then dive into some effective mentor texts that you can use to teach these conventions.

Lastly, we will talk about how mentor texts can help meet educational standards and align with the curriculum. I have taught with mentor texts (also called mentor sentences or paragraphs) for years.

So, if you’re looking for new ways to engage with your students while teaching them important skills for good writing, keep reading!

Understanding Writing Conventions

Teaching writing conventions, which include grammar , punctuation, and usage, is crucial for developing students’ writing skills. Understanding these conventions helps students communicate effectively, conveying meaning and clarity in their own writing. It’s essential for effective written communication, aiding successful writers at every grade level.

Young writers will become bored if their own learning tools are drill and kill worksheets. And—task cards and grammar sorts work well too. However, using mentor texts to teach writing conventions will provide a high level of interest.

What are Writing Conventions?

Before I cover a specific mentor text to teach writing conventions, let’s talk about the process.

You teach writing conventions even if you don’t use that term! They encompass essential elements such as punctuation , capitalization, grammar, and spelling. With older students, I provide direct instruction when I see areas of confusion in their writings. With younger students, I give direct information when introducing concepts (according to the standards).

By understanding and applying writing conventions, young writers can ensure clarity, coherence, consistency, and structure in their written work.

They’ll see those examples in whatever mentor text to teach writing conventions you use.

Importance of Writing Conventions in Young Adult Literature

Now, ideas for choosing sample writings. In young adult literature , writing conventions are on display in several ways. As:

• Interesting parts of the story like suspense, conflict, rising action
• Dialogue, especially famous lines that students repeat
• “Broken” grammar rules like fragments for effect
• Elements of different genres

The carefully crafted use of writing conventions in young adult literature can serve as a powerful mentor text for teaching students about the importance and impact of these conventions in their own writing.

When students encounter suspenseful moments, conflicts, and rising action in a story, they are not only captivated by the plot but also exposed to the effective use of grammar, punctuation, and usage. You might have to call their attentions to these examples! By analyzing how these elements contribute to the overall storytelling experience, students can develop a deeper understanding of how writing conventions enhance their own narratives.

Best Mentor Texts to Teach Conventions in Writing

Hands down, most students love The Hunger Games . Since young readers enjoy the trilogy, you can implement sections while studying it. Not only will students understand the story on a deep level, but they will also retain the grammatical and writing concepts in a deep way.

That suggestion works across lessons: Whatever topic you are covering, find examples in a novel. Use those examples as mentor texts.

If you are not specifically teaching a novel but want to experiment with mentor sentences, choose some modern short stories . Ray Bradbury, Toni Cade Bambara, and Eugenia W. Collier have high-engagement stories that teens enjoy. Study pieces of their stories regarding conventions.

Finally, another approach with young adult literature is using a variety of stories to teach a topic like sentence structure. Gather a group of young adult literature novels and pull high-interest sections that help you to meet standards.

Benefits of Using Young Adult Literature as Mentor Texts

Enhancing student writing conventions with mentor texts from young adult literature aids in developing their craft effectively. Using young adult literature as mentor texts for teaching writing conventions engages students and supports independent work.

Why Choose Young Adult Literature for Mentor Texts?

Utilize the power of young adult literature to effectively teach writing conventions. Young readers and writers enjoy texts with which they can relate. For example, in my winter-themed mentor sentences , students use descriptions of winter to study:

• Sentence structure
• Ambiguous pronouns
• Suspense, setting, dialogue
• Punctuation

When we incorporate relevant and impactful young adult literature mentor texts into writing lessons, we are also discussing literature with students and encouraging them to read.

Impact of Young Adult Literature on Student Engagement

Utilizing mentor texts from young adult literature contributes significantly to student engagement in writing conventions. These texts engage young writers effectively, influencing their involvement in writing conventions and ultimately enhancing their skills. By incorporating mentor texts based on young adult literature, educators can successfully support student engagement in writing conventions.

This approach provides a compelling and impactful way to enhance student writers’ participation and interest, ultimately leading to more successful writers in the classroom. Since young adult lit deals with situations our students face, the content interests them.

