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Posts tagged ‘teaching’

Oct 10

Starting the Year with Mentor Texts

by Lynne R. Dorfman

The beginning of the year is a perfect time to choose a multitude of favorite texts to share with students as read-alouds. These selections serve as mentor texts that you can return to again and again for many purposes over the course of the school year. First, begin to introduce these texts as read-alouds. The rich talk that accompanies a read-aloud creates a comfort level and interest in the text, and often, in the author as well.

These mentor texts help students take their first steps as writers in your classroom. They provide gentle nudges to try out new strategies, organizational scaffolds, or write in the persona of another – to name a few. Kelly Gallagher urges us to do more than model. In Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling & Mentor Texts he explains: “Beyond teacher modeling in the classroom, my students benefit immensely from closely examining writing from the real world. … Yes, it is important to show students how the teacher writes, but it is also of paramount importance to provide students with mentor texts so they can see how other writers compose.” Read more

Oct 3

Why Teach Poetry in the Age of Common Core?

By Lynne Dorfman

During a recent staff development day that I was conducting, one of the participants asked, “So what you are saying is that we need to force our students to read and write poetry?”  Implicit in her question was that she felt many of her students would be resistant and would not choose read or write poetry unless forced.   I answered by saying that we need to expect our students to read and write in many genres.   We need them to take risks and try to convince our students that the ability to independently read and write poetry and myriad genres is a way to explore the options that are available to them.  Rather than to force your students to read and write poems, invite them to grow their capacities as learners and investigate new worlds through the promise of poetry. Read more

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