Entry #3 - Don't Underestimate the Power of Mentor Texts

When engaging in this week's readings, I couldn't help but think about my student teaching placement in a 2nd grade classroom. When I reflect on my time working with these students, Tompkins' (2012) concept of teaching learners to use "dollar words" immediately jumped out at me (p. 72). In this classroom, I can remember walking around the room, supporting students with using descriptive language and spelling these words correctly. But, as you can imagine, this was not the most effective way of teaching students the importance of word choice. 

Therefore, when I read Rickards and Hawes' (2006) lesson about using strong verbs, I couldn't help but put a really big star next to my annotations. In this lesson, as students were learning about verbs, they were encouraged to "...act out each action word as it was added to the chart" (Rickards & Hawes, 2006, p. 370). As I learned in my 2nd grade placement, students need movement breaks, so how neat is this minilesson! Not only does it teach students about descriptive words, but it gets them up and moving; as you can tell from my excitement, I immediately added this idea to my "teacher toolbox." 

Additionally, Tompkins' (2012) concept of teaching students about the conventions trait reminded me of an activity I loved doing with the 2nd grade students. Every morning when I would write the morning message, I would purposefully make mistakes in my capitalization and punctuation, as well as misspell words. For example, a sentence I may have written is, "today is FriYAY?" Then, after the morning meeting, students acted as detectives, identifying the mistakes I made. To take this one step further, they then had to explain why it was a mistake and how to fix it. 

However, after reading MacKay, Ricks, and Young (2017) lesson about using the mentor text, You Are (Not) Small, I remember having an 'aha' moment. I can visualize this book being used to further support students in understanding "how the text's font, style, and size can be manipulated to accentuate parts of their narratives" (MacKay et. al, 2017, p. 182). In the 2nd grade classroom, I can imagine this book being used to further support the conventions trait, especially in students' own writing.

On the other hand, although books are a great resource for introducing the writer's craft and creating a balanced literacy instruction, I believe they also play an essential role in creating a classroom community where all students are represented. Muhammad (2020) discusses the problem with the lack of diversity in books and the need for more culturally relevant texts. In the classroom, I will strive to have culturally responsive books that represent my students "identities, interests, experiences, desires, and future selves" (Muhammad, 2020, p. 146). Every student deserves to be able to see themselves represented in the classroom material and thus, I can't help but believe this is something all classrooms need more of. 

References 

MacKay, K.L., Ricks, P.H., & Young, T.A. (2017). Supporting young writers with award-

            winning books. The Reading Teacher, 71(2), 177-187.

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating Genius: An equity framework for culturally and 

            historically responsive literacy. New York, NY: Scholastic. 

Rickards, D. & Hawes, S. (2006). Connecting reading and writing through author’s 

            craft. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 370-373.