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    Jivey shares ideas and lessons to make literacy accessible for all.

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    Mentor Texts

    Take Back Your Time With Mentor Texts

    March 12, 2017

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    Time is precious. There is NEVER enough of it!!

    But, what if there was a way you could take back some of that time? Would you take it?

    I have your answer!

    Before we dive in, let’s talk about what a mentor text IS and what it IS NOT.

    A mentor text is a picture book (fiction or nonfiction), a chapter from a novel, an article, a song, or a poem. This text serves as a model to inspire students to practice a skill. In reading, students will watch and listen to you model a comprehension skill in order to understand how to do it on their own. In writing, students will be inspired to write similarly to the mentor text. In grammar, students will notice all of the “good” in a sentence from the text (called a mentor sentence), and then learn how to incorporate it into their own writing. There is a lot of imitation that occurs with a mentor text; students will impersonate techniques from the texts you present across the subjects.

    A mentor text is not simply a read-aloud. Although mentor texts should be read for enjoyment FIRST, that is not its only purpose. It is not an entire novel either. You can absolutely model skills from a chapter book, but a mentor text should be shorter in length so that it can be referred to throughout a week (or two or three!) for different skills.

    Sign up for the free one week mentor text course by Ideas by Jivey for grades 3-5Sign up for the free one week mentor text course by Ideas by Jivey for grades 1-2

    A MAGNIFICENT MENTOR TEXT can be used for several weeks for MANY skills. In reading, a magnificent mentor text will provide opportunities for a few (if not all) of the following: monitoring, summarizing, questioning, inferring, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, and synthesizing… to name a few. In writing and grammar, a magnificent mentor text will provide opportunities for students to imitate the ideas, structure, AND craft that the author presents in the text. And to top it off, a magnificent mentor text will be enjoyable to read, and one you will want to return to over and over!

    And, if you REALLY want to get the most bang for your buck: grab a nonfiction, historical fiction, or science fiction book to integrate your social studies and science content! (OR even math literature!)

    [fac_icon icon=”clock-o” color=”#f977a5″ font_size=”36px”]

    We know, as teachers, that using literature is an excellent way to introduce a lesson, but starting EVERY lesson with a new text makes it awfully difficult to keep those mini-lessons MINI! One of the best parts of using a mentor text is that it gives you more time to TEACH. Once you’ve read the book one time, you only need to re-read or refer to parts of it for your whole group mini-lessons. (Small group/guided reading should use books on their level!)

     [fac_icon icon=”book” color=”#f977a5″ font_size=”36px”]

    In reading, one way to lead your lesson is to use a graphic organizer. It will help guide their thinking, and it allows for an “I Do, We Do, You Do” lesson- start the graphic organizer with them, then they can help suggest something to add to it, and finally they can finish it on their own. Of course, then they’ll also be able to use that graphic organizer with their own book, or in guided reading, to show their thinking!

    [fac_icon icon=”pencil” color=”#f977a5″ font_size=”36px”]

    Use mentor texts for grammar through the use of mentor sentences. For 10-15 minutes each day at the start of writing time, look at a mentor sentence that was taken from the mentor text you are reading that week. Students notice all the wonderful things about it, figure out patterns in parts of speech, revise the sentence, and imitate the author in our writing- all over the course of the week. And of course, in writing, students will impersonate the ideas, structure and/or craft of a mentor text through your modeling and lessons.

    Does this sound like an amazing solution, but you’re thinking, well, Jivey, you just told me WHAT to do, but you haven’t told me HOW to do it! I’ve got you covered!! Sign up below for a FREE one-week course and get all you’ll need to integrate reading, writing, and grammar! In this FREE course, you’ll receive a week of activities and lessons each day for reading, grammar, and writing; and encouragement, suggestions, tips, and reminders. I want to help you take back your time!

    Select your grade level below to get comprehensive lessons just for you and your class!

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    You will get an outline for the week right away, with more information about the importance of using mentor texts. Then, over the course of the next week, you will receive explicit lessons, student activities, explanations, reminders, and suggestions for the next day’s ELA activities. If you’d like to complete the activities with your students over the course of that week, you can! Or, you can “save” all of the lessons and implement them another week if it doesn’t work right away for your schedule.

    Lessons, activities, explanations, and support… did I mention FREE? What are you waiting for? Click on your grade level!

