Introduction: Mentor Texts: Opening the World to Writing
Part I: Nonfiction Mentor Texts: Learning to Write from Writers
Try This Modeling with Your Own Mentor Texts
Reproducible My Mentor Text Note-Taking Sheet
Try This Using Different Lenses to Read
Try This Creating Nonfiction Mentor Text Anthologies
Try This Fitting It All in with Nonfiction Mondays
Part II. Teaching Nonfiction Craft Tools with Mentor Texts
1. Focus: The Hearth of Nonfiction Writing
Try This Distilling Information into a Six-Word Memoir
Try This Studying Titles to Learn About Focus
Try This Writing a Poem to Help Focus a Topic
2. Turning Facts into Scenes: Writing with Imagery
Try This Writing with Imagery (more experienced writers)
Try This Writing with Imagery (less experienced writers)
Try This Writing Photo-Essays: Being Inspired by Visual Imagery
Reproducible Turning Facts into Scenes: Writing with Imagery
3. Leads: The Doorway into Writing
Try This Learning from Leads
Reproducible Leads
4. Point of View and Voice: Who Are We When We Write?
Try This Studying Point of View
Reproducible Point of View
Try This Considering Voice
Reproducible Voice: Who Are We When We Write?
5. Precise Language: Details, Details, and More Details
Try This Using Sensory Words
Reproducible Sensory Words
Try This Using Precise Language
Reproducible Precise Language: Concrete Nouns and Active Verbs
Try This Using Personification to Make Nonfiction Writing Come Alive
Reproducible Figurative Language: Simile and Metaphor
Reproducible Figurative Language: Personification
Try This Generating Domain-Specific Vocabulary
6. Text Structures: Writing Bird by Bird
Try This Structuring and Organizing Nonfiction
7. Endings: Letting Words Linger
Reproducible Endings
Nuts and Bolts: More Tools of the Nonfiction Trade
- Using Nonfiction Text Features in Meaningful Ways
- Using Dialogue and Quotes from Primary Source Material
- Ensuring Truth and Accuracy
- Varying Sentence Length
- Citing Sources and Creating a Bibliography
