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Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts
How do you choose mentor texts for your students? How do you mine them for the craft lessons you want your students to learn?In Craft Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts , Stacey Shubitz, co-founder of the Two Writing Teachers website, usestwenty recently published picture books to createmore than 180 lessons to teach various craft moves that will help your students become better writers.Each of the 184 lessons in the book includes a publisher's summary, a rationale or explanation of the craft move demonstrated in the book, and a procedure that takes teachers and students back into the mentor text to deepen their understanding of the selected craft move. A step-by-step guide demonstrates how to analyze a picture book for multiple craft moves.Shubitzintroduces picture books as teaching tools and offers ways to integrate them into your curriculum and classroom discussions. She then shares different routines and classroom procedures designed to help students focus on their writing during the writer's workshop as well as focusing how teachers can prepare for small group instruction.Using picture books as mentor texts will help your students not only read as writers and write with joy but also become writers who can effectively communicate meaning, structure their writing, write with detail, and give their writing their own unique voice.
224 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2016
7 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Stacey Shubitz
5 books1 followerStacey Shubitz is a K-6 literacy consultant and former elementary teacher. She is the author of CRAFT MOVES and other professional books on writing workshop. Her forthcoming book, MAKE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM WORK FOR YOUR CHILD WITH DISABILITIES (Guilford Press, 2026), empowers parents to navigate the special education system.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 5, 2016
Author, Stacey Shubitz of Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts, brings picture books into lower and upper elementary classrooms to model mentor texts to “teach students how to read like writers” (p.41). In her book, Shubitz not only provides you with 184 lesson sets for her power craft moves, but she also explains her process of selecting power craft moves, provides sample class sessions, suggestions for a successful writer’s workshop, and how to manage your time effectively through small-groups. Often times, teachers know what they want, but do not know where to look or begin, just like our student writers. With the help of credible researchers and colleagues, Shubitz provides teachers with a guide of where to begin when creating powerful writers.
Shubitz mentions that the process of identifying a power craft move is best when working alongside colleagues and getting your librarian involved in the process. The task seems daunting, but with help, you become more confident. The picture book mentor texts that Shubitz provides is based on ten fiction and ten non-fiction texts. With these 20 books, she is able to include at least six power craft moves per book. These power craft moves are intended to teach students to identify the way an author writes and how writers can apply these techniques into their own stories to communicate meaning and engage their readers. The hope is that these books will serve as a “model for teaching craft moves for young writers, but then inspires you to find new mentor texts and learn from them together” (p.43).
Reading aloud is a powerful tool that allows classes to grow together as a community, readers, writers, and tackle emotions together. Shubitz recommends that you use books that you love and want to read again, and again. “The authors of texts revisited in multiple units of study also become our students’ guides to good writing” (p.19). This book allows teachers to realize that it is highly encouraged to utilize a book across multiple units of study, but being sure not to overuse them.
Need help determining power craft moves that you would like to teach in your classroom, but are having trouble knowing where to start? Well, look no further because with Craft Moves, you can get started in no time!
This book gave me multiple ideas for anchor charts, ie: anchor chart of lead and ending sentences in texts. You are also provided with a step-by-step process of how to read a book in order to analyze power craft moves. I plan to share this book with my fourth grade teammates and sit down during one of our planning days to identify mentor texts and the craft moves associated with it. I also plan to implement the mentor texts that are provided in my whole group lesson to reinforce the skills in small-groups. Ultimately, I’d like to incorporate a gradual release of responsibility to the students by incorporating power craft moves into my Daily Five stations. I envision students reading to self or someone and using sticky notes to record power craft moves. Students will better be able to understand these crafts as they can begin to analyze the craft in their own books that they are reading.
As mentioned above, many of us have ideas about what we want to teach; we just do not know where to begin. This book serves as an expert model to assist teachers in being able to identify power craft moves in their favorite texts. I’ve always been one who found a different book for each skill that I wanted to teach and this book opened my eyes to a whole new way to teach. Writing seems to be an area where many teachers struggle, but this book shows that modeling techniques from a variety of authors will allow students to read like writers. Once students are reading like writers, they will find their identity as a writer and apply the techniques of their favorite authors into their own writing. My favorite part of this book is that is teaches the “how” of writing. Students will be modeled how to implement techniques into their own writing and be able to evaluate the “how” in a variety of additional texts. I truly enjoyed this expert book as it provides me with the confidence to become a better writing teacher through the modeling of how to read like a writer. My hope from implementing mentor texts is that my students will become more motivated to write and be confident in their own voice as writers. I highly encourage this book for all elementary teachers, as it truly is a valuable resource.
Shubitz mentions that the process of identifying a power craft move is best when working alongside colleagues and getting your librarian involved in the process. The task seems daunting, but with help, you become more confident. The picture book mentor texts that Shubitz provides is based on ten fiction and ten non-fiction texts. With these 20 books, she is able to include at least six power craft moves per book. These power craft moves are intended to teach students to identify the way an author writes and how writers can apply these techniques into their own stories to communicate meaning and engage their readers. The hope is that these books will serve as a “model for teaching craft moves for young writers, but then inspires you to find new mentor texts and learn from them together” (p.43).
Reading aloud is a powerful tool that allows classes to grow together as a community, readers, writers, and tackle emotions together. Shubitz recommends that you use books that you love and want to read again, and again. “The authors of texts revisited in multiple units of study also become our students’ guides to good writing” (p.19). This book allows teachers to realize that it is highly encouraged to utilize a book across multiple units of study, but being sure not to overuse them.