Enhancing Vocabulary and Dialogue through Young Adult Literature

Young adult literature mentor texts play a crucial role in enriching students’ vocabulary and dialogue skills, offering an effective way to support vocabulary development through engaging narratives. These mentor texts not only enhance writing conventions but also inspire students to use techniques from mentor texts creatively in their own writing—especially narrative writing where students use dialogue!

By incorporating mentor texts from young adult literature, educators can provide support and examples for both reluctant and successful writers at every grade level, aligning with educational standards and fostering a love for reading and writing.

What about Classical Literature for Writing Conventions?

I too use a piece or two of classical literature as a mentor text to teach writing conventions. Often, pieces from The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun work well. You can read my post about mentor texts from classical literature .

Meeting Writing and Language Standards with Mentor Texts

You can find great tools in whatever you and your students enjoy, from nonfiction books, picture books, and classic novels. Time and time again, though, the best books for modeling is young adult literature.

The next time you are reading a great book, ask yourself why it is so great. Then, mark out a few text features. Note sentence fluency and word choice. Take an excerpt and discuss it with your classes and suddenly, you’ll have a mentor text for writing conventions.

Upper-grades’ language standards ask for students to understand different aspects of language, not to merely memorize and use components. For instance, in their writing, students must choose purposeful words, certain sentence structure, and effective punctuation. By modeling author’s choices, students understand the application to their writing.

In conclusion, young adult literature provides ample choice in choosing a mentor text to teach writing conventions. They provide students with engaging examples of how to effectively use grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

By incorporating mentor texts into your lessons, you can engage students in meaningful discussions about the craft of writing and help them develop a deeper understanding of language standards. Additionally, using young adult literature as mentor texts has the added benefit of capturing student interest and enhancing vocabulary and dialogue.

So, whether you are a teacher looking to enhance your writing instruction or a parent wanting to support your child’s literacy development, consider incorporating mentor texts into your teaching toolkit. They are sure to make a positive impact on your writers’ abilities.

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Creative Writing

Course description.

Creative Writing is a one-semester online course designed to improve your ability to find and express your ideas through various writing styles. Each unit blends the reading of rich mentor texts with the opportunity for you to engage intimately with the process of writing. The ability to read analytically and to write expressively exists as the cornerstone for success in the work place, the military, and/or post high school collegiate work. Embrace the process and find your voice.

Course Objectives

Upon completing this course you will understand and use:

• analyze various genres of literature and understand their cultural significance.
• analyze the critical attributes of varying modes of writing to appreciate and emulate the artistry of the writer.
• compose various types of texts dependent on audience, purpose, and message.
• incorporate standard grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling into all written work.

Required Course Materials

• Interactive Notebook – In the form of a small composition notebook, a spiral notebook, or loose-leaf paper kept in a binder.
• Pencil or Pen – In order to do well in the course, you must take notes, sketch diagrams and graphs, and solve problems when instructed to do so.
• Internet Access
• Adobe Reader
• Dictionary access (print or online)
• Online copies can be found, but you can also purchase your own copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible . Paperback:  576 pages Publisher:  Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Reissue edition (June 10, 2008) Language:  English ISBN-10:  0061577073 ISBN-13:  978-0061577079

Course Organization

This course is a single semester that contains 7 units and one final exam.

Each Unit contains:

• 2–4 lessons. Each lesson includes some or all of the following components: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.
• Self-assessments to help you check your own understanding of the material covered in each lesson. You must complete these assessments in order to advance in the course.
• 2 graded assignments

Final Examination

The final examination is comprehensive; it covers the material from all 7 units. To pass the course, you must receive a grade of 70 percent or better. You can apply to take the Final Exam after 100 percent of your graded assignments have been submitted, and at least 70 percent have been graded and returned to you.

Format: Multiple-choice and essay, online Time Allowed: 3 hours Materials Allowed: None

Semester Topics

Topic 1: Why Do Writers Write? Topic 2: Creative Nonfiction Topic 3: Short Fiction Topic 4: The Novel Topic 5: Poetry Topic 6: Experimental Writing Topic 7: A Way of Writing

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10 Great Mentor Texts for Creative Narrative Writing

Disclaimer:  Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. You don’t have to purchase them through my links, but if you do, it’s much appreciated! 

