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The Writing Thief: Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing
It's been said that good writers borrow while great writers steal. Writing thieves read widely, dive deeply into texts, and steal bits and pieces from great texts as models for their own writing. Ruth Culham admits to being a writing thief-and she wants you and your students to become writing thieves, too! A major part of becoming a writing thief is finding the right mentor texts to share with students. Within this book, discover more than 90 excellent mentor texts, along with straight-forward activities that incorporate the traits of writing across informational, narrative, and argument modes. Chapters also include brief essays from beloved writing thieves such as Lester Laminack, David L. Harrison, Lisa Yee, Nicola Davies, Ralph Fletcher, Toni Buzzeo, Lola Schaefer, and Kate Messner, detailing the reading that has influenced their own writing. Ruth's beloved easy-going style and friendly tone make this a book you'll turn to again and again as you guide your students to reach their full potential as deep, thoughtful readers and great writers. There's a writing thief in each of us when we learn how to read with a writer's eye!
206 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2014
33 people are currently reading
453 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Culham
103 books16 followersRuth Culham, aka The Trait Lady, is the president of The Culham Writing Company and former Unit Manager of the Assessment Program at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (recently renamed Education Northwest) in Portland, Oregon.
She is the recognized expert in the traits of writing assessment field and author of numerous professional resources published by Scholastic, including 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up; 6+1 Traits of Writing for the Primary Grades; Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School, and Using Picture Books to Teach Writing with the Traits.
As a pioneering researcher in this field, she creates and conducts teacher workshops and videos, designs national and international institutes for writing assessment and instruction, and provides professional development to teachers at local and district levels.
Ruth was named Teacher of the Year in Montana, the highlight of her 19-year teaching career. Ruth holds specialty degrees in Library Science and Elementary, Middle, and Secondary English Education. She has a Masters degree in Teaching English and an Ed.D. in Educational Administration.
from http://ruthculham.wordpress.com/about/
She is the recognized expert in the traits of writing assessment field and author of numerous professional resources published by Scholastic, including 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up; 6+1 Traits of Writing for the Primary Grades; Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School, and Using Picture Books to Teach Writing with the Traits.
As a pioneering researcher in this field, she creates and conducts teacher workshops and videos, designs national and international institutes for writing assessment and instruction, and provides professional development to teachers at local and district levels.
Ruth was named Teacher of the Year in Montana, the highlight of her 19-year teaching career. Ruth holds specialty degrees in Library Science and Elementary, Middle, and Secondary English Education. She has a Masters degree in Teaching English and an Ed.D. in Educational Administration.
from http://ruthculham.wordpress.com/about/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
September 4, 2014
While this book may not have all of the answers, it certainly did plant enough seeds of inspiration in my mind to help me become a better writing teacher to my children (I homeschool 2nd and 5th grade). My big picture take-away is that READING is the key to writing well. Significantly reduce your dependence on all of those time-honored, traditional writing practices of five-paragraph essays, diagramming sentences, memorizing lists of spelling words and completing pages and pages of grammar and vocabulary workbooks. Focus on texts, not tests.
And how do you find these shining examples of mentor texts to share with budding writers?
"When you discover a mentor text, you should feel excitement and energy, a thrill or rush from the words and the way the author conveys the ideas. That's a frisson -- that tingly sensation you feel when something is just right. When you and your students find a passage in a picture book, a brochure, sign, blog, website, e-mail, advertisement, television show, movie, play, or song lyric, you'll feel the frisson: Voila! You've found a great mentor text! Beg, borrow, or steal it to help students learn about writing and how important it is that their work stands out in a similar way. Help them find their writing voices and develop their craft with mentor texts." (page 47)
And how do you find these shining examples of mentor texts to share with budding writers?
"When you discover a mentor text, you should feel excitement and energy, a thrill or rush from the words and the way the author conveys the ideas. That's a frisson -- that tingly sensation you feel when something is just right. When you and your students find a passage in a picture book, a brochure, sign, blog, website, e-mail, advertisement, television show, movie, play, or song lyric, you'll feel the frisson: Voila! You've found a great mentor text! Beg, borrow, or steal it to help students learn about writing and how important it is that their work stands out in a similar way. Help them find their writing voices and develop their craft with mentor texts." (page 47)
June 23, 2015
Although this book is tailored toward elementary students, it expounds upon important truths about teaching writing at any level. Culham discusses the significance of using excellent writing models to help students analyze writing for "tricks" and then apply those tricks to their own writing. While she delves into informational writing, narrative writing, and opinion writing, I personally found her chapter on narrative writing to be most beneficial and borrowed several ideas to use in the high school classroom.