Need help determining power craft moves that you would like to teach in your classroom, but are having trouble knowing where to start? Well, look no further because with Craft Moves, you can get started in no time!
This book gave me multiple ideas for anchor charts, ie: anchor chart of lead and ending sentences in texts. You are also provided with a step-by-step process of how to read a book in order to analyze power craft moves. I plan to share this book with my fourth grade teammates and sit down during one of our planning days to identify mentor texts and the craft moves associated with it. I also plan to implement the mentor texts that are provided in my whole group lesson to reinforce the skills in small-groups. Ultimately, I’d like to incorporate a gradual release of responsibility to the students by incorporating power craft moves into my Daily Five stations. I envision students reading to self or someone and using sticky notes to record power craft moves. Students will better be able to understand these crafts as they can begin to analyze the craft in their own books that they are reading.
As mentioned above, many of us have ideas about what we want to teach; we just do not know where to begin. This book serves as an expert model to assist teachers in being able to identify power craft moves in their favorite texts. I’ve always been one who found a different book for each skill that I wanted to teach and this book opened my eyes to a whole new way to teach. Writing seems to be an area where many teachers struggle, but this book shows that modeling techniques from a variety of authors will allow students to read like writers. Once students are reading like writers, they will find their identity as a writer and apply the techniques of their favorite authors into their own writing. My favorite part of this book is that is teaches the “how” of writing. Students will be modeled how to implement techniques into their own writing and be able to evaluate the “how” in a variety of additional texts. I truly enjoyed this expert book as it provides me with the confidence to become a better writing teacher through the modeling of how to read like a writer. My hope from implementing mentor texts is that my students will become more motivated to write and be confident in their own voice as writers. I highly encourage this book for all elementary teachers, as it truly is a valuable resource.
November 17, 2019
I don't usually like to count books that I had to read for class because they're required, consist of a lot of skimming and not reading, and I don't always have to finish them. But this one was referenced in my first class this semester and that made me really want to read it. So when it was required for the second class, I actually read it all. It's a simple read, extremely practical for actually teaching writing with mentor texts and easy to apply with different books. It made me want to read other books by this author and learn more about the teaching of writing.
January 26, 2018
for elementary, into early middle school
I just dipped into this book - would love to have time to immerse myself in it. It has great ideas for creating a little structure in your writing program. Also, has some great concrete examples of how to lead children through writing thinking. I think this would be great to use as a resource to dip into for writing lessons.
I just dipped into this book - would love to have time to immerse myself in it. It has great ideas for creating a little structure in your writing program. Also, has some great concrete examples of how to lead children through writing thinking. I think this would be great to use as a resource to dip into for writing lessons.
July 31, 2016
This is not the kind of book you sit, read, and add to your shelf. This is a book that will be on your desk, travel back and forth from school to home, be referred to as you plan, become a mentor as you become s better writing teacher.
November 6, 2016
Excellent book - loved that Stacey used just a FEW mentor texts and showed how to use them effectively. Definitely using the "power move" idea.
May 26, 2017
Anything worth teaching can be taught using a good picture book.
Truth.
Truth.
November 30, 2021
Excellent book with good advice & practical lesson sets
March 9, 2017
Foreword by Lester Laminack
How do you choose mentor texts for your students? How do you mine them for the craft lessons you want your students to learn?
In Craft Moves, Stacey Shubitz, cofounder of the Two Writing Teachers website, does the heavy lifting for you: using twenty recently published picture books, she creates more than 180 lessons to teach various craft moves that will help your students become better writers.
Stacey first discusses picture books as teaching tools and offers ways to integrate them into your curriculum, and classroom discussions. She also shares routines and classroom procedures to help students focus on their writing during the independent writing portion of writing workshop and helps teachers prepare for small-group instruction.
Each of the 184 lessons in the book includes a publisher’s summary, a rationale or explanation of the craft move demonstrated in the book, and a procedure that takes teachers and students back into the mentor text to deepen their understanding of the selected craft move. A step-by-step guide demonstrates how to analyze a picture book for multiple craft moves.
Using picture books as mentor texts will help your students not only read as writers and write with joy but also become writers who can effectively communicate meaning, structure their writing, write with detail, and give their writing their own unique voice.
How do you choose mentor texts for your students? How do you mine them for the craft lessons you want your students to learn?
In Craft Moves, Stacey Shubitz, cofounder of the Two Writing Teachers website, does the heavy lifting for you: using twenty recently published picture books, she creates more than 180 lessons to teach various craft moves that will help your students become better writers.
Stacey first discusses picture books as teaching tools and offers ways to integrate them into your curriculum, and classroom discussions. She also shares routines and classroom procedures to help students focus on their writing during the independent writing portion of writing workshop and helps teachers prepare for small-group instruction.
Each of the 184 lessons in the book includes a publisher’s summary, a rationale or explanation of the craft move demonstrated in the book, and a procedure that takes teachers and students back into the mentor text to deepen their understanding of the selected craft move. A step-by-step guide demonstrates how to analyze a picture book for multiple craft moves.
Using picture books as mentor texts will help your students not only read as writers and write with joy but also become writers who can effectively communicate meaning, structure their writing, write with detail, and give their writing their own unique voice.
November 13, 2017
wowie-zowie. If you want to see how one text can serve as a mentor text to illuminate several craft moves, this book is for you. Well articulated examples for fiction and non-fiction are included, but those who are passionate about picture books and have their own best-loved titles will be inspired to look at them through the lens Stacey Shubitz explains so well.
July 13, 2016
I will certainly be using the resources in this book in my classroom.
July 24, 2017
Energizes teachers to teach writing! A must read...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews