This page is to share your free choice genres and list of mentor texts found and discussed in class as well as to provide a space for us to add to this list collaboratively.  This is also a place where you can post your writing that has been influenced from this unit of study.  *Please add your first and last name and the title and author of your text with your post. Please also add a picture if available and a hyperlink to the page where we could order the book online if we choose to.

 

 

 

ABC Book Study

Z is for Zookeeper by Marie and Roland Smith              Recommended by Cammie Price

My first graders love this book! Each letter has a short 4 line rhyming stanza that talks about different zoo animals and a zookeepers job. In the margin, there is more information on animals, including their size, behaviors, and other interesting facts. You could use this book to help with science standards. Students love learning about animals and it's easy for students to follow the Smith's text structure for their own ABC books.

 

 

 

ABC Book Study

Recommended by Cathy Rode 

 

The Butterfly Alphabet by Kjell B. Sandved.  This is a very multi-genre book with awesome illustrations for each letter of the alphabet.  It give students information about different species of butterflies. It would be great to integrate science with ELA.  All ages would enjoy.

 

 I Spy: An Alphabet in Art by Lucy Micklethwait,  This introduces students to a new way to look at fine art and create mutiple mini-lessons as well.  This took famous painting and hid something in each painting with one of the alphabet.  Then it had a page that explained about the history of the painting in wonderful easy-to-read language.

 

Animalia Midi by Graeme Base

This is a beautifully illustrated book that integrates a study of animals with figurative language.  I used this specifically as our mentor text to create noticing charts on ABC books because it was so multi-genre.

 

Commentary Study

LEONARD PITTS COLUMN FROM The Miami Herald

Suggested by Kim Wells

 Leonard Pitts Column http://www.miamiherald.com/leonard_pitts/

"Ready Made Sandwich Just Too Convenient" by Leonard Pitts November 17, 2003 Miami Herald"

"Yearning for an America That's Gone"  April 23, 2010

NOTICINGS CHART

 

Mentor Texts: Leonard Pitts

“Ready-Made Sandwich Just Too Convenient” and

“Yearning for an America That’s Gone”

1. Use of repetition with sentences that begin the same way.(copied)

EX: “If they were truly…”

      “If they were only…”

1. Use of first person to identify with audience(copied)

EX: “Some of us needed no polling data…”

1. Powerful opinion and voice (not copied)
2. Circular ending like in “Ready-Made Sandwich”

EX: “Yeah, maybe I exaggerate…you’re too busy.”

Ex from “Yearning for an American That’s Gone”

    “We’re searching for the one that ought to be.”

(Attempted to copy) 

 

 Anything Leonard Pitts serves as great mentor text for middle school and up. Using his column teaches middle school students to observe and care about the world around them. Calling attention to issues that shape their futures help them develop a sense of community in t he world. Teaching students they have opinions that matter and a voice to be heard helps encourage eloquent speech and writing. Pitts connects, makes his point, and GRABS the reader.

 

 

 

 

 

News Reporting Study

 

Time for Kids

Recommended by Sarah Stephanoff. Time for Kids always has at least 3 news stories in every issue. These articles are brief, high-interest and age-appropriate. Yet, they can still teach kids all the features of news reporting. Katie Wood Ray recommends that you have students study news articles that are more about current events than about past history so you would have to look through editions of Time for Kids to find ones that meet this criteria.

 

HIstorical Fiction Study

 

Magic Tree House     Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry         The Other Side

Recommended by Amber McDonald. These following texts are all examples of historical fiction texts. I have found that my children really enjoy reading books that fall under this catergory. They seem to like the books that have historical factual information about a certain topic that has happened in the past. I found that when I taught 5th grade that Roll of Thunder was the number one book of the year. Sometimes historical fiction texts can be hard to read as they cross history with something that could really have happened based on facts and the kids seem to sometimes get a little confused. I can say as a teacher that historical fiction as picture books are one of my favorite to read aloud!

 

 

 

Sports Articles by Renee Phillips

http://www.goupstate.com/section/sports

 

This is a unit I thought of in the last few weeks because so many of my boys (and girls)  have been writing about spring sports. I noticed that a sports article has a very definite structure and I thought it might be one that students would really get in to. I also thought it might be easy to have a real sports writer from the local paper come in and talk to the students about how they decide what to write. I have attached Go upstate but any newspaper site will have a variety of articles.

 

 

Poetry by Crystal Weathers  

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

 

 

                                    

I teach a unit on poetry every year. I always start out the unit with fun poetry. They love these poems because they are about bodily functions, yucky stuff and much more. After I get them hooked we move on to the more ivolved poetry.

 

 

Where the Sidewalk Ends bu Shel Silverstein

Recommended by Martha Vest

 

 

Received this silly collection on my 18th birthday from a poetry-loving friend. Although I didn't appreciate it one bit then, I sure do now.  Silverstein writes funny poems with darling pictures that just grab young readers.  I use this in class when we have a few free minutes and encourage my students to write similar comical ones.

 

Poetry Books - Recommended by Lindsay Blanton

   Big Talk Poems For Four Voices by Paul Fleischman

 

Wonderful Words Poems About Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

 

Days to Celebrate by Lee Bennett Hopkins

 

Lindsay Blanton - I chose to do a poety unit of study for the free choice genre.  I'm studying poetry and conducting a poetry unit of study at school, so I wanted to share some mentor texts I've used and enjoy with many different grade levels.  Wonderful Words is a great collection of poems and helped with the craft pause I did for class.  Big Talk is great for a reader's theater-type of poetry and lots can get involved at one time in reading the poems.  Days to Celebrate is a great book to use all-yearlong with students.  There are so many different topics of poems and factual information is given for the poems. 

