4/29/15
Big Idea
Writing with Mentors
Teachers of writing use multiple, current,
engaging mentor texts at every phase of writing
instruction, including their own planning.
How to use current, engaging mentor texts to plan a
writing study
Allison Marchetti
@allisonmarchett
Rebekah O’Dell
@rebekahodell1
movingwriters.org
By the end of the workshop, you will:
●  Understand how to plan a writing study from
mentor texts
●  Take the first steps toward planning your
own writing study using a cluster of mentor
texts
●  Get a glimpse at the impact mentor texts
have on student writing
Why mentor
texts?
Hear from our
students
A Look at One
Mentor Text
Steps to Planning a Writing Study with
Mentor Texts:
1.  Collect mentor texts
2.  Study patterns in mentor texts to
create lessons
3.  Arrange lessons into a unit
4.  Teach
5.  Confer, studying patterns in
student writing and returning to
mentor texts as needed
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Where do we find
them?
Study Patterns in Mentor Texts
The Questions We Ask of Potential Mentor
Texts
1.  How might this text engage our current students?
2.  Does the text pass the highlighter test?
3.  Is the text accessible to our students? How much
scaffolding will it require?
4.  How long is it? How might the length affect how we
use it?
5.  Is it mentor text gold?
Allison’s Writing Study:
Critical Review
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Rebekah’s Writing Study:
Technique Study of Evidence
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Use concrete, specific details
Use figurative language
Show-don’t-tell
Use anecdotes, facts, stats, and testimonies
Use text evidence
Use ethos, pathos, and logos
Weave description and argument together
Write strong paragraphs that pack a lot of punch
Use figurative language to convey a vivid picture of the product
Include a title that intrigues the reader and forecasts the review
Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the topic
Combine sentences without comma splices
Provide hyperlinks, photos, or videos to enhance information
A Look at One
Mentor Text
Steps to Planning a Writing Study with
Mentor Texts:
1.  Collect mentor texts
2.  Study patterns in mentor texts to create
lessons
3.  Arrange lessons into a unit
4.  Teach
5.  Confer, studying patterns in student
writing and returning to mentor texts as
needed
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A Mentor Text Cluster for
Commentary
It’s your turn!
Planning a commentary study...
●  Read your assigned mentor text, noting techniques that
you could teach in a study of commentary.
●  Each member of the group should share one technique
they found in the mentor text. (If there is additional time,
go around again!)
●  Make note of the techniques pulled from other mentor
texts in the cluster.
1.  “The Crushing Boredom of a Tired Curriculum” -- David D. Brown,
The Boston Globe
2.  “The Case for Free-Range Parenting” -- Clemens Wergin, The New
York Times
3.  “The Deflated State of Sportsmanship” -- Joseph Epstein, The Wall
Street Journal
4.  “Support good cops, oppose bad ones” -- Leonard Pitts, Jr., The
Miami Herald
5.  “Fear Measles, Not Vaccines” -- Marc Siegel, The Wall Street
Journal
Questions to Consider When
Planning Lessons ...
●  What recurring patterns are present in the
cluster?
●  What can each mentor text teach that the
others can’t?
●  What can your students handle? Is the
technique timely and appropriate in the
sequence of the course?
Mentor: Ken Tucker
The difference mentor
texts can make
Student work and their mentors
[Pharrell’s] tone is also
pleasantly ghostly,
wafting in and out of a
melody with sinuousness
that can be sly or sexy or
serene.
The entire poem carries a
noticeably somber tone, shown
through words like “ripped”
and “slapped” and “burning,”
as Kunitz weaves together the
fragments of his broken
childhood. Kia, Grade 12
Review: “Pharrell Williams: Just
Exhilaratingly Happy” (NPR)
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Mentor: Michiko Kakutani
Mentor: Richard Estrada
Myths used to be ‘the stories we used
to explain ourselves,’ she observes,
and to her, myths, like art, are a way
to universalize individual dreams and
suffering: They lend continuity and
weight to the everyday struggles of
life -- “deadlines, debts, divorces” -and remind us that every person,
every passer-by on the street, has an
‘epic narrative’ within.
Still, however willing I may
have been to go along with the
as a kid, as an adult I have
concluded that using an ethnic
group essentially as a sports
mascot is wrong.
Review: “Kate Tempest, a Young Poet Conjuring Ancient
Gods” (The New York Times)
In both cases Kooser loses no /me to communicate the vast connec/vity of the universe. He takes these events separated by light-­‐years in space and /me and makes them connected to the soul of existence. The lonely “farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death” is unaware of the binding fabric of the universe, but is s/ll affected physically by a chill. What I see Kooser doing here is aEemp/ng to coax the reader out of the limita/ons of our own perspec/ve. He wants to say ‘just because you don’t know it’s there doesn’t mean it isn’t’. In both of these poems, this serves as the primary func/on of the human actors: what they do isn’t necessarily as important as the fact that those ac/ons are the product of a billion different influences from across the galaxy. Nothing is separated. Henry, Grade 12 Mentor: Eliza Berman
This is me as a kid: A little girl
alone in my dark playroom fixing
my doll’s hair. I was bored and it
was rainy, too rainy to go outside,
too rainy to call a friend. I wanted
someone to play with and talk to, a
little sister or even a little brother,
just someone, anyone, who could
keep me company.
Aubrey Scott, Grade 9
Mentor: Kirk Goldsberry
“Sticks and Stones and Sports Teams’
Names”
(The Dallas Morning News)
However willing I may have
been to use these terms as
a pre-adolescent, I have
now concluded that using
any gender to portray
something negative is
wrong and should not be
accepted. Niki, Grade 9
Mentor: James Wood
Here he was, jumping off a boat into
the Maine waters; here he was, as a
child, larkily peeing from a cabin
window with two young cousins; here
he was, living in Italy and learning
Italian by flirting; here he was, telling
a great joke; here he was, an
ebullient friend, laughing and filling
the room with his presence.
“Reflections” (The New York
Times)
“Mom! Did you see my basket?
Did you see how good it was?”
“Aww, honey I missed it. I was
on the phone with your father. Peyton
took his first step! Isn’t that so
exciting?” my mother giddily replied.
And here I was, in second place again;
here I was, tears hanging on to the edge
of my eyes; here I was, wondering if
first place would ever be in my reach.
Aubrey Scott, Grade 9
Mentor: Kirk Goldsberry
But let’s be honest: Stephen Curry’s ability to shoot
is what made this all possible...
Griffin, Grade 9
...So, how does he do it? How does he get this
volume? The answer involves lots of screens by bigs
and clever plays engineered to get him open. In this
next example, the Warriors use a pair of drag
screens set by bigs to free up Curry near the top of
the arc. Given his shooting prowess, it’s easy to
overlook his becoming a solid NBA playmaker.
While some of these picks result in open shots or
open driving lanes for Curry, other times they
prompt switches that enable him to make a key
pass...
“Splash Engineering: A Look at the Science Behind
Golden State’s Sublime Shooters” (Grantland)
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Q&A
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