July 26, 2016
“Learning how to be a writing thief and spot the texts that show students a particular writing skill in action is an effective instructional strategy that supports deep reading, which in turn leads to deep writing.” (p. 30) Ruth Culham the author of, The Writing Thief, eloquently describes how to use rich mentor texts when teaching the craft of writing. In the opening of the book she enlightens the reader on how to use the mentor text intertwined with the use of the Common Core Standards and the seven writing traits. Throughout the book she examines informational, narrative, and opinion writing modes and further discusses how one would use a mentor text to help a writer understand the purpose. Something that was helpful in the book was that with each recommendation of a mentor text, Ruth provided a description of the text and which trait or characteristic it paired with. This book can go hand in hand with her text 6 +1 Traits of Writing and really provide a classroom teacher with a revolutionary approach to teaching writing. Woven into the book you will find the insightful advice or stories from reputable authors who too have used books to help them form their own pieces of work.
Before picking up this book, I never considered the idea that a writer must first read and analyze the work of others. Once they have read with a writer’s eye then they can try out the things they noticed or enjoyed about the book in their own work. What I really enjoyed about the book was that Ruth gives you a starting point with the list of mentor text she finds to be authentic. Now as a teacher, I can reference my starting point, and then look for pieces of work in my own classroom library that also portray those same traits. In doing so, I can ignite the flame that was once burned out in my students eyes again and make writing a discovery of new things.
One of the best chapters in the book discusses argumentative writing, also known as opinion writing. I will refer back to that chapter over the course of the year as I teach my students how to construct an argument based on an opinion, and how to find good solid information, and how to compose a counterargument. Something I really enjoyed from this chapter was teaching students between logical arguments versus a non-logical argument. She list the pitfalls typically used in writing, that I think my students would really enjoy!
Overall, I was very impressed of this book and will be adding it to my professional library. I will leave with this quote found in the book, “We should teach children that writing is thinking, and, as such, that it’s never easy, always messy, yet ultimately satisfying to get right.”
Before picking up this book, I never considered the idea that a writer must first read and analyze the work of others. Once they have read with a writer’s eye then they can try out the things they noticed or enjoyed about the book in their own work. What I really enjoyed about the book was that Ruth gives you a starting point with the list of mentor text she finds to be authentic. Now as a teacher, I can reference my starting point, and then look for pieces of work in my own classroom library that also portray those same traits. In doing so, I can ignite the flame that was once burned out in my students eyes again and make writing a discovery of new things.
One of the best chapters in the book discusses argumentative writing, also known as opinion writing. I will refer back to that chapter over the course of the year as I teach my students how to construct an argument based on an opinion, and how to find good solid information, and how to compose a counterargument. Something I really enjoyed from this chapter was teaching students between logical arguments versus a non-logical argument. She list the pitfalls typically used in writing, that I think my students would really enjoy!
Overall, I was very impressed of this book and will be adding it to my professional library. I will leave with this quote found in the book, “We should teach children that writing is thinking, and, as such, that it’s never easy, always messy, yet ultimately satisfying to get right.”
September 10, 2015
Great ideas for anyone looking for new ways to teach writing. I really appreciated her explanation of the writing traits and their key qualities. I was familiar with the writing traits before, but then her explanation of the key qualities really helped to hammer out the traits in my mind. I would recommend sharing that information explicitly with students, as well. Rather than just talking about having voice in writing, talk with the students about the qualities of voice and what to be looking for. I paired this explicit instruction in the traits and their qualities with Little Red Writing by Joan Holub and had my student do a "scavenger hunt" to find the writing traits in that book. It was a lot of fun and he came up with great ideas!
The mentor text recommendations are also golden when you're strapped for time, and she does sprinkle in some chapter books and extended picture books that could be useful for older readers. I wish there was more than one book recommendation for each trait, but I suppose that would be a lot of work for Culham! The bulk of this book is a list of mentor text recommendations. While she does give some ideas for teaching activities, the purpose of this book is not to give extended lesson plans or ideas for assessment. If you are wanting that, then you should look elsewhere. Mostly this book is an explanation of the writing traits and their qualities and then mentor text recommendations.
One minor beef I had was in the beginning when she is describing the writing traits and talking about what good writing instruction should entail, she doesn't cite any research. I know what she says is research based because I have read a lot of the research, but would have liked to know specifically what research she was referring to.
The mentor text recommendations are also golden when you're strapped for time, and she does sprinkle in some chapter books and extended picture books that could be useful for older readers. I wish there was more than one book recommendation for each trait, but I suppose that would be a lot of work for Culham! The bulk of this book is a list of mentor text recommendations. While she does give some ideas for teaching activities, the purpose of this book is not to give extended lesson plans or ideas for assessment. If you are wanting that, then you should look elsewhere. Mostly this book is an explanation of the writing traits and their qualities and then mentor text recommendations.
One minor beef I had was in the beginning when she is describing the writing traits and talking about what good writing instruction should entail, she doesn't cite any research. I know what she says is research based because I have read a lot of the research, but would have liked to know specifically what research she was referring to.