Our last writing unit of the year is here! Hello Creative Narrative ! Our primary unit is space themed, but I like to incorporate creative narrative into our reading block as well with some great mentor texts!

Without further ado, here are my 10 favorite books to use while teaching about  dialogue, plot, and characters  during creative narrative writing:

Brainstorming: The Best Story

Planning/Writing Plot: The Plot Chickens

Dialogue: Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street

Fictional Events: The Night I Followed the Dog

Graphics Novels/Art as Creative Narrative: Page by Paige

Plan & Climax: The Wednesday Surprise

Descriptive Words: Mars Needs Moms

Fantasy Plot:  King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson

Dialogue & Plot: Jumanji 

Descriptive Words & Revision: Little Red Writing

Featured Resources in this Article

Complete Guide to Teaching Creative Narrative Writing Grades 4-5

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About the Author

April smith.

April began her career as a 5th grade teacher in 2008 and quickly developed a passion for creating engaging educational materials to share with fellow teachers. She now works with districts around the country, training their teachers and leaders on how to implement research-based strategies and differentiation techniques that meet the needs of diverse learners.

FREE Centers Guide

Ripe Fruit Writing

School of Creative Writing

Creative Writing Classes in San Francisco, CA

In-person and hybrid options (in-person or on zoom).

Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing  is the only writing program that offers a progressive, step-by-step series of creative writing classes in the San Francisco – Bay Area . Our intensive writing workshops follow a path of growth custom-designed for beginning and emerging writers.  Students graduate with confidence and competence to take on any writing project.

Ripe Fruit ’s effective and innovative curriculum has provided encouragement, stimulation, and training to over 8000 professional and aspiring writers since 1991. Leslie Kirk Campbell, founder and director of Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing, has experience teaching poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir and personal essay. She is an imagination activist, master writing teacher, writing coach, and award-winning author who is passionately committed to the development of writers in every genre and at all levels.

Course Descriptions         What Makes Ripefruit Unique

Find Your Writing Voice  ( Ripe Fruit 1 ,  The Writing Faith )

Ripe Fruit Creative Writing first level classes teach you perception, imagination, compassion & commitment.   Learn  the six qualities it takes to be a great writer and put them into immediate practice in a safe and intimate environment.  Excavate  your wild mind and cultivate your own inimitable voice.  Experience  the encouragement and inspiration, the freedom and lucid structure you’ve been longing for.  Deepen  your writing faith.

For more info on foundational creative writing classes and workshops:  Ripe Fruit 1 ,  The Writing Faith

Memoir Writing & Personal Essay Writing  ( Soulfood One-Day ,  Soulfood Class )

A dynamic process of creative expression and self-integration for new and experienced writers.  Discover  where memory and imagination intersect.  Learn  how to re-enter your life and locate the stories that must be told. You will create a portfolio of autobiographical writings that move the heart, engage the intelligence, and have a lasting impact on you, the author, and your audience.  This is your chance to write straight from the heart.

For more info on memoir writing classes and workshops.   Soulfood One-Day ,  Soulfood Class

Fiction Writing  ( Ripe Fruit lll Fiction Writing )

You want to write that stop-them-in-their-tracks short story? Let me tell you a secret. It’s not the content that counts. It’s  HOW YOU TELL IT . By starting from the ground up, you will learn to tell a great story; a story that engages your reader sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page so that, in the end, they are changed by it.

For more info on fiction writing classes.  Ripe Fruit lll Fiction Writing

Christina Büchmann College Consulting

“I can't tell you just how relieved and proud I am. Relieved to have finished in time, and proud to have submitted something I couldn't have done any better. For both of those feelings, I thank you.”

Applicant having finished

“Christina helped my daughter find her authentic voice and express it beautifully. Christina’s style is one that encourages students to stretch themselves and take creative risks which distinguish them in the college process.”

Mother of college freshman

“If you want attentive, personalized tutoring for your student, Christina is the best! She is very perceptive about her students' needs and extremely clever in motivating them to tackle challenges—with excellent results.”

