• Home
  • Start Here
  • Posts
    • Lit Literature Reviews
    • Teaching Strategies
    • Life Tips for Teachers
    • Teachers Pay Teachers Tips
  • Shop My Teaching Resources!
  • Sell on TPT
  • About
  • Follow!

It's Lit Teaching

High School English and TPT Seller Resources

Complete Guides, Teaching Strategies

Mentor Texts and Sentences: Everything You Need to Know

February 9, 2020

When I first started teaching, mentor texts were something I might see mentioned in a textbook that I was never going to actually read. Now, when I attend conferences and professional development, using mentor texts and sentences seems like a prerequisite for every quality unit. In this post, I hope to answer any and all questions you might have about mentor texts. I’ll try to include plenty of examples, links, helpful resources, activities, and lesson ideas. 

This mentor text post covers:

  • What is a Mentor Text?
  • Why Use Mentor Texts?
  • Types of Mentor Texts and How to Use Them
  • Lesson Ideas for Mentor Texts
  • Where to Find Mentor Texts
  • Conclusion

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products that I personally use and love, or think my readers will find useful.

Mentor Texts: Everything You Need to Know Pinterest Pin

What is a Mentor Text?

A mentor text, sometimes referred to as an anchor text, is an exemplary piece of writing that students can study and then imitate in order to improve their own writing. 

I think conversations about mentor texts can easily become overly complicated. I know I have felt overwhelmed at every Penny Kittle training I’ve been to. 

But think of a mentor text as just a really good example. If you want your students to write using semicolons correctly, you might point out a semicolon in the class book you’re reading. That’s a mentor text. 

If you want your creative writing students to really think and construct engaging opening lines for their short stories, you might show them some famous opening lines. That’s using mentor texts. 

Mentor texts are just great examples of the writing craft. 

Writing to Study and Imitate

The trick with mentor texts is to keep them short. These should be pieces of writing that students can study and imitate. They should be digestible. 

For example, it’s a lot easier for students to play with text structure if they’re examining a poem or a short story. Expecting them to study the structure of a whole novel and then go and pay attention to their own story structure is too much for young writers too fast.

Mentor texts should be used for a very specific purpose. If you want students to study a few sentences and attempt the same writing move, those sentences better illustrate one specific technique. Throwing a bunch of great writing at students all at once isn’t going to inspire them–it’s going to overwhelm them.  

Professional Writing as Mentor Texts

Obviously, published writing is going to probably serve well as a mentor text. Using snippets of professional writing is a great way to get started with mentor texts. Published writing has already been through an editor. If it’s made its way into your classroom, it’s probably pretty solid writing. 

Don’t make it complicated. If you want your students to study how to punctuate dialogue, picking up a book from your classroom library and showing them a back-and-forth conversation is a great place to start. 

Student Writing as Mentor Texts

Another great type of mentor texts, however, is student-generated. If you show students an excellent introductory essay from a previous class as inspiration, you’re using a student-created mentor text. 

Pulling student examples and showcasing them for students to study and imitate is powerful. Not only is a great example, but it empowers students. It shows them that they don’t have to be a published author to create exemplary writing. If their peers can do, so can they.

Alternatively, you can have students find and share mentor texts from professional writing. This is a great blend of both. Students get to study how professional writers shape their work, while also practicing reading as writers studying the craft. 

Mentor Texts: Everything You Need to Know Pinterest Pin

Why Use Mentor Texts?

Alright, so you know what mentor texts are, but why use them? Why not just stick with a tried and true worksheet or presentation?

You can use mentor texts to strengthen the purpose behind almost every lesson. Students will always need good examples. Here are a few more specific ways though that mentor texts can be used to strengthen your writing program. 

Show Students Exemplary Writing

I’ve already touched on this, but a primary reason to use mentor texts is just to show students exemplary examples of the writing craft. 

In teaching, examples are necessary. You can study every comma rule under the sun, but until you see commas being used in great writing, it’s not going to stick. A teacher can repeat show, don’t tell until they’re out of breath, but it won’t make any sense unless you see an example.

Mentor texts illustrate the lesson, idea, or technique that you want your students to understand. 

Encourage Students to Take Risks in Writing

Another reason to use mentor texts is that they act as writing scaffolding for young authors. 

Trying new things in writing can be scary, especially for students who don’t identify as writers, are not native English writers, or just generally struggle. They want to write “right.” They’re not necessarily looking to write artfully, creatively, or bravely. They certainly don’t want to fail in their writing ventures.

But us English teachers know the power in trying new writing techniques and being flexible in the way we put words on paper. We need to instill the delight of trying new writing into our students. 

If, for example, we want students to try using parallel structure, we can cover the term. We can explain its rhetorical power. But students will probably not feel comfortable attempting it, nor will they fully appreciate its persuasive power.  

If, however, we show them examples from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech”, and students can see the power of parallel structure for themselves, they’ll be encouraged to try it in their next piece of persuasive writing. 

You could even scaffold this further. To continue with the above example, you could then have students write their own “I Have a Dream” speech. How would they use the structure “I have a dream….” to convey their own vision of the future?

As you can see, a simple mentor text can evolve from beyond a simple example into its own assignment. A quality mentor text can be studied and revisited over and over again. 

Show Students Why We Might Choose Certain Techniques

Perhaps the most powerful reason to use mentor texts is that they allow us to show students why we might do something in writing. 

We can tell students over and over to use sentence variety. We can diagram a hundred sentences to analyze various sentence structures. Students can complete hundreds of worksheets, task cards, and quizzes. 

You could have students highlight their own writing for sentence variety. Our students can even learn to use sentence variety regularly. 

But if they don’t understand why or how sentence variety strengthens writing, then we’ve failed them. 

When we show a mentor text that uses short, punchy sentences to convey the speed of an action scene, however, they get it. If they see long, romantic sentences meant to slow down the moment when two soul mates meet, they get it.

Mentor texts let us show not only the “how-to” of a writing technique but also the why–the effect it has on the reader. 

Have Students Determine Their Own Rules of Writing

Another way to encourage bravery and critical thinking using mentor texts is to give them to students and have the students themselves determine the quality, technique, or writing move that is exemplary. 

This is a common way to teach grammar. It’s actually the basis for the lessons in the classic Mechanically Inclined.

Check it out if you want some grab and go mentor texts and lessons, although I think they are aimed more at late elementary and middle than high school.

For example, if you want students to learn to use a comma after introductory elements in a sentence, you could group students and give them mentor texts that illustrate this grammatical move.

Then, ask the groups to create comma rules based upon the mentor sentences.

Students will have to see the commonalities in each mentor example first, but then they’ll also have to describe it and put it into words. 

You could go on to create an anchor chart for the class based on what the students notice, or have each group create one and share out. 

You could do a similar lesson to examine non-grammatical aspects of writing. If, for example, you wanted students to study characterization, you could give them a few examples of great character building passages. Then, students can study and define for themselves what they think is great about each example. 

Mentor Texts: Everything You Need to Know Pinterest Pin

Types of Mentor Texts and How to Use Them

You can teach or model pretty much any skill or technique using mentor texts. But some types of writing are better at illustrating certain lesson types than others. While this is far from a comprehensive list, hopefully, it will get you started and maybe inspire some new ideas.

Whole Poems

My first real foray into intentionally using mentor texts was with poetry. In my creative writing class, I did several lessons where we looked at a whole poem as a mentor text. 

This is great especially if you want students to study poetic structure because you have a start, middle, and end to examine. 

For example, in my Self Poem Lesson, students study a poem from Elizabeth Acevedo. The poem has four stanzas, with each contributing information about the speaker in the poem. 

Cover for Teachers Pay Teachers product: Self Poem Mentor Text Study
This poetry lesson used a poem by Elizabeth Acevedo as a mentor text. Students study it and then write their own poems based on the structure and subject matter of Acevedo’s work.

After reading and analyzing the poem, students attempt to imitate the structure and content of each stanza by writing a poem about themselves. 

Whole poems can also be a great way to examine figurative language techniques. If you’d like some ready-for-you lessons that use poetry as mentor texts, I have these lessons for you:

  • “Nicholas Was…” Writing Activity: Students read Neil Gaiman’s 100-word story before writing their own
  • Kwame Alexander Mentor Text Study: Students analyze the writing techniques used by Alexander before writing their own poems.
  • Writing Haiku Poems for High School: Students analyze a mentor poem which consists of combining several haikus before attempting their own haikus.

Mentor Sentences

Using mentor sentences is probably the easiest way to start incorporating mentor texts in your classroom. A sentence is short and digestible. If you’d like, you can use a few to illustrate the same technique for your students. 

Mentor sentences, as mentioned above, can be taken from professional or student writing. If you’re desperate for just the right example, you could write a mentor sentence or two yourself to show off a specific writing technique. 

Mentor sentences work especially well for lessons around grammatical rules, sentence structure, showing (not telling details and emotions), or crafting dialogue. 

Lesson Ideas for Incorporating Mentor Texts in Class

I’ll walk through some simple steps for using mentor texts in your class, but if you want to deep dive into the “how”, I highly recommend Amanda Write Now.

Amanda Werner is the queen of workshop-style teaching, and she regularly incorporates mentor texts into her minilessons. She has a great breakdown of how to use mentor texts in this article but has other helpful blog posts AND podcast episodes. 

Workshop Model

The workshop model of teaching meshes with mentor texts very effectively. 

In a workshop model, the teacher begins class with a quick mini-lesson. This is where the mentor text would be introduced. 

For example, if you want students to introduce dialogue into the stories their working on, you would explain dialogue quickly, then show and discuss some mentor text examples. 

After the mini-lesson, students are given the majority of the class time to attempt to emulate the mentor texts in their own writing. 

For the above example, this would be when students then work on their own stories, adding, tweaking, and attempting dialogue as they write their scenes. 

Mini-Lessons

The mini-lesson concept is not limited to the workshop model, however. Mini-lessons can be effective and useful regardless of how you run your classroom.

A mini-lesson can be anywhere from ten to twenty minutes, although I think shorter is typically better. Any longer and you risk inundating students with too much information or losing their attention. 

You can incorporate mentor texts in pretty much any mini-lesson you might want to teach. 

For example, I try to do grammar lessons in small chunks. I could show students a few slides in a slideshow about colon uses, followed by examining some mentor texts that use colons effectively. 

Until they actually see those colons in action, it’s going to be hard to understand how to use them. 

Author Studies

A final way to use mentor texts is through an author study.

An author study is exactly what it sounds like–students are given or choose an author, and then they study that writer’s craft. 

In my Author Study Project, students choose a short story writer or poet. They do a little bit of background information on the person, but then they get to work reading. 

Cover for Teachers Pay Teachers product: Creative Writing Author Study Project
This project is highly flexible and can be adapted easily for your classroom needs. Students will study a single author’s style deeply before imitating that style in their own, original writing.

As they read, they watch for patterns in tone, imagery, and writing style. (I provide a graphic organizer worksheet for students to use as they make a note of these author moves.)

Then, they create their own original writing while imitating the moves that their studied author might make. 

It’s a much deeper examination of a writer’s style than typically occurs in class, but it’s the perfect project for a creative writing course. 

It requires much more independence and critical thinking on the student’s part, too. She’ll have to make a lot of choices and draw a lot of conclusions on her own, and that’s before she even begins her own writing. 

You can use this activity in your class, or create your own variation of an author study. 

Where to Find Mentor Texts

Alright, so you’re ready to incorporate mentor texts into your classroom, but now comes probably the biggest hurdle: where do you find them? 

Every time I enter into a conversation about mentor texts or the workshop question with my colleagues, this is the question that comes up.

Where do you get mentor texts for the specific lesson or technique you need? I wish I could point you to some ultimate compendium of mentor texts for every possible purpose, but to my knowledge, there is no such thing. I can give you some tips though.

Know What You Need

Before you go throwing mentor texts up on your board, you need to know what you need.

What do you want to teach your students? What concepts or skills are they struggling with? Are there common errors in student writing that you’re seeing over and over again? Is there a technique you’d like to see your students grapple and play with?

By answering these questions, you’ll be better prepared to find and implement mentor texts. 

Don’t go hunting for mentor examples blindly. Have a list of skills, techniques, or structures you want to teach. Then, make a list or a spreadsheet to keep track of where your mentor texts come from.

DO NOT just type “mentor texts” into Google. This is a great way to lose focus and waste time.

Keep Track of Mentor Texts As You Read

As a writer and teacher yourself, no doubt you’re doing some reading of your own. I hope you’re at least reading with your students during independent reading. 

As you read, keep track of any beautiful writing you encounter. 

If you know what kind of lessons or techniques you want to showcase, you can pay special attention to these as you go. If you don’t, however, just keep track of beautiful writing–a need for those examples will appear. 

I tried keeping a detailed document of mentor texts and their possible uses, but I just couldn’t keep track of it. Now, I just put a sticky note or tab next to it. At least I have a hope of finding it if I can remember. 

For student examples, you can make copies of assignments and keep a folder from which you can pull. 

Lists of Mentor Texts Online

There is no mega-compendium of mentor texts categorized by skill that I can find. But there are some helpful blog posts and lists out there on the interwebs. 

If you hit Google to find some mentor texts, be specific in your search. Use your grade level and the skill you want to highlight to narrow down your search.

You’ll still probably have to piecemeal blogs together, but specificity will certainly help with your hunt.

Ask Students for Examples

You could also make students do the work for you. If, for example, you’re covering semicolons in class, have the students seek out examples in their own reading. 

You could also have them keep track in writer’s notebooks of beautiful language they encounter during their independent reading. This would be great to discuss during reading conferences or as proof of their reading outside of class.

Students are resources themselves. Don’t forget to put them to work.

The New York Times Collection

The New York Times also has some mentor text resources for you. The NYT knows the power of mentor texts and has begun compiling them for educators’ use. 

You can read more about mentor texts and the paper’s collection here. 

You can also navigate to their mentor text hub, but there’s a lot there. Again, knowing what you need and being specific is going to be best for finding what you need. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, mentor texts are a great way to strengthen your writing instruction. At their core, mentor texts are just really great examples of writing. Our students can never get enough of these.

Seeing great examples of writing can guide our young writers. It provides scaffolding in writing that encourages riskier, braver writing. Being able to see greatness can allow us to aspire to it. 

You can use examples from professional writing or from the students themselves. Depending on what you want your students to learn, you may opt to use mentor sentences, a poem, or a passage–but remember to keep your mentor texts and your mini-lessons short. 

Cover of Teachers Pay Teachers Product: Free "I Am" Poem Activity for High School
This FREE lesson asks you (the teacher) to create a mentor poem about yourself before the students create their own “I Am” poem.

These examples should be studied before students are asked to imitate the techniques or structure used in the mentor writing. 

Mentor texts can be taken from everywhere–your own reading, online blogs, newspaper collections, or even gathered by students. 

If you’d like to take a tiny step into using a mentor text, but aren’t sure how to put a lesson together, I have a few in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Kwame Alexander creatively showcases how rhythm, sound, and imagery can weave together in poetry. In this activity, students examine his writing techniques before trying those writing techniques for themselves.

My free “I Am” Poem requires you to do some writing about yourself to use as a mentor text for your students. 

If, however, that intimidates you or is not quite what you’re looking for, my Self Poem Activity has students imitate the stanza content of an Elizabeth Acevedo poem while my Kwame Alexander Activity has students studying rhythm and figurative language. 

I also highly recommend my Author Study Project if you’re wanting students to study mentor texts deeply and over a longer period of time.

Grab a FREE Copy of Must-Have Classroom Library Title!

Sign-up for a FREE copy of my must-have titles for your classroom library and regular updates to It’s Lit Teaching! Insiders get the scoop on new blog posts, teaching resources, and the occasional pep talk! 

Marketing Permissions

I just want to make sure you’re cool with the things I may send you!

I’ll send regular emails updating you on new content, plus an occasional bonus info with time sensitive info!

By clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provide will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.

