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Writing with Mentors: How to Reach Every Writer in the Room Using Current, Engaging Mentor Texts
"Writing With Mentors is one of the best books I've read on harnessing the power of mentor texts to spur authentic student writing." --Kelly Gallagher, author of Write Like This
"Writing With Mentors has transformed the way I think about using exemplar pieces." --Christopher Lehman, coauthor of Falling in Love with Close Reading
"I am certain Don [Graves] would have celebrated these wise, kind, and fearless advocates for young writers." --Penny Kittle, author of Write Beside Them
In Writing with Mentors, high school teachers Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell prove that the key to cultivating productive, resourceful writers-writers who can see value and purpose for writing beyond school-is using dynamic, hot-off-the-press mentor texts. In this practical guide, they provide savvy strategies for:
--finding and storing fresh new mentor texts, from trusted traditional sources to the social mediums of the day --grouping mentor texts in clusters that show a diverse range of topics, styles, and approaches --teaching with lessons that demonstrate the enormous potential of mentor texts at every stage of the writing process.
In chapters that follow the scaffolded instruction Allison and Rebekah use in their own classrooms, you'll discover how using mentor texts can unfold across the year, from inspiration and planning to drafting, revising, and "going public" in final publication. Along the way, you'll find yourself reaching every writer in the room, whatever their needs. "Our hope in this book," they write, "is to show you a way mentors can help you teach anything you need or want to teach in writing. A way that is grounded in the work of real writers and the real reading you do every day. A way that is sustainable and fresh, and will serve your students long after they leave your classroom."
"Writing With Mentors has transformed the way I think about using exemplar pieces." --Christopher Lehman, coauthor of Falling in Love with Close Reading
"I am certain Don [Graves] would have celebrated these wise, kind, and fearless advocates for young writers." --Penny Kittle, author of Write Beside Them
In Writing with Mentors, high school teachers Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell prove that the key to cultivating productive, resourceful writers-writers who can see value and purpose for writing beyond school-is using dynamic, hot-off-the-press mentor texts. In this practical guide, they provide savvy strategies for:
--finding and storing fresh new mentor texts, from trusted traditional sources to the social mediums of the day --grouping mentor texts in clusters that show a diverse range of topics, styles, and approaches --teaching with lessons that demonstrate the enormous potential of mentor texts at every stage of the writing process.
In chapters that follow the scaffolded instruction Allison and Rebekah use in their own classrooms, you'll discover how using mentor texts can unfold across the year, from inspiration and planning to drafting, revising, and "going public" in final publication. Along the way, you'll find yourself reaching every writer in the room, whatever their needs. "Our hope in this book," they write, "is to show you a way mentors can help you teach anything you need or want to teach in writing. A way that is grounded in the work of real writers and the real reading you do every day. A way that is sustainable and fresh, and will serve your students long after they leave your classroom."
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2015
16 people are currently reading
335 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
October 24, 2015
I have anxiously awaited the release of this book, so when it arrived, I immediately dropped everything and jumped right into it. I finished reading this book several days ago, and it did not disappoint. This book is PACKED with practical ideas and ready-to-use writing models suitable for a range of ages and purposes. I highly recommend this text to Language Arts teachers in grades 6-12.
April 17, 2016
If there's one thing I can do more often, it's put mentor texts in front of students. Our writing stands on the shoulders of the writers we read and study. Like with life, out writing gets better when we have mentors by our side.
August 22, 2018
This book is founded on a premise I've come to embrace: "if students are simply checking off requirements from a predetermined process defined by someone else, there is no hope they will become the purposeful, independent writers we want them to be" (7). Our goal as writing teachers should be to teach students to think like writers--to make deliberate choices. This book shows teachers how it's done. I myself am guilty of well-intentioned, but harmful practices like giving students a writing template or outline and asking them to simply fill in the blanks. I did this largely because I wasn't sure what else to do.
Marchetti and O'Dell provide concrete ways to give students choice along with structure. After reading their book, I would fundamentally shift the way I run my writing classroom by using writer's notebooks every day and making mentor text immersion a key part of every writing study. This book does what every education book should do: makes an impassioned argument for what we need to change in writing instruction along with practical ways to do it (and examples! and mentor texts!).
I know some teachers will be uncomfortable with their proposal, asking "but don't students need to know the rules in order to break the rules?" I believe Marchetti and O'Dell would ask, "whose rules?" Because if you look at actual writing that actual writers produce for actual readers, no one follows the artificial rules of the high school English classroom. Marchetti and O'Dell give us permission to abandon those artificially constructed, self-imposed (and harmful) handcuff and embrace writing that will awaken students to the possibilities of composition.
