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Mentor Text Writing Lessons: Chapter Book Excerpts
49 free-to-use lessons: created by Northern Nevada teachers for teachers everywhere

New Feature! Have you seen WritingFix's Bibliography Page, which cites all the books used as mentor texts here at WritingFix? It's an easy-to-use new resource. Click on the image at right!


How did this page of free lessons come about? In 2006, WritingFix and the Northern Nevada Writing Project received a generous grant that helped begin the very popular lesson collection you will find on this page. The generous $25,000 AT & T Grant, acquired with the help of the Washoe Education Foundation, allowed us to create and host a very different kind of inservice class for 100 Northern Nevada teachers, and that inservice made possible this page.

Members of the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Technology Team showcased seven favorite chapter book lessons to the lucky 100 teachers who signed up first, then gave away 100 copies of each of the chapter books so that participants could teach the lessons back in their classrooms. At the inservice's end, each of the 100 participants brought in a different chapter book excerpt to share, and wrote a brief proposal for a 6-trait lesson inspired by their books. The best of those proposals became the lessons you can fin on this page.

Each year under the instruction of Dena Harrison, the Northern Nevada Writing Project offers a variation of the original 2006 Chapter Book Inservice. If possible, we still give away some free books, but we can't give away as many as we did when we had a $25,000 grant sponsoring the class. Still, the inservice remains highly popular, and each year we add up to five new lessons here from the class's participants.

Please enjoy these free lessons from WritingFix. If you notice we're missing a student sample of a certain grade level, contact us. We might be able to arrange sending you a new book in exchange for your help in getting one of your students published on-line.

For Which Writing Trait Do You Seek a Lesson?
(click on a trait name to jump down the page to trait-specific specific lessons)
   

17 Idea Development Prompts and Lessons:

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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: Actions Speak Louder than Words

Lesson's Mentor Text: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Focus Trait: Idea Development (showing a character with action words)
Support Trait: Word Choice (focusing on interesting verbs and verb phrases)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: Creating a Parallel Universe

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

Focus Trait: Idea Development (showing details about a setting, comparing and contrasting)
Support Trait: Word Choice (using both inventive and descriptive words)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: A Magical Animal Encounter

Lesson's Mentor Text: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Focus Trait: Idea Development (using memorable details)
Support Trait: Organization (planning paragraphs)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)


Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


 

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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


7 Organization Prompts and Lessons:

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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: Leads for a Most Embarrassing Moment

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

Focus Trait: Organization (exploring leads)
Support Trait: Idea Development (carefully choosing memorable details)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


 
11 Voice Prompts and Lessons:

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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: Creating a School Survival Guide

Lesson's Mentor Text: Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar

Focus Trait: Voice (conveying emotion and emphasis)
Support Trait: Idea Development (using a unique approach to share ideas)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)


Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)


Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: The Sum of Its Parts

Lesson's Mentor Text: Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

Focus Trait: Voice (conveying emotion or mood)
Support Trait: Idea Development (using memorable details)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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 evoke imagery)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: Native American Oral Storytelling

Lesson's Mentor Text: Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria

Focus Trait: Voice (borrowing a character's voice to re-tell a story)
Support Trait: Idea Development (developing a unique interpretation)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


7 Word Choice Prompts and Lessons:

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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson:Unique Metaphor Collections

Lesson's Mentor Text: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Focus Trait: Word Choice (choosing words to create rich description)
Support Trait: Idea Development (using metaphors that enhance an idea)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


 
2 Sentence Fluency Prompts and Lessons:

NEW Lesson: A Hurricane Blowing In

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Focus Trait: Sentence Fluency (varying between simple and complex sentences)
Support Trait: Word Choice (words that paint specific pictures in readers' minds)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


NEW Lesson: Moving through the Machine

Lesson's Mentor Text: Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

Focus Trait: Sentence Fluency (varying transitional words and phrases)
Support Trait: Organization (sequencing events in a paragraph)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


3 Conventions Prompts and Lessons

NEW Lesson: "Lawd! Lawd! Lawd!"

Lesson's Mentor Text: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Focus Trait: Conventions (punctuating for dialogue)
Support Trait: Idea Developmeng (showing character traits instead of telling them)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.


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)

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

 

Copyright 2009 - WritingFix and the Northern Nevada Writing Project- All Rights Reserved
(With the exception of the book thumbnails, the resources found on this page are copyrighted.
We include the picture book covers to encourage users to purchase the correct books, supporting the authors and illustrators who create them.)

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