You might also enjoy

How to Design A Novel Unit That Doesn't Bore Your Students to DeathHow to Design a Novel Unit that Doesn’t Bore your Students to Death: A Guest Blog Post From Yaddy’s Room
Are Reading Worksheets Dead?Are Reading Worksheets Dead?
How to Implement a New Novel in Your Classroom: a guide and case study for high school english teachers pinterest pinHow To Implement a New Novel in Your Classroom
Previous:
Is Revenge Worth it?: Long Way Down Review
Next:
The Night Circus: Magic for Your Classroom Bookshelves

Categories

  • Complete Guides
  • Experiences in the Classroom
  • Life Tips for Teachers
  • Lit Literature Reviews
  • Teachers Pay Teachers Tips
  • Teaching Strategies

Latest on Instagram

This quote still hits me hard, even though 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘰𝘺𝘴 is now almost 20 years old. ⁣
⁣
Even though it might not be the newest, shiniest young adult novel out there, All American Boys is still worth incorporating into your classroom.⁣
⁣
𝗜𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗯𝗼𝘆𝘀--𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲. After the black teen is mistakenly assaulted by a police officer, and the white teen witnesses it, their stories are told parallel to one another. ⁣
⁣
𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀. ⁣
⁣
The language is mild at worst and the two perspectives offer balance for any conservative districts that might be afraid to stray too far from the canon.⁣
⁣
Teach it. Put it on your shelves. ⁣
⁣
Read my full review on All American Boys in your classroom through the link in my bio. ⁣
⁣
#itslitteaching #englishclasses #teachingenglish #elateacher #2ndaryela #englishteachers #englishteaching⁣
#highschoolteacher #iteachhighschool #iteachela #iteachwriting #educating #schoolteacher #secondaryela #bookreviewblog #bookpost #readstagram #bookwormlife #bibliophilelife #avidreader #readersgonnaread #booksonbooks #booksaremagic #booksconnectus⁣
#classroomlibrary #booksworthreading #bookreviewers #bookreaders #knowjusticeknowpeace #socialjusticeeducation
New blog post 👉 TPT Seller Success: How to Earn New blog post 👉 TPT Seller Success: How to Earn the Most from Sitewide Sales⁣
⁣
No one really knows when the next Teachers Pay Teachers sitewide sale will be (the quarter 1 sale is notoriously difficult to predict).⁣
⁣
But having a game plan for 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 it is announced could help you earn more when it arrives!⁣
⁣
My newest blog post is a guide to maximizing your earnings during a Teachers Pay Teachers sitewide sale. ⁣
⁣
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄 (𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗼!) 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 2021 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀!⁣
⁣
#itslitteaching ⁣
#tptseller #tptteachers #tptstore #tptteacher #teacherpreneur #edupreneur #highperformancehabits #bizcoach #teachinglife⁣
#collaborationovercompetition #entrepreneursuccess #businesslessons #tptstore #teachersoftpt #weareteachers #teacherssupportteachers #togetherwearebetter #teacherblog #teacherbloggers #teachertalk #teacherlifestyle #teacherstuff⁣
#teachersfollowingteachers #teachergoals #teacherinspo #teachersupport #teachingtips #educating #schoolteacher
Grading finals and preparing for third-quarter tod Grading finals and preparing for third-quarter today...⁣
⁣
I have NOTHING prepared if I'm honest. Since August I've been so fixated on surviving this semester that I haven't really thought past that.⁣
⁣
But the good thing is the WE DID MAKE IT. ⁣
⁣
And another good thing is that there are some awesome TPT sellers out there.⁣
⁣
Confession: I feel a little weird sometimes buying from TPT now that I have my own store. Like, I should be making things, not spending money on them!⁣
⁣
But that's what TPT is for--to help burnt-out teachers save time, plan faster, and get back to the pressing work. ⁣
⁣
And I am so grateful to all of the sellers out there who share their work on the platform. I'd much rather my money go to another hardworking teacher than a giant publisher. ⁣
⁣
Now, I'm going to hit "buy" over on TPT and get back to a relaxing evening!⁣
⁣
𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗣𝗧 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 "𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗿𝗱" 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗣𝗧? 𝗢𝗿 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀?⁣
⁣
#itslitteaching⁣
#tptseller #tptteachers #tptstore #tptteacher #teacherpreneur #edupreneur #highperformancehabits #bizcoach #collaborationovercompetition #entrepreneursuccess #businesslessons #tptstore #teachersoftpt #instateachers #instagramteachers #educatorsofinstagram #igconnect4edu #teachersupport #teachingresources⁣
#teachersonig #teachersoninstagram #doneisbetterthanperfect #digitallearning #virtuallearning #virtualteaching #onlineteacher #teachonline #remoteteaching #distanceteaching
Confession: I love a little "woo woo" with my hard Confession: I love a little "woo woo" with my hardcore business strategies.⁣
⁣
I've just always been that way. ⁣
⁣
🔮 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘵. ⁣
⁣
🔮 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥. ⁣
⁣
🔮 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵-𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘵. ⁣
⁣
I love all of the "Law of Attraction" and manifestations ideas I've been hearing about in my business podcasts (or maybe I'm just listening to the business podcasts that are served up with a side of spirituality...?).⁣
⁣
But I'm an English teacher--I'll read the source material myself, thank you very much 😜⁣
⁣
🔅 𝗜𝗻 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹, 𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗯𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆.⁣
⁣
If, however, you're not looking to learn every single thing about the manifestation world, those are probably your big takeaways. So I just saved you a lot of reading, lol.⁣
⁣
𝗔𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲? I can't be alone! (I can smell your oils down the hallway!)
The cycle of updating and maintaining TPT resource The cycle of updating and maintaining TPT resources:⁣
⁣
If it's been a while since you've touched that resource, you might be thinking that it's time for an update. ⁣
⁣
𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱? 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:⁣
⁣
𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳?⁣
𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴?⁣
𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸?⁣
𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵?⁣
𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘴?⁣
𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯?⁣
𝘋𝘰 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘸 (𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 3%) 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦?⁣
⁣
If you answered yes to any of those, it might be time to update. ⁣
⁣
(Don't worry, every TPT seller has a list a mile long of products to update!)⁣
⁣
𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗲-𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁. Add some new Pinterest pins. Include it in a blog post. Let your IG followers and email subscribers know that it has a shiny new finish. ⁣
⁣
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻, 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮. Are your views and conversions going up?⁣
⁣
Give it plenty of time (at least six months) before doing any drastic tweaking. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲!⁣
⁣
👉𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝘆 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀? ⁣
⁣
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝘆 𝗧𝗣𝗧 only newsletter!