In short, read this book.
Marchetti and O'Dell provide concrete ways to give students choice along with structure. After reading their book, I would fundamentally shift the way I run my writing classroom by using writer's notebooks every day and making mentor text immersion a key part of every writing study. This book does what every education book should do: makes an impassioned argument for what we need to change in writing instruction along with practical ways to do it (and examples! and mentor texts!).
I know some teachers will be uncomfortable with their proposal, asking "but don't students need to know the rules in order to break the rules?" I believe Marchetti and O'Dell would ask, "whose rules?" Because if you look at actual writing that actual writers produce for actual readers, no one follows the artificial rules of the high school English classroom. Marchetti and O'Dell give us permission to abandon those artificially constructed, self-imposed (and harmful) handcuff and embrace writing that will awaken students to the possibilities of composition.
In short, read this book.
Read
October 2, 2019If I was a high school teacher, I would definitely read this book and think about how to use mentor texts in my classroom. As a middle school teacher, I still found A LOT of important work here - strategies for working with writers and so many links to mentor texts. I'm so glad that this is a choice for teachers in our upcoming professional development work.
January 20, 2023
I’ve been reading this book since December, and it is dog-eared, highlighted, annotated, and has stickies poking out the side. It has already changed my teaching.
August 18, 2018
Probably one of the best books about teaching writing I’ve ever read. They were so thorough from brainstorming to publishing. I don’t think I could run an entire course the way they do unless the course is called Composition or Writing. All their units are centered around a writing genre or a writing skill. But I still felt like there were enough tips on how to use mentor texts in short, daily activities through the notebook time activity that I could easily incorporate. And I felt like the book gave me enough knowledge and resources to plan how to teach a piece of process writing and not rely on the traditional, stale 5-paragraph model. The traditional 5-paragraph essay still has its place but reading the book gives you enough confidence to try varied and exciting real-world writing styles.
July 12, 2018
Finally--a practical guide for teachers wanting to use mentor texts in the classroom! Those of us who have tried it on our own have fumbled around, experiencing successes by accident and some epic fails. But Marchetti and O'Dell lay it all out, from the how and where to collect mentor text sets to how to use them to inspire and guide students.
And it's not one of those books where after you've read you say, "Well sure! I could do that with only 25 students a day too." They open the door to their classrooms so we can see the successes and failures. The whole big wonderful mess that is teaching.
Many ah-ha moments for this reader!
TONS of resources too.
Read it!
And it's not one of those books where after you've read you say, "Well sure! I could do that with only 25 students a day too." They open the door to their classrooms so we can see the successes and failures. The whole big wonderful mess that is teaching.
Many ah-ha moments for this reader!
TONS of resources too.
Read it!
March 21, 2016
Inspiring and refreshing. The authors bring to life how you can meet the Common Core (think "relevant evidence" and "logical claims") through teaching with authentic purposes for writing with mentor texts to guide students along the way. Included are lots of concrete classroom examples, great questions to pose as students explore and carefully study mentor texts, examples of students' writing, and examples of mentor texts. This could easily be used at the middle school level as well.
June 24, 2016
Phenomenal book! Writing With Mentors is a book written by teachers for teachers. The contents are practical, eye-opening, and ready to use. This is going to revolutionize my teaching of writing. Everything you need to know related to using mentor texts in class, using writer's notebooks, and incorporating the teaching of writing skills is right here. So many resources are included as well as QR Code links to every piece of writing (save for novels) which the authors mention.
August 29, 2016
I may have only read one PD book this summer, but I'm SO glad it was this one! I have so many wonderful ideas for the new school year, and a great list of mentor texts to get started with (some of my own and some from the book). Authors Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell do a wonderful job reminding the reader of the importance of mentor texts in our planning.
July 30, 2016
I have read a lot about writing workshops but not many that were geared for high school--this book is a great find!! I plan to refine current practices in writing based on this book--have already incorporated some of it into my plans and it's July. LOVE IT.
August 18, 2016
This is such a wonderful teaching resource for all ELA teachers, but more importantly, for anyone who wants to be a writer. I wrote a published review of this book for the Utah English Journal that I'll be happy to post once it is published in late October.
September 13, 2016
Marchetti and O'Dell have written a book that is so brilliantly practical that a teacher could jump in to their approach to mentor texts almost as soon as he/she begins the book. The fact that they provide specific links to the mentor texts is pretty much the most amazing feature ever. Love it.
October 2, 2015
All the stuff you need--and some you didn't know you needed--in one spot.