July 29, 2016
This has given me a lot of ideas for my next composition class.
April 21, 2024
Ruth Culham’s, The Writing Thief, is the ideal resource if you're looking for ways to improve writing in your classroom! This book contains thorough explanations on using mentor texts and provides extensive examples on teaching the 6+1 traits.
In this book, Culham does a fantastic job of explaining how to spot mentor texts and the importance of using them to model different writing skills. She aligns the mentor texts to the 6+1 traits and at times even adds small lessons to use with students. For example, she talks about The Black Bear Diner’s Story that she read unexpectedly in the restaurant's menu. The story of how the diner got started, touched her. She explains how teachers can use this story as a mentor text to inspire students to write a story about the history of a business in their town. Culham lists many other examples throughout her book to teach all the traits, from word choice to conventions.
The Writing Thief is a spectacular book with exemplary ideas and writing strategies! This book is perfect for those who are looking for ways to instruct and support students in becoming better writers.
In this book, Culham does a fantastic job of explaining how to spot mentor texts and the importance of using them to model different writing skills. She aligns the mentor texts to the 6+1 traits and at times even adds small lessons to use with students. For example, she talks about The Black Bear Diner’s Story that she read unexpectedly in the restaurant's menu. The story of how the diner got started, touched her. She explains how teachers can use this story as a mentor text to inspire students to write a story about the history of a business in their town. Culham lists many other examples throughout her book to teach all the traits, from word choice to conventions.
The Writing Thief is a spectacular book with exemplary ideas and writing strategies! This book is perfect for those who are looking for ways to instruct and support students in becoming better writers.
February 15, 2021
I started this book several years ago, but needed the snow day this week to finish it. The author explains the need for mentor text, and then over the course of 3 chapters dedicated to the 3 modes of writing (informational, narrative, and opinion) she shares some of her favorite mentor texts along with some teaching ideas. She is a strong advocate for student choice in writing. For teachers who want to have control of the topic, she recommends students responding to the mentor text or following the author’s style to add another argument, chapter, or example. I plan to use this book as a resource for mentor texts and try some of her teaching suggestions.
October 4, 2020
This book is used as a primary text for my undergrads in my Writing for Elementary School class that I teach. I feel like it gives sound pedagogy and strategies to teach writing using mentor text as well as teaching the 6+1 writing traits.
May 31, 2023
A good source for mentor texts for the writing classroom, if dated. I don’t use the traits & writing process as strictly as Culham, so the framework wasn’t super useful for me, but could be if you’re into that.
Some own voices texts referenced, but not many.
Some own voices texts referenced, but not many.
October 5, 2019
Love this book! It changed the way I thought about teaching writing to my students.
August 17, 2022
A fantastic resource for teaching writing. I have so many more ideas than I can use in one school year, but I’m so excited!!!
November 11, 2022
Not a good book. Maybe the idea can bring results, but not in this form.
April 7, 2023
This was an easy read with some good ideas I could use in my classroom.
July 7, 2016
I want to like this book more than I do. For starters, I disagree with Culham on what a mentor text is. To me, a mentor text is a text that you can return to again and again to learn many things from. You may read a text with students and talk about how the author revealed the character; later you might go back to look at strong verbs or use for literary devices or examine something else this text can teach. Culham has many, many resources, but many of these I would call touchstone texts, or texts that you can learn one thing from.
Culham offers ideas connected to each text and trait, however these are very general and all disconnected with one another. I much prefer Dorfman and Cappelli's Mentor Texts (disclaimer: I've met them and teach a mentor text course which uses their book). All their lessons are tried and true. One or both of them taught each lesson to students. Lessons are more focused and concrete, not a general idea for a large project as in the Writing Thief. Lessons are modeled on the gradual release of responsibility: I do, we do, you do. Students are also asked to reflect after each lesson in a meaningful way.
On a plus, I like the set up of this book, looking at the modes through the lens of the six-traits.
Culham offers ideas connected to each text and trait, however these are very general and all disconnected with one another. I much prefer Dorfman and Cappelli's Mentor Texts (disclaimer: I've met them and teach a mentor text course which uses their book). All their lessons are tried and true. One or both of them taught each lesson to students. Lessons are more focused and concrete, not a general idea for a large project as in the Writing Thief. Lessons are modeled on the gradual release of responsibility: I do, we do, you do. Students are also asked to reflect after each lesson in a meaningful way.
On a plus, I like the set up of this book, looking at the modes through the lens of the six-traits.
August 27, 2014
I enjoyed this book on using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing. The title reflects the same idea as Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist. The concept is that great writers steal from great works. Throughout the book, guest authors write about who and what have inspired them. Culham also provides many specific mentor titles for various kinds of writing traits within modes of writing. "By using mentor texts, the reader can virtually position him-or herself to sit beside the author and study how the text is constructed and how it communicates." Keep this book beside Lester Laminack's Cracking Open the Author's Craft, Ralph Fletcher's Craft Lessons, and Mentor Texts by Lynne R. Dorfman.