#itslitteaching #tptseller
What are you dreaming up for 2021?⁣ ⁣ Besides What are you dreaming up for 2021?⁣
⁣
Besides a world in which I can travel, hug my friends, and skip the "mask-ne" on my face, I'm dreaming up some big goals for this year. ⁣
⁣
⭐ Launch more tools and share more information to help teachers begin their Teachers Pay Teachers stores⁣
⭐ Marry @zionthelyon in October (and survive the wedding-planning process until then)⁣
⭐ Offer an entire done-for-you Creative Writing course on my Teachers Pay Teachers store⁣
⭐ Make yoga a habit that's so instinctual, I don't even think about it⁣
⭐ Go back to school to learn about web development⁣
⭐ Organize my entire home⁣
⁣
...and so much more. I have bitten a lot off this year, but I'm up for the challenge. ⁣
⁣
⁣
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿? I'd love to see what you're going to accomplish in 2021!⁣
⁣
#itslitteaching ⁣
#englishclasses #teachingenglish #elateacher #2ndaryela #englishteachers #englishteaching⁣
#highschoolteacher #iteachhighschool #iteachela #iteachwriting #educating #schoolteacher #secondaryela #tptseller #tptteachers #tptstore #tptteacher #teacherpreneur #edupreneur #highperformancehabits #bizcoach #collaborationovercompetition #entrepreneursuccess #businesslessons #tptstore #teachersoftpt #teacherinspiration #teachertips #teachermotivation
This book is a must-read for white people.⁣ ⁣ This book is a must-read for white people.⁣
⁣
Years of working with at-risk, high-poverty, diverse students had already done wonders for making me aware of my own personal privilege. ⁣
⁣
But Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give really connected some major dots for me. ⁣
⁣
✊ Riots aren't caused by uncivilized people. They're a symptom of systemic oppression and the natural result of injustice and anger building over time.⁣
⁣
And while I never thought I'd need to be intimately familiar with the workings of riots, 2020 proved me wrong. I'm so glad that I (and the students to whom I've taught this novel) had read this book prior to the Kenosha riots.⁣
⁣
It allowed me to approach the whole ordeal with more understanding, more empathy, and helped me to stay focused on the priorities--human lives and justice--rather than getting caught up in the property damage. ⁣
⁣
I've recently bundled all of my resources for this wonderful novel with some related titles (Dear Martin and All American Boys) into one epic literature circle unit.⁣
⁣
𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆, 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗶𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗼. ⁣
⁣
(Oh, and everything included is both PRINTABLE AND DIGITAL!)⁣
⁣
#itslitteaching ⁣
#englishclasses #teachingenglish #elateacher #2ndaryela #englishteachers #englishteaching⁣
#highschoolteacher #iteachhighschool #iteachela #iteachwriting #educating #schoolteacher #secondaryela #digitallearning #virtuallearning #virtualteaching #onlineteacher #teachonline #onlineenglishteacher #remoteteaching #distanceteaching #knowjusticeknowpeace #socialjusticeeducation #classroomlibrary #instateachers #instagramteachers #educatorsofinstagram  #teachersonig #teachersoninstagram
Repeating the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. is Repeating the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. is not enough.⁣
⁣
We must live them.⁣
⁣
I know in my own district, the curriculum is often compartmentalized. It's February--time for an African American literature unit. It's MLK day--time for a biography lesson.⁣
⁣
While these are steps in the right direction, we are long past the time for a single African American unit. 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼. ⁣
⁣
We can't continue to lump entire groups of people into a one-month unit and call our work done. ⁣
⁣
Honor the work done before us today and try to imagine places in your classroom in which you can push against the traditionally white canon. ⁣
⁣
𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘂𝗺, 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂⁣
⚫ 𝘈𝘥𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵, 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦?⁣
⁣
⚫ 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺?⁣
⁣
⚫ 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴?⁣
⁣
Change happens from within--from within us and from within our classrooms. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁, 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆, 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗼. ⁣
⁣
#itslitteaching⁣
#englishclasses #teachingenglish #elateacher #2ndaryela #englishteachers #englishteaching⁣
#highschoolteacher #iteachhighschool #iteachela #iteachwriting #educating #schoolteacher #secondaryela #knowjusticeknowpeace #socialjusticeeducation #instateachers #instagramteachers #educatorsofinstagram #igconnect4edu #teachersonig #teachersoninstagram #bookreviewblog #bookpost #readstagram #bookwormlife #bibliophilelife #avidreader #readersgonnaread #classroomlibrary
What is it you need to cover or teach?⁣ ⁣ Lite What is it you need to cover or teach?⁣
⁣
Literature circles are great for exploring a variety of topics. ⁣
⁣
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗶𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱: ⁣
⚫ A genre (𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢𝘯, 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳)⁣
⁣
⚫ An author (𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘺𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴, 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦)⁣
⁣
⚫ A book type (𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴, 𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘴)⁣
⁣
You can still teach your required content while providing students with choice, differentiation, and the ability to collaborate with their peers. ⁣
⁣
𝗧𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗶𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲, 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗼.
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Let’s Keep in Touch!

Meet me in The Lounge!

Signup for my newsletter The Lounge and be the first to hear about new teaching resources, blog posts, and oh, so much more!

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.

Featured!

Pinterest pin for It's Lit Teaching blog post: "TPT Seller Success: How to Earn the Most from a Sitewide Sale"

TPT Seller Success: How to Earn the Most from a Sitewide Sale

Pinterest pin for blog post: "Literature Circles: What You Need to Know"

Literature Circles: What You Need to Know

Pinterest Pin: Don't Make These Stupid Mistakes With Your TPT Money

Don’t Make These Stupid Mistakes with Your TPT Money!

My Reading Picks!

Amazon Associates Disclosure

Heather Cianci is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com or myhabit.com.

Instagram

No images found!
Try some other hashtag or username
Design by SkyandStars.co
Back Top

© 2018–2021 Heather Cianci