December 29, 2015
I'm so grateful to have my friend Rebekah as my mentor! This is a great book for writing teachers and one that I will continue to use as a resource for a long time to come.
Read
July 26, 2021Very good ideas in here, and the applications and examples are easy to adapt. A good and thoughtful dialogue to enter in to!
October 28, 2017
This book played an integral roll in helping me reshape my Freshman writing curriculum. A worthwhile purchase for sure.
January 30, 2016
In their remarkable new book
Writing with Mentors: How to Reach Every Writer in the Room Using Current, Engaging Mentor Texts
(Heinemann 2015), Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell show how they use mentor texts as the foundation for their writing classes and provide detailed guidance on how other teachers can do the same.
Most writing teachers know that students learn well from mentor texts—relatively short pieces or passages that demonstrate a certain principle under consideration. We may trot out an occasional editorial or classic text to make some rhetorical point, but frequently the modeling potential of what is available to us is left un-mined. Reasons for that sporadic approach can vary, but student writers greatly benefit when they study how other writers practice their craft and solve writer-ly problems.
One of the most impressive aspects of Writing with Mentors is how thoroughly they treat the topic of working with mentor texts—from finding the texts, to planning a course, to using them for whole-class lessons, small group processing, and individual instruction. Several times during my reading, I thought “Yes, but what about …,” only to have my questions anticipated and addressed.
Although the authors give readers the tools to develop their own banks of mentor texts, Writing with Mentors provides QR codes linking to every one of the plentiful examples mentioned in the book.
This book is much more than a how-to guide. It’s an example of dynamic teachers at work. Marchetti and O’Dell are clearly passionate professionals, eager to search for the best materials and the best delivery methods. But that’s just the start. They also illuminate their collaborative and reflective practices that culminated in such a fine book.
The authors’ expertise in collaboration and reflection is passed on to their students. I’ve struggled to find ways to effectively use small groups in writing classes. Unless the group members are relatively accomplished or relatively equal in ability, the social dynamics of the groupings sometimes overwhelm the writing concerns, at least in my class. Marchetti and O’Dell have solved this by using mentor texts as the basis of grouping. Group members discuss how the mentor texts relate to their own work rather than directly commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of each other’s writing. That, my friends, is brilliant.
Another big take-away for me was how the authors use mentor texts when doing the important work of conferring with students. They say, “It’s like having a third writer present, an expert writer whose knowledge we draw on as we work through various writing situations.”
Students in these classes not only learn to write in many genres, but they are also led to reflect on their reading, their writing, and themselves. All of this is geared toward helping students become independent, courageous, and creative. Those are worthwhile qualities for writers, sure, but they are also valuable for living a rich life.
That big picture is always in focus for these authors: “Remember, students won’t be in school forever, so they need to see purposes for writing beyond school.”
Writing with Mentors is a great choice for self-guided professional development in English/Language Arts, and it is also an excellent choice for group study.
Most writing teachers know that students learn well from mentor texts—relatively short pieces or passages that demonstrate a certain principle under consideration. We may trot out an occasional editorial or classic text to make some rhetorical point, but frequently the modeling potential of what is available to us is left un-mined. Reasons for that sporadic approach can vary, but student writers greatly benefit when they study how other writers practice their craft and solve writer-ly problems.
One of the most impressive aspects of Writing with Mentors is how thoroughly they treat the topic of working with mentor texts—from finding the texts, to planning a course, to using them for whole-class lessons, small group processing, and individual instruction. Several times during my reading, I thought “Yes, but what about …,” only to have my questions anticipated and addressed.
Although the authors give readers the tools to develop their own banks of mentor texts, Writing with Mentors provides QR codes linking to every one of the plentiful examples mentioned in the book.
This book is much more than a how-to guide. It’s an example of dynamic teachers at work. Marchetti and O’Dell are clearly passionate professionals, eager to search for the best materials and the best delivery methods. But that’s just the start. They also illuminate their collaborative and reflective practices that culminated in such a fine book.
The authors’ expertise in collaboration and reflection is passed on to their students. I’ve struggled to find ways to effectively use small groups in writing classes. Unless the group members are relatively accomplished or relatively equal in ability, the social dynamics of the groupings sometimes overwhelm the writing concerns, at least in my class. Marchetti and O’Dell have solved this by using mentor texts as the basis of grouping. Group members discuss how the mentor texts relate to their own work rather than directly commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of each other’s writing. That, my friends, is brilliant.
