Lesson title: Counting Up/Down Stories

Lesson's Mentor Text: Wringer by Jerry Spinelli

Focus Trait: Idea Development (using strong details)
Support Trait: Word Choice (experimenting with structure)

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Lesson title: Writing Like an Artist Paints

Lesson's Mentor Text: Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

Focus Trait: Idea Development (using strong details)
Support Trait: Word Choice (selecting purposeful adjectives, verbs, and nouns)

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Lesson title: Adventurous Magic

Lesson's Mentor Text: Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville

Focus Trait: Idea Development (creating an original scene based on a model)
Support Trait: Organization (planning purposeful paragraphs)

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Lesson title: Imaginative Home Movies

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

Focus Trait: Idea Development (selecting memorable details)
Support Trait: Voice (using deliberate humor)

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Lesson title: Episodic Writing

Lesson's Mentor Text: Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

Focus Trait: Idea Development (exploring themes and details)
Support Trait: Organization (experimenting with structure)

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Lesson title: Launch your own Murder Mystery

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Focus Trait: Idea Development (creating an original scene)
Support Trait: Organization (planning purposeful paragraphs)

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Lesson title: The Skin You're In

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake

Focus Trait: Idea Development (using sensory details)
Support Trait: Word Choice (choosing strong verbs, adjectives, and nouns)

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Lesson title: Rules and Things for a "Funner Life"

Lesson's Mentor Text: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Focus Trait: Idea Development (using unique ideas)
Support Trait: Word Choice (writing to convey tone and mood)

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Lesson title: Launching a Fantastic Voyage

Lesson's Mentor Text: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Focus Trait: Idea Development (balancing showing and telling)
Support Trait: Organization (planning purposeful paragraphs)

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Lesson title: You're on a Gigantic Roll...

Lesson's Mentor Text: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Focus Trait: Idea Development (describing settings and objects well)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using strong verbs and inventive words)

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Lesson title: Visualized Writing

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Sisters Grimm, Book 2: The Usual Suspects by Michael Buckley and Peter Ferguson

Focus Trait: Idea Development (originality and details)
Support Trait: Organization (sequencing events)

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Lesson title: Writing About Life's Lessons

Lesson's Mentor Text: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Focus Trait: Idea Development (writing from personal experience)
Support Trait: Organization (sequencing events)

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Lesson title: The Importance of Setting

Lesson's Mentor Text: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Voice

This lesson is currently being constructed based on a teacher's proposal; check back with us soon!

Lesson title: Gotta Go Back in Time

Lesson's Mentor Text: George Washington's Socks by Elvira Woodruff

Focus Trait: Idea Development (accurately reporting historical facts)
Support Trait: Organization (planning a beginning, middle, and end)

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Lesson title: What's in a Name?

Lesson's Mentor Text: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Focus Trait: Idea Development (creating a fictional narrative)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using words that evoke imagery)

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Lesson title: Show What Your Mind Sees

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Twits by Roald Dahl

Focus Trait: Organization (planning a purposeful paragraph)
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency (varying sentence lengths)

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Lesson title: Build an Adventure

Lesson's Mentor Text: Any of the Choose Your Own Adventure Series by R. A. Montgomery

Focus Trait: Organization (planning purposeful paragraphs or story parts)
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency (varying sentence lengths)

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Lesson title: What's Your Fifth Element?

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Snow Walker by Farley Mowat

Focus Trait: Organization (planning purposeful paragraphs)
Support Trait: Voice (using persuasive techniques)

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Lesson title: The Ultimate Survivor

Lesson's Mentor Text: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Focus Trait: Organization (sequencing story events)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using strong adjectives and precise nouns)

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Lesson title: Beyond Once Upon a Time...

Lesson's Mentor Text: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

Focus Trait: Organization (starting with a powerful introduction)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using color and texture words)

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Lesson title: Writing to your Favorite Author

Lesson's Mentor Text: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

Focus Trait: Organization (structuring a friendly letter)
Support Trait: Idea Development (using memorable details)

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Lesson title: Solving a Fantastic Problem!

Lesson's Mentor Text: Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards

Focus Trait: Organization
Support Trait: Word Choice

This lesson is currently being constructed based on a teacher's proposal; check back with us soon!

Lesson title: "Knot" the Whole Truth

Lesson's Mentor Text: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Focus Trait: Voice (conveying emotion and emphasis)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using figurative language)

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Lesson title: A Character's Decalogue

Lesson's Mentor Text: Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Focus Trait: Voice (writing from a believable perspective)
Support Trait: Organization (imitating a structure)

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Lesson title: So Much Depends Upon...

Lesson's Mentor Text: Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

Focus Trait: Voice (writing from a believable perspective)
Support Trait: Word Choice using words that voke imagery)

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Lesson title: "Voicing" a Believable Account

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers

Focus Trait: Voice (writing from a believable perspective)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using words that voke imagery)

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Lesson title: Down on the Farm

Lesson's Mentor Text: Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen

Focus Trait: Voice (writing from a believable perspective)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using strong adjectives and verbs and precise nouns)

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Lesson title: Nature Poetry

Lesson's Mentor Text: Woodsong by Gary Paulsen

Focus Trait: Voice (visualizing emotions)
Support Trait: Word Choice (choosing mood-inducing words)

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Lesson title: Giving Credit Where Credit Might Be Due

Lesson's Mentor Text: Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin as Told by his Good Mouse Amos by Robert Lawson

Focus Trait: Voice (writing convincingly from an imaginary perspective)
Support Trait: Organization (sequencing events)

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Lesson title: Historical Journal Entries

Lesson's Mentor Text: Pedro's Journal: A Journey with Christopher Columbus by Pam Conrad

Focus Trait: Voice (writing from another's perspective)
Support Trait: Idea Development (putting researched facts into one's own words)


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Lesson title: Let Me Show You Nature

Lesson's Mentor Text: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Focus Trait: Word Choice (using color, texture, and sound words)
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency (varying sentence lengths and sentence beginnings)

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Lesson title: Writing a Backwards Poem

Lesson's Mentor Text: Holes by Louis Sachar

Focus Trait: Word Choice (using irony and oxymorons)
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency (using humor deliberately)

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Lesson title: Your Own Faraway Place

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Focus Trait: Word Choice (using strong adjectives and verbs)
Support Trait: Voice (conveying mood or emotion to the reader through word choice)

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Lesson title: Make 'em Laugh or Cry or...

Lesson's Mentor Text: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Focus Trait: Word Choice (using strong adjectives and verbs and precise nouns)
Support Trait: Voice (conveying mood or emotion to the reader through word choice)

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Lesson title: Memories that Inspire your own Moment Like This Memoir

Lesson's Mentor Text: Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Focus Trait: Word Choice (using words that evoke sensory details)
Support Trait: Idea Development (using memorable details)

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Lesson title: Prose Poetry


Lesson's Mentor Text: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Focus Trait: Word Choice (taking risks with poetic language and techniques)
Support Trait: Voice (conveying self through words)

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We currently have no sentence fluency prompts to share, but we are hoping to get some at our next inservice.

Need one now? Be sure to check out the sentence fluency prompts on the Picture Book Lessons Page and the Literature Lessons Page.

Lesson title: Puns an Punctuation

Lesson's Mentor Text: Any of the Tom Swift Adventure Series by Victor Appleton

Focus Trait: Conventions (punctuating for dialogue)
Support Trait: Word Choice (playing with words through puns)

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Lesson title: Inventing a New Word

Lesson's Mentor Text: Frindle by Andrew Clements

Focus Trait: Conventions (punctuating for dialogue)
Support Trait: Word Choice (inventing words and choosing strong dialogue verbs)

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