March
16
March
16
How to Use Mentor Text
Hey teacher,
As teachers, we are always looking for a one-stop resource to teach multiple concepts. I’ve found that using a mentor text provides this opportunity in a fun and purposeful way!
Why is a mentor text so useful? It allows students to notice, practice, or apply a certain skill or strategy while using a book. Most of the time it’s a picture book, but not necessarily.
When using a mentor text, it’s important to decide what skill(s) you want students to focus on. I wouldn’t necessarily teach multiple skills in one lesson, but instead use the same text throughout a week or two while teaching whatever concepts I wanted to teach. For example, your focus skill in a nonfiction text could be main idea.
I usually follow the same process regardless of whether the text is narrative or expository, but here’s some special tips for using mentor texts with an informational focus! The gradual release model is a great way to ensure kids get the support and the practice they need!
- Read the text without interruption. Informational texts can be lengthy, so you may need to read it in sections, or only use one part. During the first read, don’t analyze or dissect the text. Allow students to read it for enjoyment. There is much to learn from nonfiction texts, after all.
- Next, explain or describe the skill you are wanting students to notice. Reread the section you want to use as your focus. Model the strategy of finding the main idea. Let them hear your thinking out loud.
- Then I’d have students work in partners or groups, while finding the main idea of another section. Always monitor and provide guidance as necessary. Listen to their thinking and clear up any misconceptions.
- I’d finally have students work on finding main idea independently using a different text. Provide feedback and continue to help students that are struggling.
If you’d like to see another example of how to use a mentor text in your classroom, you can read more on this blog post.
Needing a little more support with nonfiction texts? This blog post has some great information as well as some FREE documents for you to use in your classroom.
Happy teaching!
Chrissy Beltran
February
19
Grammar Mentor Sentences-Interactive Notebook
Hey Teacher,
When I first became a 4th grade writing teacher, I admit I was somewhat clueless on how to best teach all things writing.
I taught grammar from error, putting up passages that required kids to correct the errors…but it was always the same kids who noticed what was wrong with the passage, and the others weren’t getting the direct instruction they needed. They relied on whether something “sounded right” and you know a lot of kids don’t have access to that kind of oral language!
It wasn’t until I began implementing mentor sentences into my English language arts block, that I really understood how language worked.
While yes, I knew all about parts of speech and types of sentences, I had always taught reading and writing in isolation. It wasn’t until I realized how writing and reading were interconnected that the lightbulb went off. I mean, you can’t have a good book without good writing, and you can’t be a good writer without reading.
Mentor sentences changed everything about my grammar instruction because they model for students what a well-written sentence should look like and helped them apply grammar skills to create them.
Using Mentor Sentences
Every week, students got a new sentence, which we dissected daily. Each day they had something new to do using the same sentence.
- Monday: Notebook activity to dissect the sentence
- Tuesday: Grammar hunt table
- Wednesday: Apply the same skill to new sentences
- Thursday: Manipulate the sentence
- Friday: Create your own sentence; Hunt for a similar sentence in your book; Weekly quiz
Visit my my blog post about mentor sentences. It gives a more detailed explanation of each day of the week that will get you started!
Pros to using mentor sentences with your students.
- Every day you use the same sentence but focus on a different skill.
- Use the book students are reading, could be their own book, shared reading book, or your modeled reading book, to find similar type of sentences. (Connecting reading and writing!)
- If you use it weekly, it becomes a habit, and students can eventually do it on their own in a station/center.
- Since students are using color pencils or markers, it makes it fun for them.
- Students begin to mimic the sentence in their writing and writing improves.
Wondering which mentor sentences resource to start with? Try the Fourth Grade Mentor Sentences for Grammar. This resource builds the foundation of what will be expected throughout the other mentor sentences resources. And even though it says fourth grade, I have used this resource with third graders and have had great success!
Happy Teaching!
Chrissy Beltran
February
17
Reading Rockets Reading Resource
January
29
What’s the Deal with Round-Robin
Uh-oh. Am I totally opening a can of worms right now?
Round-robin is a practice that is probably as American as apple pie. In case you haven’t heard the term, round-robin means everyone has a copy of the text. You choose students to take turns reading aloud. When one student finished reading aloud, maybe you stop him or her and have a teaching point or a conversation. Then you move to the next student. Sometimes this happens during guided reading. Sometimes teachers use this as a whole-class reading strategy. They may call on students randomly, move in a predictable pattern, or ask students to “popcorn read”, where a student reads a piece, stops wherever they want, and then calls on the next student to read.
Here’s the thing: research shows that round robin is not the most effective way to grow readers.
Here’s why:
1. Only one student is doing the reading at any time, rather than all of your students.
2. Round-robin means that students are reading aloud, which some people like because they feel like it’s good for fluency. The issue is that your students aren’t the best model of fluency in the classroom. You are.
3. When one student is reading, the others might be “following along”, but are they thinking, comprehending and reacting, or are they just desperately trying to keep track in case they’re next? Or, if you move in a predictable pattern, they are probably counting out the paragraphs until they figure out which part is going to be theirs. Then they’re practicing it in their heads, over and over. How do I know this? Because I used to do that.
4. Studies show that, when kids read in round-robin fashion, they are actually doing far less reading than by using other methods.
5. Studies also show that round-robin encourages a few bad habits: teachers interrupting to tell students what the word is when they’re struggling, which results in students interrupting other students to tell them words they are having trouble with.
6. Round-robin puts teachers and students in a tough spot. Do you call on the struggling reader to read aloud? If you do, you’re asking them to struggle in front of everyone, which is very hard on self-esteem. If you don’t, the other kids notice that you don’t, and decide that student is a “bad reader”. That student does, too. (They probably already feel that way, but this confirms it.)
Am I telling you you’re doing it all wrong? No! But when we learn something new, we should apply that to our teaching, right? So then what do we do instead of round-robin?
Tomorrow, I’m going to share an alternative to round-robin reading that you can use during guided reading to make sure that each child is reading and thinking.
It’s a great method. The other day I modeled it with a third grade teacher and she said, “Oh my gosh. My kids got so much more out of this lesson than they do when I use round-robin!” So I promise you it works.
Happy teaching!
Chrissy
January
26
Guided Reading vs. Small Group Intervention
I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently. “I realized that what I was doing was more of a small-group intervention rather than guided reading,” she said. (We talk about really interesting stuff, as you can see. We’re the cool kids.)
“What were you doing?” I asked.
“I was taking whatever skill or strategy we had learned whole-group and I was working with a group of kids at a lower level to teach that same thing. I wasn’t paying attention to what they needed; I was just teaching the same lesson in a different way.”
Wow – what a reflective thing to say!
I think this is a common trap to fall into. We have kids who struggled with the whole-group lesson, so we pull them aside to reteach and remediate. But, as my friend noted, this is more of a small group intervention rather than guided reading.
So what’s the difference?
Small Group Intervention means that you’re reteaching or reviewing a skill that you’re currently teaching the whole class. You might use grade level materials or lower level materials, but it doesn’t reflect what students need. Students might be grouped carefully or not so much. The lesson might be targeted for those kids, or not so much. (This doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing to do. It has its place and purpose.)
Guided Reading is working with a group of kids who have demonstrated a need for a specific skill or strategy, at an instructional level. That’s important. If you pull out the same text and the same lesson plan for all your groups, while that’s a great time-saver, it’s not likely that it’s actually addressing the needs that those groups have, and therefore, not considered “guided reading”. That would be small group intervention, instead.
Working with kids well below grade level on visualizing might be exactly what that group needs at that time. But working with a group well above grade level on visualizing may or may not be what they need.
Guided Reading requires that you know a lot about your readers: what level they’re on (different in different genres), which skills and strategies they already have, and which ones they need to move up, and their interests, too.
Check out this post from the Guided Reading Series at Buzzing with Ms. B!
It’s all about getting to know your readers and it’s a great place to start!
Happy Teaching!
Chrissy Beltran