Jessica: Additional Digital Mentor Text Resources

     The links listed below are additional websites that contain digital stories that can be used as mentor texts.


     Storyline Online is a website that contains children's stories read aloud by actors and actresses. You can select the closed captioning so that students can also read the words.

http://www.storylineonline.net/

     CBeebies is a BBC website that is based off of a show. The creators of the show have developed digital stories for kids to enjoy. The words to the stories are also visible.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/

     The Barnes and Noble Storytime website has digital stories of children's books that are read aloud by authors and celebrities. However, the words to the story are not visible for students to also read. 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/online-storytime-books-toys/379003588/

Jessica: Ralph Fletcher Interview

   The link listed below takes you to a website with a podcast and transcript of an interview with Ralph Fletcher. He is an author of both professional books for teachers and children's books. He is known for writing books about mentor texts. In this podcast, he is asked questions about his views of mentor texts. Through the interview, you learn his definition for mentor texts, which kinds of books to use for mentor texts, mentor texts he has learned from as a writer, how mentor texts can be used in the classroom, etc. It is a very informative resource that provides additional background information on mentor texts coming from an experienced author and educator!

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=994

Ralph Fletcher

Jessica: Website with Collection of Mentor Text Lesson Plans and Additional Information

     The following is a link to the WritingFix website:     http://www.writingfix.com/picture_book_prompts.htm. This is a website that has a large collection of lesson plans that involve using picture books or chapter books as mentor texts for writing. These lessons are focused around the 6 writing traits. This website can be used as a resource in combination with the lesson plans listed on this blog to assist with using mentor texts to teach writing.

     In addition, this website includes other helpful tips to enhance the teaching of writing. For example, a teacher named Corbett Harrison explains how to print writing checklists on post-it notes. He gives these post-it note checklists to his students during writer's workshop and it helps to guide their thinking as they are writing and editing their work. This information can be found at http://writingfix.com/Classroom_Tools/Post_Its.htm.

This is an example Post-It Note Checklist that can be found on the WritingFix website!

Jessica: Great Resource for Digital Mentor Texts

     On this blog, some colleagues and I developed lesson plans that can be used to teach writing by using mentor texts. I am going to begin posting resources in addition to these lesson plans that can help with teaching writing.

     Scholastic has a new eReader called Storia! It can be downloaded for free at www.scholastic.com/storia. When you download the eReader you receive 5 free ebooks. In addition, the site lists articles describing the different ways that you can use Storia. The following link will send you to an article that discusses using Storia for whole-group instruction: www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/whole-class-reading-instruction-storia.  In the article, it discusses the ways that Storia can be used to access ebooks that can be used as mentor texts for the teaching of writing. Currently, you can use Storia through your computer to display on a smartboard or students can access the eReader through the Storia app for the iPad. They are in the process of creating an app for the iPod touch which will also allow students to read books in small groups.