Another big take-away for me was how the authors use mentor texts when doing the important work of conferring with students. They say, “It’s like having a third writer present, an expert writer whose knowledge we draw on as we work through various writing situations.”
Students in these classes not only learn to write in many genres, but they are also led to reflect on their reading, their writing, and themselves. All of this is geared toward helping students become independent, courageous, and creative. Those are worthwhile qualities for writers, sure, but they are also valuable for living a rich life.
That big picture is always in focus for these authors: “Remember, students won’t be in school forever, so they need to see purposes for writing beyond school.”
Writing with Mentors is a great choice for self-guided professional development in English/Language Arts, and it is also an excellent choice for group study.
March 1, 2017
If you want to use mentor texts in your English classroom, you NEED this book. The authors include amazing resources, ideas, lesson models, and more. It's a book you can get through quickly but you'll end it with so much gained.
December 22, 2015
Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell bring valuable insights and ideas into the writing workshop. I first learned of their work at NCTE in 2014. They presented on using mentor texts in what they called Technique Study. I knew immediately their work would add value to my own, and the teachers I train and the students I teach would benefit.
Writing with Mentors: How to Reach Every Writer in the Room Using Current, Engaging Mentor Text begins with this bold claim: “Our hope in this book is to show you a way mentors can help you teach anything you need or want to teach in writing. A way that will stimulate both you and your students, a way that naturally differentiates instruction for our students while preserving your time and energy. A way that is sustainable and fresh and will serve your students well long after they leave your classroom.” Marchetti and O’Dell show all that and more. They teach us to go beyond using mentor texts to introduce a new genre to our writers or to illustrate a specific skill.
“Mentor texts enable student writers to become connected to the dynamic world of professional writers,” writes Marchetti and O’Dell, and then they go on to illustrate how using mentors enables independence as students read, study, and find favorite writers they may choose to emulate in their own writing. The book explains with easy to read chapters how to craft writing lessons that allow for creativity and have the potential to reach every writer in the room. With plenty of step-by-step instructions, sample student writing, and QR codes that lead to exemplary mentors, Allison and Rachel provide valuable plans, tools, and texts for all teachers of writing at any grade level.
Any teacher who lacks the confidence to teach writing and any writing teacher who wants to sharpen his practice should read this book. All students can become effective writers when we give them the tools that give them the courage to start where they are and learn as they go. Writing with Mentors gives teachers the tools and the courage to do just that.
Writing with Mentors: How to Reach Every Writer in the Room Using Current, Engaging Mentor Text begins with this bold claim: “Our hope in this book is to show you a way mentors can help you teach anything you need or want to teach in writing. A way that will stimulate both you and your students, a way that naturally differentiates instruction for our students while preserving your time and energy. A way that is sustainable and fresh and will serve your students well long after they leave your classroom.” Marchetti and O’Dell show all that and more. They teach us to go beyond using mentor texts to introduce a new genre to our writers or to illustrate a specific skill.
“Mentor texts enable student writers to become connected to the dynamic world of professional writers,” writes Marchetti and O’Dell, and then they go on to illustrate how using mentors enables independence as students read, study, and find favorite writers they may choose to emulate in their own writing. The book explains with easy to read chapters how to craft writing lessons that allow for creativity and have the potential to reach every writer in the room. With plenty of step-by-step instructions, sample student writing, and QR codes that lead to exemplary mentors, Allison and Rachel provide valuable plans, tools, and texts for all teachers of writing at any grade level.
Any teacher who lacks the confidence to teach writing and any writing teacher who wants to sharpen his practice should read this book. All students can become effective writers when we give them the tools that give them the courage to start where they are and learn as they go. Writing with Mentors gives teachers the tools and the courage to do just that.
February 20, 2016
Picked this up as a little bit of vacation PD because I'm looking for more ways into teaching writing and revising.
The individual mentor texts mentioned are, by and large, not appropriate in content or reading level for my students, and I'd have to think a little carefully about how to introduce (academically and culturally) some of the structures like Notebook Time. While I appreciate the mentor texts included, it's just as important to point out -- as the authors do -- that many of these texts have a short shelf life, so by the time you are reading through these mentor-mentor texts, their appeal will have waned.
Like many PD books, the authors' attempts at teaching transparency only serve to highlight just how much work goes on silently and behind the scenes. One of my biggest takeaways here was in a whisper from the authors: "If you want to teach the way we do, get ready to become obsessive about cultivating and reading a variety of texts and thinking deeply about each of those text's nuances so when one of your 100 students is interested in improving ONE small technique, you can pinpoint an example of that technique 'in the wild.'" Ack. Moar work, on top of the hundreds of children's books I'm already committing myself to reading every year so I can know them and recommend them.