 

 

Mystery Book Study by Bonnie Cumbo

 

There are many literary elements to study when reading mystery.  A unit of study on the author's plan for characters, setting, plot, point of view, theme, and tone provide many opportunity's to use this genre.  Also, young readers love to read mysteries, especially if there is an element of fear  or suspense. 

 

These are a few examples of mentor texts to study in this genre:

 

 Magic Tree House #34 Season of the Sandstorms

 

 The Boxcar Children #8 Lighthouse Mystery

 

  American Girl- A Kit Mystery Danger at the Zoo

 

 

Noticing Chart for Mystery Genre:

 

• There is a lot of dialogue in this genre.  The characters constantly talk to each other.
• There are written clues throughout the text.  Some are written in short sentences, riddles, and some are written as journal entries.
• Many authors of mysteries write a series of mysteries that include the same characters.
• The setting can change several times throughout a mystery. 
• The characters often work with others to help them solve the mystery.
• Mysteries end with the mystery getting solved. 

 

Biographical sketches

recommended by Kimberly Barnette 

 Pathfinders: Innovators Who Shaped America's History by: Jana Martin 

I use this book when my students are researching famous people in our history for a project, but after this class I'm going to use it as a mentor text for them to write a biographical sketch and turn it in a project.

 

Noticings Chart:

• illustration for each person
• Birth & death date if applicable at top as a heading 
• fun facts or interesting facts section
• brief descriptions of their lives 
• kid friendly sentences and terms (not to much over the top with wording)

 

 

Comic strips/ Graphic Novels

recommended by Kim Sutherland

 

 

(fiction)

 

Noticing chart

• table of contents
• fiction series ( nonfiction series available also)
• glossary
• fun facts page
• written in dialogue bubbles ( text boxes)
• colorful pages
• kid friendly (entices kids to read)
• pictures/diagrams
• characters ( called explorers)
• factual info
• about the author page
• index page
• tells story in a comic strip format 

 

Mentor text:  (3) Recommended by Kim Sutherland

Joeming Dunn  (nonfiction)   

 

 

 

 by Joeming Dunn (nonfiction)

 

 

 

 

by Rob Worley (fiction

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry 

The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Recommended by: Heather Yordy.

Emily Dickinson is one of my favorite poets... simple, yet profound.  Often following simple rhyme schemes, covering a wide range of topics, I highly recommend anything by her!

 

 

Journal/Research Writing: By April Camp

 By: Ralph Fletcher

Noticing Chart:

* written in journal form to start each chapter and then moves into the story

* life of a pre-teen boy being the new kid at school

* facts and thoughts about spiders

* dialouge

* funny sayings, idioms

* real world situations

* the use of an imagination

* vivid vocabulary

 

 By: Jeff Kinney

 

 By: Sharon Creech

 

  By: Doreen Cronin

 

There are numerous biographies for the social studies classroom.  Here are a few for ancient history. 

 Biography  Recomendations by Kimberly Trott

Constantine by Charles M Odhal

 

Cleopatra by Duane W. Roller

 

 

Marco Polo by Nick McCarty

 

The Tomb of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter

 

 

 The Adventure of Ibn Battuta by Ross E. Dunn

See noticings chart on chapter one for this novel.

 

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta by Ross E. Dunn, Noticings Chart by Kimberly Trott

 

1.  What I noticed about the text:

A Preface to the Book

A Long Introduction

A Notes Section on Money and the Muslim Calendar

Chapters Divided Into Topics Based on the Location Visited

Descriptive Words Describing the Geography of the Region (white and windy city)

Chapter 1: Chapter Starts With a Quote, the Quote Relates to the Theme of the Chapter.

The Quote Describes a Learned Man, Ibn battuta Is One

There is Lots of Geographic Detail

His Biography is Incorporated Within This Chapter

Lots of Islamic Words Italicized in the Chapter: faqihs, qadis, madrasas, sharia, ulama, alim, rihla

 

2.  Why does the Author Craft it This Way:

A Story About His Journey, Geography is Important in Travel Stories

Italicized Words Let Us Know They Are Not In Out Everyday Vocabulary

The Islamic Words Also Give the Reader the Setting and Time Period Based on the Words Chosen 

Ibn Writes the Story as if he is Giving a Personal Narrative to You of His Adventure

 

3.  What is the Writer Doing:

He is Telling His Personal Experiences by Being Very Descriptive of the Regions and Explaining in Detail Topics the Reader May not be Familiar With

 

4.  Connect it to Another Text:

Book 1 of Marco Polo describes Marco's accounts of the Places he Visits Along His Journey to China

and Undaunted Courage Describes the Events Occurred by Lewis and Clark on Their Journey to the Pacific

 

5.  This ould work well for students writing a travel journel of a vacation they are taking, a mission trip, or a summer log.

 

 

 

Here is my free choice poem I wrote about my Austistic son, Jacob.

My Boy

By: Kim Sutherland

Jacob is my special boy

That brings me so much joy

He leaves a mark within my heart

Although his Autism tears me apart.

 

He does the best he can

Each and everyday

Sometimes he does not know what to say

But his laughter and smiles brighten my days.

 

Full of determination and care

Love and Hope surround him everywhere

A loving sister for a shoulder to lean on

Jacob has someone to always look upon.

 

I worry about his future

But I know the Lord above will help him endure the obstacles

As his mother with such a spirited and loveable boy

He is someone that will always bring me so much joy.

 

This poem's mentor text came from a website linked to www.autismspeaks.org I read poems and stories on the site and it inspired me to write this poem