Image: Playbooks (“mentor texts”) I am reviewing as I work on a project
I ask this question as these terms are not used uniformly in all schools. (I recently experienced this in a building where I am coaching; I got a blank look when I referenced “mentor text”.)
In How to Become a Better Writing Teacher, the authors devote an entire chapter (6) to helping students learn from “mentor authors”.
They refer to mentor authors as:
“a wide variety of writers who collectively will teach them (students) a great deal about writing.” (p. 125)
What we call things matters.
Do you use these terms?
If yes, how do you characterize them in your context? How do you use the texts in practice?
If no, why not? How do you refer to texts and authors that teach others about writing?
I bring this question up about mentor texts and authors because, as I writer, I don't refer to books that influence my work as mentors. Same for authors. I know what I like and what I don't like as a reader. I'll pull books aside to review and get ideas for my own writing.
Anderson and Glover make a distinction in the book. They point out that how we read as readers and as writers are two distinct processes. That makes sense, although it's difficult to completely separate the two. They model it as two teaching points when doing read alouds and whole class text studies.
I guess it comes back to supporting teachers to become knowledgeable about good instruction, good literature, and how students learn.
All to speculate that the term has been around for several decades but didn't break out of the books about teaching into the teaching mainstream like we might have expected... perhaps because it came of age when NCLB and standardized tests were de-emphasizing the kinds of writing we might associate with mentor authors?
Good point on the context of when mentor texts became prominent as a instructional resource/strategy. I wonder what other terms have not experienced the reach they may deserve due to mandates? I know PD in general has taken a backseat to all of the reading legislation.
This term was not in currency when I taught k12, but over the past several years Ive heard it and read it. Clearly, it’s a metaphor. As near as I can tell, writing teachers select mentor texts expecting students to read them looking beyond comprehension to figure out strategies the author used to write the piece. We used to say “reading like a writer” and the term in the literature was “linguistic spillover.” During the days of portfolios assessors would look for evidence of linguistic spillover in the writing that students wrote to contextualize how they created a piece. It was an element in lots of folio rubrics. If it is helpful as a shorthand way of referencing a discrete teaching strategy understood within a professional community, it’s great. As you say, Matt, the only problem would be transporting it to different communities who have a different word for the same idea. It’s not self-evident that mentor text means a text studied specifically to uncover how the writer achieved certain effects. Mentor has a much deeper referencing into human relationships which somehow seems trivialized in this situated use, but that’s a highly subjective comment. I don’t know if the term refers to other pedagogical uses of text.
Interesting history on this topic Terry, especially with portfolio assessment as a way to understand our students as writers. Teachers need more time for this work!
Thinking about the meaning of "mentor", you touch on something I think I was struggling with regarding the term. But I can be quite literal sometimes.
I personally don’t like the resonance of the term. Mentor means something much more profound than a text one studies. When Odysseus leaves for the Trojan War not to return home for two decades, he entrusts the care of his household and the education of his son, Telemachus, to Mentor, who offers guidance, wisdom, and helping the boy grow and make important decisions. The goddess Athena sometimes disguises herself as Mentor to provide divine help and encouragement to Telemachus. After just reading the Odyssey for the first time last year, my reaction is colored a bit. Nonetheless, it strikes me as not particularly apt. I’d have a hard time speaking it if I were in the classroom.
I read the article on “multitasking mentor texts.” Though I agree with the need for efficiency and instructional agreements about certain things, I’m not sure a standardized approach to feedback is the best professional model. The mentor approach is department heavy on very specific details. A collaborative inquiry into how feedback works is important. I’m with you. Have students choose their own mentor texts. Also, saying that portfolios are onerous and evaluating is standards driven needs unpacking. We need to teach students ways to value and evalue (out value) for themselves. This whole website seems Core driven
Circe is quite a character in the Odyssey. When Odysseus lands his ships at her island, she casts a spell on his crew and turned them all into pigs. They live in a muddy pen, but they retained human consciousness. That lasted a year.
