Micro Mentor Texts: Using Short Passages from Great Books to Teach Writer’s Craft

by Penny Kittle

At a time when students’ attention is being pulled in many directions, writing expert Penny Kittle shows us the power of helping them to focus and communicate clearly. She does that through the study of “micro mentor texts”— excerpts from acclaimed books—and the decisions that authors make to craft those texts so they deeply engage readers. Her book includes dozens of short texts and accompanying mini-lessons—as well as many practice opportunities for students and demonstration videos for you.

Genres: Teaching, Education

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 7, 2022

About the author

Penny Kittle teaches writers at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She is the author of Micro Mentor Texts (2022), 4 Essential Studies &180 Days (with Kelly Gallagher), Book Love (2013), Write Beside Them (2008), The Greatest Catch: a life in teaching (2005), and Public Teaching: one kid at a time (2003); she co-authored Inside Writing (2005) with Donald Graves and edited a collection of Graves' work with Tom Newkirk, Children Want to Write. She presents at writing conferences throughout the United States and Canada and sometimes much farther.

But if you want the real story… she dances and sings along to really loud music in her car; she just ate all of the M&M’s out of her trail mix; and she is the first one to keel over when they do those balancing moves in Pilates.