“Writing was not our son’s strength, so his essay took numerous drafts. The final essay, however, read like our son jumping off the page.”

“The passion with which Christina approaches her work with students gets results. Our sons produced their best writing and were accepted to excellent colleges.”

“Christina’s keen understanding of character made me feel that she grasped immediately who I was, intimately. Just as importantly, she appreciated in me the qualities that I was trying so hard to articulate through my writing, and pushed me to write more boldly and more honestly than I had dared to previously. Christina helped me weave together the threads of my narrative into a tapestry that showed exactly who I was. I went on to be accepted at Harvard, where I completed my undergraduate degree in English.”

“Christina has the gift of being able to make each student feel special. She brings the best out of each student, even when the student does not feel he/she is good at writing.”

Mother of college senior and college sophomore

“Christina is much more than a College Application Coach—she is a mentor who stretches the boundaries for her stundents and instills in them a high level of critical thinking. Our two daughters returned to her, on their own, for her astute guidance when applying for a Fulbright Scholarship and law school. She is outstanding!”

“Christina's experience, knowledge, intense dedication, and brutal honesty made me feel like there was someone extraordinarily competent on my side. In the fall I am attending a school I am thrilled about, and to be frank, I don't know how I would have fared without her.”

College freshman

“Christina worked miracles to reengage and inspire our son, a college dropout with a rather complicated academic history, to apply to colleges he had never heard of, which turned out to be so interested in him that he was accepted on a merit scholarship.”

“I'd thought my essays would be the weakest part of my application, but arguably they are now the strongest part.”

Applicant on finishing

“Sending my daughter to Christina was the best gift I could have given her as preparation for college! Christina worked with my daughter on her writing skills, but mainly made her reach inside herself and discover who she really is and what her strengths are. My daughter is now a much more confident young woman.”

Mother of a psychology major

“He made it to Stanford! I want to thank you for all the help you have given him and his sister. I keep bumping into people who ask me about the recipe for Ivy kids. I think one of our key ingredients is you and I would refer them to you.”

Working with college applicants is an unusual opportunity because the situation makes students extra receptive. They need to figure themselves out and—quickly—learn to write about their mature selves. My goal is to produce applicants confident enough to hold themselves to higher standards. It's an exciting process. My preparation includes my own education:     · Ph.D. in English, U.C. Berkeley     · B.A. in English, Yale     teaching in universities and high school programs:         · Yale College Bass Writing Program         · U.C. Berkeley, Department of English         · Castilleja School, Palo Alto, CA         · Academic Talent Development Program, U.C. Berkeley     training in the college admission process:         · Interviewing for the Yale College Office of Admissions         · Supervision of college applications of more than a hundred seniors at Castilleja School         · College essay workshops for the Academic Talent Development Program at U.C. Berkeley and for its International Division         · Western Association for College Admission Counseling         · Overseas consulting with applicants to American colleges         · Staying in touch with students to hear their college and work experiences         · Over ten years as an independent counselor The result is familiarity with the admission office perspective, knowledge of how various personality types fare in different educational environments, and a sense of how far a student can be pushed to work more ambitiously.

“There was no sugar coating of the competitive reality of the college admissions scene, but at the same time, Ms. Büchmann's approach was very supportive, encouraging, and confidence building. With her vast knowledge of the “college market out there,” Ms. Büchmann spared no effort to really get to know my daughter and was thus able to help her finalize that balanced list of desired colleges that could be a good match for her.”

Applicant mother

“Christina was so inspiring to my ‘writing-averse’ son! She discussed the college essay with him, drawing out what the college was specifically looking for and gently allowing him to come up with his own ideas for how to approach the essay topic. This was empowering and motivating for him. When multiple drafts were necessary, Christina was able to encourage him to persevere through the sometimes tedious editing process. He was accepted to his top schools and is now completing his freshman year at a great school! He could not have done it without her support and guidance.”

“Right from the start, Christina formed a special bond with my daughter, one that worked magically in managing the stress and anxiety which had kept her from working efficiently even though she had always been a very good student.”

Applicant parent

“Just wanted to remind you: You said I should apply to X University because when I got my first acceptance, I'd be glad to have that option. I just got into X University. ARE YOU ALWAYS RIGHT?!”

Relieved applicant

“As a student from an international family I thought that personal statements were boxes that didn't fit me; Christina helped me craft an essay that showed both my intellectual and my artistic sides. Her deep understanding of the process of transforming lived experience into concise, witty, and moving writing is only matched by the boundless energy with which she approaches each student as an individual.”

“I ended up accepting a spot at the Rochester Institute of Technology with $12,000 per year scholarship. Thank you so much for everything you did to help me in this process. I definitely wouldn't have been accepted into this caliber of school without you!”

“Christina is very tuned-in and perceptive about her students' strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and creativity. When it comes to learning differences, she is especially patient and becomes both the student's and the parents' best ally for coping with these differences.”

Mother of history major

“I didn't know how to convert the ideas in my head to words on the page. Christina taught me how to engage with the reader to effectively make my points. The skills I learned with Christina carried me through college and now, the law-school application process. Her coaching has been an integral part of my education.”

Recommended Plan for the High School Years: 9th grade Introductory consultation about the student's and parents' expectations.     Optional:                      Potential activity advising                      Curriculum priorities                      Parent orientation 10th grade Student pursues studies and interests. 11th grade Planning ahead and consultation about college visits     Optional:                      Summer internship planning                      Decisions about testing                      SAT and ACT testing prep                      Reflective writing prep                      Recommendation planning Summer between 11th and 12th grades As much of the application-writing as possible 12th grade Completing applications, reading acceptance letters, choosing where to go to college.     Optional:                      Interview prep                      Portfolios

EL SALVADOR

SOUTH KOREA

International

International students may need additional support in areas such as Orientation:     American programs of study     Types of institutions     The American ideal of well-rounded students Practical:     Explaining one's educational system     Showing extracurriculars     Reflection in the personal essays     Interviewing skills     Guidance for recommenders     Finding scholarships Planning for future entrance in professional programs I have worked with international students visiting Palo Alto, as well as over Skype, internet, telephone, and overseas visits. Students have come from: Argentina Belgium Brazil Canada Colombia El Salvador England France Germany Greece Hong Kong India Indonesia Iran Israel Italy Japan Jordan Lebanon Mongolia Nicaragua Pakistan People's Republic of China Phillipines Poland Romania Russia Scotland South Korea Sri Lanka Sweden Thailand Turkey

Frequently Asked Questions

What can strong students get from advising? An objective sounding board, encouragement to take good risks, more college options, more scholarships, help squeezing in more information, ways to make the information show more of them, higher standards. When should a student start working on his/her applications? Ideally the writing should start the summer before senior year of high school. Does everyone need to spend the same amount of time with a college counselor? Not at all. Some come in only at the beginning and the end; some make a weekly routine of showing work; some only consult about the writing. Is it useful to apply early? It doesn't always help, but this can be figured out based on the particular student's profile. Is it worth polishing my essays to apply to the UC system? Yes, the UC admissions officers read essays quite alertly, looking for specific information. Do others use college counselors?     Yes. Do people ever not finish their applications in time?     It doesn't happen. Will I get into college?     Yes. But you have to apply.

Signs of Progress

The student shows up looking taller and broader, beaming because he has finished his first essay. The student who hates writing about herself discovers that short sentences work. They just have to add up. They can juxtapose interesting information. The student finally fills out the Special Circumstances box—and discovers that no one else thinks he should be ashamed. The student mentions that she now offers editing help to her friends at school—“they have a lot to learn.” The student, halfway through the season, announces that he will try a new topic—“I've cared about this for years; I just didn't think anyone else would be interested.” The student gets an acceptance and merit scholarship while still working on her other applications. The student lets his parents see his finished essays and everyone exclaims that they can hear his voice as they read. The student returns to the first draft of her first essay and laughs tolerantly. The student returns from college to tell me that I must tell others to come to his college because it's the best place he can imagine.

Contact Christina Büchmann

Telephone: +1-650-704-2875 Email: [email protected] Office: Downtown Palo Alto, CA