I bring this question up about mentor texts and authors because, as I writer, I don't refer to books that influence my work as mentors. Same for authors. I know what I like and what I don't like as a reader. I'll pull books aside to review and get ideas for my own writing.
Anderson and Glover make a distinction in the book. They point out that how we read as readers and as writers are two distinct processes. That makes sense, although it's difficult to completely separate the two. They model it as two teaching points when doing read alouds and whole class text studies.
I guess it comes back to supporting teachers to become knowledgeable about good instruction, good literature, and how students learn.
Hey, Matt... at our website for 4-8 educators... MiddleWeb.com... we've published quite a few articles and reviews about mentor texts over the years. The first one appeared in 2012, when we first appeared. Interestingly, all most all of our posts are book reviews of works by Pam Koutrakos, Kelly Gallagher, and others. (https://www.middleweb.com/tag/mentor-texts/). Pam's article on multitasking with mentor texts is the most read, by far: https://www.middleweb.com/47182/save-teaching-energy-multitask-mentor-texts/
All to speculate that the term has been around for several decades but didn't break out of the books about teaching into the teaching mainstream like we might have expected... perhaps because it came of age when NCLB and standardized tests were de-emphasizing the kinds of writing we might associate with mentor authors?
Good point on the context of when mentor texts became prominent as a instructional resource/strategy. I wonder what other terms have not experienced the reach they may deserve due to mandates? I know PD in general has taken a backseat to all of the reading legislation.
This term was not in currency when I taught k12, but over the past several years Ive heard it and read it. Clearly, it’s a metaphor. As near as I can tell, writing teachers select mentor texts expecting students to read them looking beyond comprehension to figure out strategies the author used to write the piece. We used to say “reading like a writer” and the term in the literature was “linguistic spillover.” During the days of portfolios assessors would look for evidence of linguistic spillover in the writing that students wrote to contextualize how they created a piece. It was an element in lots of folio rubrics. If it is helpful as a shorthand way of referencing a discrete teaching strategy understood within a professional community, it’s great. As you say, Matt, the only problem would be transporting it to different communities who have a different word for the same idea. It’s not self-evident that mentor text means a text studied specifically to uncover how the writer achieved certain effects. Mentor has a much deeper referencing into human relationships which somehow seems trivialized in this situated use, but that’s a highly subjective comment. I don’t know if the term refers to other pedagogical uses of text.
Interesting history on this topic Terry, especially with portfolio assessment as a way to understand our students as writers. Teachers need more time for this work!
Thinking about the meaning of "mentor", you touch on something I think I was struggling with regarding the term. But I can be quite literal sometimes.
I personally don’t like the resonance of the term. Mentor means something much more profound than a text one studies. When Odysseus leaves for the Trojan War not to return home for two decades, he entrusts the care of his household and the education of his son, Telemachus, to Mentor, who offers guidance, wisdom, and helping the boy grow and make important decisions. The goddess Athena sometimes disguises herself as Mentor to provide divine help and encouragement to Telemachus. After just reading the Odyssey for the first time last year, my reaction is colored a bit. Nonetheless, it strikes me as not particularly apt. I’d have a hard time speaking it if I were in the classroom.
I read the article on “multitasking mentor texts.” Though I agree with the need for efficiency and instructional agreements about certain things, I’m not sure a standardized approach to feedback is the best professional model. The mentor approach is department heavy on very specific details. A collaborative inquiry into how feedback works is important. I’m with you. Have students choose their own mentor texts. Also, saying that portfolios are onerous and evaluating is standards driven needs unpacking. We need to teach students ways to value and evalue (out value) for themselves. This whole website seems Core driven
That's interesting Terry. I was not familiar of the origins of Mentor. I can imagine why it might not fit nicely within education's lexicon.
Off topic, if you enjoyed The Odyssey, I recommend Circe by Madeline Miller: https://a.co/d/ekrZfYo. A fresh perspective on the classic.
Circe is quite a character in the Odyssey. When Odysseus lands his ships at her island, she casts a spell on his crew and turned them all into pigs. They live in a muddy pen, but they retained human consciousness. That lasted a year.
It's a little more complicated in this version. :-)