However, this book gave me plenty to think about, including:
- the importance of introducing mentor texts at the beginning of a genre study and the importance of keeping the texts contemporary and refreshing them each year
- that teaching students to "read like writers" is a skill of its own
- instead of using daily measures of accountability in writers' workshop, using periodic measures of accountability in the form of process reflections. (their words: "checkpoints.") This way, we can open up the writers' workshop to be a little more organic while still keeping an eye on the class as a whole. Honestly I might photocopy pgs. 132-133 from this book and give it to everybody in my department at our next meeting.
The individual mentor texts mentioned are, by and large, not appropriate in content or reading level for my students, and I'd have to think a little carefully about how to introduce (academically and culturally) some of the structures like Notebook Time. While I appreciate the mentor texts included, it's just as important to point out -- as the authors do -- that many of these texts have a short shelf life, so by the time you are reading through these mentor-mentor texts, their appeal will have waned.
Like many PD books, the authors' attempts at teaching transparency only serve to highlight just how much work goes on silently and behind the scenes. One of my biggest takeaways here was in a whisper from the authors: "If you want to teach the way we do, get ready to become obsessive about cultivating and reading a variety of texts and thinking deeply about each of those text's nuances so when one of your 100 students is interested in improving ONE small technique, you can pinpoint an example of that technique 'in the wild.'" Ack. Moar work, on top of the hundreds of children's books I'm already committing myself to reading every year so I can know them and recommend them.
However, this book gave me plenty to think about, including:
- the importance of introducing mentor texts at the beginning of a genre study and the importance of keeping the texts contemporary and refreshing them each year
- that teaching students to "read like writers" is a skill of its own
- instead of using daily measures of accountability in writers' workshop, using periodic measures of accountability in the form of process reflections. (their words: "checkpoints.") This way, we can open up the writers' workshop to be a little more organic while still keeping an eye on the class as a whole. Honestly I might photocopy pgs. 132-133 from this book and give it to everybody in my department at our next meeting.
September 11, 2017
A must read for all teachers of writing!
June 9, 2016
I love how this book really values teachers' expertise and professionalism. The authors know you know your students and teaching context best. But they offer some excellent ways to integrate mentor texts at every step of the process in a writing workshop classroom. I have used mentor texts as a piece of my writing instruction, but now I'll use them better and as a more central component of my instructional pedagogy. And I love the emphasis here on showing students how to seek out mentor texts on their own--a life skill for writers to be able to succeed for any writing purpose for any audience. This book is well worth your time!
January 30, 2016
I really liked this common sense approach to teaching writing in a way that honors students' interests and that will give them the tools to continue to be writers beyond high school. Teaching writing is something I've always struggled with, and I'm going to implement this approach in my classroom this semester. I just wish there was a chapter about grading / assessment ideas - I wonder how the authors do this while still giving kids freedom to choose topics, genre, etc.
March 24, 2016
I absolutely loved this book! I read it for a book group for the Central Utah Writing Project, and I am so excited to try this out in my classroom. I am going to start looking for mentor texts now, and even though it is near the end of the year, I will be able to apply some of this before my seniors graduate. I wish I had read it last summer so I could have used it all year long. It really makes me look forward to teaching writing and using mentor texts in the future.
December 29, 2015
I've read this book twice over the last few months. The second time through I took notes. I've used mentor texts before, but never in such a systematic way. This is a whole new way of envisioning writing instruction, but one that gives students a path to independence. Practical and full of possible mentor texts--love this book and their blog.
March 23, 2016
This book was excellent. I've seen most of the ideas presented in the book, but they have never with such a clear how-to element. Which is weird, because Penny Kittle and Katie Wood Ray were both really practical in their books, but after reading this book I feel like I have a clearer vision for how to making mentor texts work in my class. I've got lots of ideas.
September 3, 2018
Still processing all the wisdom in this one. From the educators of movingwriters - comes a phenomenal text aobut learning from mentors and restructuring class to position mentor text writers as the expert.
Already changing the way I teach this year. And one I will be returning to again and again!
Already changing the way I teach this year. And one I will be returning to again and again!
July 3, 2016
I've dabbled with mentor texts, but now I have a better grasp on an implementation sequence and revelation of purpose. This book is inspiring and the methods it promotes mesh well with Penny Kittle's.
September 5, 2016
A wonderful book that pulls back the curtain on helping students move forward in their writing through the use of profession mentor texts. This is by far the best book on the subject. Lots of resources and links to texts are provided.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews