Mentor Text Reading Activities & Writing Prompts for Volume 2: Better Than Basal

Description

Why is this better than a basal? Because YOU get to choose the order and even the skills you want to cover with each book! A GOOD mentor text will provide opportunities to teach or review a variety of skills, not the ONE the teacher manual says you have to teach.

This product is JAM-PACKED with Common Core aligned lesson ideas, activities, graphic organizers, and writing prompts for 30 of your favorite mentor texts to use in grades 3-5! (See the complete list below.) With over 100 graphic organizers WITH answer keys, you’ll be set for the year (and years after that, too)! It also includes the generic versions of the graphic organizers so you can use them with any book!

★ Activities are also provided as links to Google Slides for Digital Learning! ★

Several of my followers who use my Volume 2 Mentor Sentence Units asked how I use those books in reading and writing. Because of those requests, this product was born! (You do not have to use Mentor Sentences to use these texts in your classroom…)

Not familiar with mentor sentences? Read all about them here!

You might also be interested in the Volume 2 Vivid Vocabulary Companion Bundle: includes vocabulary activities to use the words IN CONTEXT from the same books in all the mentor sentence sets.

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WHAT’S INCLUDED?
**Please LOOK AT THE PREVIEW to see all that is included!**
Activities cover skills such as:
Using evidence to describe, infer, and draw conclusions
Summarizing
Identifying and supporting theme
Identifying and supporting character traits
Explaining figurative language
Identifying vivid language
Visualizing
Supporting opinions
Comparing characters
Comparing texts to media and other texts
Defining words using context clues
…and more!

There is also a writing prompt for every book that ties to the theme, idea, or topic of the book. Get this free “At-A-Glance” download to see the skills covered for all 40 books in Volume 2!

**There are 30 books in this set, and 10 NONFICTION books in the Nonfiction Reading and Writing Mini-Unit for Informational Texts**

Activities are for the following books:
-The Golden Rule By Ilene Cooper
-The Name Jar By Yangsook Choi
-Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun By Maria Dismondy
-When Lightning Comes in a Jar By Patricia Polacco
-Firefly Mountain By Patricia Thomas
-14 Cows For America By Carmen Agra Deedy
-Those Shoes By Maribeth Boelts
-The Memory String By Eve Bunting
-The Adventures of Spider:How Spider Got a Thin Waist By Joyce Cooper Arkhurst
-The Spider and the Fly By Mary Howitt
-Cloud Dance By Thomas Locker
-In November By Cynthia Rylant
-Tikki Tikki Tembo By Arlene Mosel
-The Great Turkey Race By Steve Metzger
-The Honest-to-Goodness Truth By Patricia C. McKissack
-The Snow Globe Family By Jane O’Connor
-Snowmen at Christmas By Caralyn Buehner
-Martin’s Big Words By Doreen Rappaport
-Snow Day! By Lester Laminack
-The Day the Crayons Quit By Drew Daywalt
-Grace For President By Kelly DiPucchio
-George Washington’s Teeth By Deborah Chandra & Madeleine Comora
-Night Rabbits By Lee Posey
-Crickwing By Janell Cannon
-Pinduli By Janell Cannon
-Twilight Comes Twice By Ralph Fletcher
-My School’s a Zoo! By Stu Smith
-Chicken Sunday By Patricia Polacco
-Titanicat By Marty Crisp
-Voices in the Park By Anthony Browne

If you don’t own all these books, I encourage you to take advantage of your library! They are all wonderful texts to share with your students!

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HOW DO I USE BETTER THAN BASAL?
Want more information on how to use mentor texts in the classroom? You can check out my blog posts:

Mentor Texts: Maximize Your Time!
Picture Books Are For EVERYONE!!

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DO YOU LOVE TO SAVE MONEY?

All of the books in this pack also have mentor sentence lessons you can find HERE in the Volume 2 Bundle.

Get the BIG bundle with all Volume 2 Mentor Sentences, Interactive Notebooks, Modifications, Vocabulary Activities, and Reading and Writing activities for all 40 mentor texts in the volume! Check out the Biggest and BEST Yearlong Bundle for Volume 2!

Looking for MORE mentor text lessons? There is also a VOLUME 1 Better Than Basal and a VOLUME 3 Better Than Basal!

You might also be interested in:

Launching Reading Workshop in Grades 3-5

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WHAT ABOUT OTHER GRADE LEVELS?

There is a Volume 1 Better Than Basal for grades 3-5.

Check out what’s in Volume 1!
and – Check out what’s in Volume 3!

There is also a Second Grade Better Than Basal! Check out what’s in the 2nd Grade Version!

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Please remember, this purchase is for the use of one teacher. It is not intended to be shared. Please use the ‘additional license’ purchase if more than one teacher will be using it. Thank you!

Copyright © 2015 Ideas By Jivey, LLC
All rights reserved by author, Jessica Ivey.
Permission to copy for single classroom use only.
Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.
Not for public display.

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