     

    Or maybe you’d like to have it all done for you… looking for ready-made mentor text lessons for the week?

    Join the club!

    No really… there’s a club! Click below to see the options!

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    Mentor Sentence Mentor Text
    by Jessica Ivey 

    About Jessica Ivey

    View all posts by Jessica Ivey

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    Welcome!

    Welcome!

    Hi, I'm Jessica, also affectionately known as Jivey! I am passionate about making literacy accessible for all students using research-based strategies. Students learn best through content integration and in-context skills, and my goal is to help you deliver your instruction with these best practices!

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    Recent Posts

    • Teaching Vocabulary in Context: My Journey from Mistakes to Mastery
    • Integrating Primary Sources into Language Arts Lessons
    • Teaching Grammar that Supports the Science of Reading
    • Teaching Text Structure With Picture Books
    • Planning a Language Arts Schedule (How To Fit It All In!)

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    Ideas By Jivey

    10 hours ago

    Ideas By Jivey
    😎 Wishing you could try a week of the All-Access Mentor Text Membership for free? πŸ“² Click here: members.ideasbyjivey.com/free-trial ... See MoreSee Less

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    Ideas By Jivey

    3 days ago

    Ideas By Jivey
    Have you ever wondered what a book looks like after I finish using it to create a mentor sentence unit? πŸ™ˆ I just completed the six-week mini-unit for A Rover's Story, which is this year's Global Read Aloud for Middle Grades/Upper Elementary! #gra23Will you be participating with your class? It all kicks off on October 2nd. πŸ€“In this book, Resilience, or Res for short, is a Mars rover who is determined to live up to his name. πŸ€– He was not built to have human emotions. But as he learns new things from the NASA scientists who assemble him, he begins to develop humanlike feelings. I never thought I could feel so much for a robot. I might have even shed a few tears at the end...! πŸ˜… #graroverYou can grab this brand new mentor sentence unit for A Rover's Story with six lessons that follow right along with the reading schedule for Global Read Aloud πŸ’²ON SALEπŸ’² for 48 hours! πŸ€— www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Rovers-Story-Global-Read-Aloud-Mentor-Sentences-Interactive... ... See MoreSee Less

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    Ideas By Jivey

    4 days ago

    Ideas By Jivey
    πŸ““Do your students struggle to understand a vocabulary word that has multiple meanings? This is why teaching vocabulary in context is SO important! πŸ€“If your students are just "looking up a list," how many of your students pick the first definition and write it down, then move on to the next word? πŸ“Or better yet… raise your hand if you have one of *those* students who finds the SHORTEST definition of the word to write! πŸ™‹β€β™€οΈπŸ’‘Come check out this post where I share some research-based tips for teaching vocabulary: www.ideasbyjivey.com/vocabulary-in-context-journey/ ... See MoreSee Less

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    😎 Wishing you could try a week of the All-Acces 😎 Wishing you could try a week of the All-Access Mentor Text Membership for free? πŸ“² Head to the link in my profile! @ideasbyjivey 

#ideasbyjivey #mentortexts #teachermembership #mentorsentences #teacherslovebooks #picturebooks #iteachtoo 
https://members.ideasbyjivey.com/free-trial
    Have you ever wondered what a book looks like afte Have you ever wondered what a book looks like after I finish using it to create a #mentorsentence unit? πŸ™ˆ I just completed the six-week mini-unit for A Rover's Story, which is this year's Global Read Aloud for Middle Grades/Upper Elementary! #GRA23

Will you be participating with your class? It all kicks off on October 2nd. πŸ€“

In this book, Resilience, or Res for short, is a Mars rover who is determined to live up to his name. πŸ€– He was not built to have human emotions. But as he learns new things from the NASA scientists who assemble him, he begins to develop humanlike feelings. I never thought I could feel so much for a robot. I might have even shed a few tears at the end...! πŸ˜… #GRARover

Head to the link in my profile (@ideasbyjivey) to grab this brand new mentor sentence unit for A Rover's Story with six lessons that follow right along with the reading schedule for Global Read Aloud πŸ’²ON SALEπŸ’² for 48 hours! πŸ€— 

#ideasbyjivey #globalreadaloud #mentortext #mentorsentences #iteach456 #iteach4th #iteach5th #iteach6th #chapterbook #novelstudy #upperelementary 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Rovers-Story-Global-Read-Aloud-Mentor-Sentences-Interactive-Activities-10208469
    πŸ““Do your students struggle to understand a voca πŸ““Do your students struggle to understand a vocabulary word that has multiple meanings? 

This is why teaching vocabulary in context is SO important! πŸ€“

If your students are just "looking up a list," how many of your students pick the first definition and write it down, then move on to the next word? πŸ“

Or better yet… raise your hand if you have one of *those* students who finds the SHORTEST definition of the word to write! πŸ™‹β€β™€οΈ

πŸ’‘Come check out the post at the link in my profile (@ideasbyjivey) where I share some research-based tips for teaching vocabulary. 

#ideasbyjivey #mentortexts #scienceofreading #teachingvocabulary #vocabularylearning #iteachtoo #readingteacher 

https://www.ideasbyjivey.com/vocabulary-in-context-journey/
    For today's #MentorTextMonday, I'm sharing an oldi For today's #MentorTextMonday, I'm sharing an oldie but a goodie: When Lightning Comes in a Jar. This is one of my FAVORITE Patricia Polacco books! 

I'd love for you to check out this blog post where I shared how I tie it all together with ONE #mentortext, and pick up the #freelessons I used to demonstrate these ideas for you! Link in profile @ideasbyjivey

#ideasbyjivey #mentorsentences #iteach345 #picturebooks #upperelementary #upperelementaryteachers #upperelementaryreading #iteach3rd #iteach4th #iteach5th
https://www.ideasbyjivey.com/tying-it-all-together-with-mentor-texts/
    Listen up, friends! πŸ“£ If you're not using #ment Listen up, friends! πŸ“£ If you're not using #mentorsentences in your classroom, you're missing out! 

This blog post breaks down how they support the #scienceofreading research, and ways to get started. πŸ“– Read at the link in my profile: @ideasbyjivey

#ideasbyjivey #mentortexts #iteach345 #grammarteacher #iteach3rd #iteach4th #iteach5th 

https://www.ideasbyjivey.com/teaching-grammar-supports-science-of-reading/
    ⏳Ever wonder just HOW to fit it all in? I laid o ⏳Ever wonder just HOW to fit it all in? I laid out some suggestions based on how much time you have for ELA in the blog post at the link in my profile: @ideasbyjivey ⏰ 

#ideasbyjivey #mentorsentences #mentortexts #teachingreading #iteachreading #iteachwriting #iteachgrammar #teacherlife #teacherproblems 

https://www.ideasbyjivey.com/language-arts-schedule/
    πŸ“₯ Ready to try out a week of the All-Access Men πŸ“₯ Ready to try out a week of the All-Access Mentor Text Membership for free? 😍 Head to the link in my profile! @ideasbyjivey 

#ideasbyjivey #mentortexts #teachermembership #mentorsentences #teacherslovebooks #picturebooks #iteachtoo 
https://members.ideasbyjivey.com/free-trial
    πŸ“ Let's talk vocab. If you're still using that πŸ“ Let's talk vocab. If you're still using that old workbook, it's time for a change. This blog post is all about my journey to teaching vocabulary IN CONTEXT!

πŸ€“ Come check out my research-based suggestions for contextual vocabulary at the link in my profile πŸ‘‰ @ideasbyjivey 

#teachingvocabulary #mentortexts #iteachtoo #readingteacher #vocabularylearning #scienceofreading

https://www.ideasbyjivey.com/vocabulary-in-context-journey/
    πŸ“•If you're still looking for the perfect book t πŸ“•If you're still looking for the perfect book to read with students about the history of today, check out today's Mentor Text Monday book, Fireboat by Maira Kalman. 

It's one of the books I included in my Mentor Text Units for September 11 Remembrance Bundle. You'll find reading activities, mentor sentences, interactive grammar pieces, writing prompts, and contextual vocabulary. πŸ“

Check out the complete bundle at the link in my profile: @ideasbyjivey 
 
#ideasbyjivey #mentortexts #mentorsentences #september11 #patriotdayintheclassroom #patriotday #iteach345 #iteach3rd #iteach4th #iteach5th 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mentor-Text-Units-for-September-11-Remembrance-in-Grades-3-5-7154669
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