May 27, 2015
This was a book I had mixed feelings about way before I read page one. I have years of experience providing PD on The Traits, and have done extensive work over the past three years on the ELA Common Core State Standards. I questioned if the two could play well together. Ruth Culham does a wonderful job of highlighting how the traits and the Standards intersect. Teachers will find loads of ideas for using mentor texts in all three types of writing. I think any teachers who teach writing would do well to read this book. My only beef, and it is a big one, is with the editing. Culham has a bad habit of relying heavily on the word that. That the, that I, that writers, that teachers... Please, enough of that!
April 8, 2016
Despite the fact that I'm a high school teacher, I can totally see myself using the majority of these elementary-focused activities. Culham has really thought out the 6 Traits of Writing and has found good, interesting quality texts to match them. What's better, she provides suggestions for discussion questions and extension activities to get the students to really think about the examples and their purpose within the traits of writing. My book is also FULL of notes, marking things I want to do, adding additional resources that are on my secondary-radar, and starring quotes and important sentences. Totally worth my time.
August 16, 2014
Wow! As a resource teacher I don't teach writing, but I work with teachers who do. My original purpose for reading this was to get a "refresher" on writing instruction so I could more effectively assist my colleagues. I am definitely now prepared for that, but I gained so much more: A more thorough understanding of how to push students for better work, along with many, many examples of mentor texts and exactly how to use them. I have to give this a five-star rating because I couldn't put it down until I read to the end.
September 25, 2014
This book is a nice resource to have in our professional library, especially insofar as Culham offers a pretty current list of mentor texts along with lessons with which they might be productively matched. I was hoping, however, for something new or inspiring to push our writing instruction, and while the ideas in this book certainly reaffirm those that our writing department holds dear, I did not see much in this book to push us to a higher level of sophistication. Yes, we learn how to write by examining models of great writing. Yes yes yes!
June 5, 2016
I really enjoyed how Culham turned on the "well, duh!" Light in my head. I've been using mentor sentences and texts for two years, have used the 6 traits of writing even longer. I firmly agree that the best way to learn anything is to find someone who does it well and learn from them. Why should writing be any different? Why have I been attacking each of these things in isolation and not integrating them more fully?
This book is a very handy read and great resource for using mentor texts in the elementary classroom!
This book is a very handy read and great resource for using mentor texts in the elementary classroom!
August 12, 2014
This book offered practical ways to structure writing curriculum with many examples of informational, narrative, and argumentative writing from published works. I would have preferred solely practical help - so less theory - as well as more excerpts from chapter books. Although still applicable for the secondary classroom, the vast majority of excerpts came from picture books, making me think The Writing Thief would be better suited for an elementary teacher than a secondary teacher.
July 2, 2015
This was a fast read for summer idea gathering. Ruth Culham provides so many text examples to use with children to practice their own craft of writing. I love that she uses menus, signs, online reviews of video games as well as current and classic literature. She has laid the information out in a way to easily implement her strategies into my writing block. The strategies also are tuned to teaching students how to cite evidence from text in order to formulate their own written response.
July 1, 2014
This book was exactly what I needed - a reminder that what is worthy of rereading in a piece of text can become the content of a pretty amazing writing minilesson. I loved the list if mento texts and how to use them, and I loved reading about the traits and how to diagnose writing issues with kids.
January 2, 2015
This was a great read for elementary teachers. She gives lots of examples of mentor texts to use when teaching writing, why they should be used and the specific examples from each. I like how she included not only books, but fliers, posters, websites, reviews and more. I will go back and reference this many times!
June 5, 2015
This book came recommended from teachers who follow a reading / writing workshop approach in their classroom. I found this book very organized and helpful for K-8 teachers. I am not sure I would use many of the resources shared in a high school class (many are picture books) but I appreciated these examples to help me understand how to teach the skills.
May 15, 2016
Ruth Culham breaks down the 4 components to writing and then presents the reader with a starting list of mentor texts, as well as lesson suggestions. A good resource as I work to develop my writing instruction.
July 28, 2014
A sharp, critical focus on the craft of writing. Our summer TAR group read a chapter each week and discussed and reviewed the mentor texts cited. There are a lot of ideas to ponder and activities to share.
July 15, 2015
I absolutely loved the writing ideas in this book! It was very well written, and the strategies mentioned will definitely be worthwhile to implement in my reading and writing classes. Great professional development book!
April 16, 2015
Kind of the book i want to write! Lots of picture books and ideas for how to use them toteach writing. Ruth Culham, so the writing is effective, too.
June 20, 2014
Great book about teaching writing, with great texts to be used as mentor texts.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews