Juli Kendall's Weekly
Writing Workshop Journal
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested teachers
are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop and other ideas about
supporting young adolescent writers and readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing
teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion.
Last year, Juli kept a weekly journal from her Reading Workshop.
This year, Juli is continuing her journals, but this time she's focusing
on her Writing Workshop. Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin
to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's Journals,
find out how here.
Writing Workshop
Week #26:
We Begin the Search
for Our Mentor Authors
"We need to put the lightning of our stories and our heritage into
the jars of our children's minds so that they, in turn, can pass them on
to future generations."
-- From the book jacket of When Lightning Comes in a Jar by Patricia
Polacco
There is literature: "the spine of the writing workshop."
There is touchstone text: "a piece of literature that is used
by a community of writers to study craft or some aspect of craft."
And then there is mentor text: "a piece of literature that is
chosen and used by an individual to study craft or some aspect of craft."
(Thanks to Isoke Nia for these definitions.)
For the next several weeks in Writing Workshop, we're talking about how
kids choose mentor texts that can help them "reap most of the benefits
of using a beloved author as a mentor."
Making the choosing of mentor authors a Unit of Study is a first for us,
on a par with Writer's Notebooks, memoir, and "reading like a writer."
In all my years of teaching Writing Workshop with fifth and sixth grade
kids in blue and white uniforms, I've never started a unit of study so unsure
of where we would be when we reached the end. This isn't your grandmother's
vintage "author study" -- it's a whole new way of thinking about
authors and writing.
What it is -- and isn't
In the beginning, I was very puzzled by what this unit of study would entail.
In some ways, it was easier for me to figure out what it wouldn't be. Based
on the Writing Workshop Curricular
Calendar, our unit of study about Choosing a Mentor Author would not
be:
-- New jargon for a traditional author study.
-- A unit completely planned and orchestrated by me, the teacher.
-- A time when kids jump from author to author.
-- A scenario where the teacher does most of the work, has most of the fun,
and learns most of the lessons.
-- Time entirely spent together as a class learning from a whole-class mentor.
Our unit of study about choosing a mentor author would be:
-- Building on the knowledge of reading like a writer.
-- Students choosing their own mentor authors.
-- Noticing the authors' writerly lives and their genre choices; noticing
their craft techniques.
-- Students pointing out aspects of texts they admire, naming what the author
has done, searching for other examples of that technique and, when appropriate,
trying to emulate that technique in their own writing.
-- A unit that is designed with the goal of encouraging independence.
-- Students doing most of the work.
The information from Isoke Nia's Teachers College workshop on "Choosing
a Mentor Author" states:
The real work of the unit involves young people finding mentors
for themselves and learning what can happen when they fall head-over-heels-in-love
with the work of another writer.
The bulk of time in this unit is devoted to students working individually
or in small clusters to apprentice themselves to their own chosen mentor
authors.
The day will help us actively teach into a unit designed to teach students
how to initiate and conduct rigorous studies of authors they love.
If I could only spend a day learning from Isoke Nia or Katie Wood Ray about
choosing a mentor author, I'm sure I'd be more confident in my ability to
inspire my students. Fortunately, other teachers have had that opportunity,
and they were willing to share what they learned on MiddleWeb's Writing
Workshop listserv.
Nancy wrote:
I've worked with Isoke Nia on this particular study. I'll try
it for the first time next year.
I find this unit to be fascinating. One piece of advice: this unit may need
to be studied at the beginning of the school year. The children will be
picking a mentor author that they will constantly refer to throughout the
year. It is important to identify the author early in the year.
Then, Antonio Villar, Biliteracy Program Specialist from San Diego, emailed
the list:
Isoke Nia has a page in her "Units of Study in the Writing
Workshop" paper where she explains the role of the touchstone text
in detail. She explains how to select a text that the whole class can discuss
and learn from, and how to help students connect the piece to their writing.
"Although you will be asking students to do this with their own 'mentor/touchstone'
pieces, the whole class can be discussing one text and trying out different
writing moves they have noticed a particular author using. Whole-class discussions
are a much-needed scaffold for students and can bring all students to a
high level of understanding. What piece of writing has touched you, the
teacher, and influenced your own writing?"
Katie Wood Ray, a Writing Workshop consultant working with our teachers,
led a discussion of writing using the text Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant,
a text she said had truly moved her when she read it. Her understanding
of the writer's craft involved in writing such a quality book helped us
understand how to use such a text with our students.
Before the unit starts, I go searching for resources. I find four books
especially helpful.
Carl Anderson, How's It Going? Chapter 4, "Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Teaching Students to Learn From Authors," pp. 109-137
Katie Wood Ray, What You Know By Heart, Chapter 8, "Letting
Authors Co-teach the Curriculum of Products," pp. 144-150
Lucy Calkins, The Art of Teaching Writing, Chapter 17, "Apprenticeships
in the Writing Workshop, Learning from Authors," pp. 273-285
Shelley Harwayne, Lasting Impressions, Chapter 9, "When Mentors
Really Matter," pp. 158-187
More help from the listserv
As I begin planning the unit of study, I also go back through my journals
to remind myself of what I said about mentor authors as we were launching
our Writing Workshop (Journal #5).
We're beginning by immersing ourselves in the work of Sandra
Cisneros, Patricia Polacco, Angela Johnson and Cynthia Rylant. These 'Mentor
Authors' will teach us volumes about writing this year.
For additional assistance, I write in to the MiddleWeb Writing Workshop
listserv:
In order to start our unit of study about choosing a mentor
author off right, I'm modeling with one of my own mentor authors, Patricia
Polacco. I have gathered a ton of her books, material about her writerly
life, and we're immersing ourselves by reading, reading, reading. In addition,
as we read in small groups, we're talking about what we notice in her life
and in her writing.
One interesting point: we've discovered that she uses her husband, Enzo,
in some of her books.
Has anyone else used Patricia Polacco as a mentor author? If so, I'd love
to hear about it. Also, I'm looking for other good suggestions of mentor
authors so I can offer a wide variety to my students in the next step of
our unit.
Susie responded:
I think Patricia Polacco would be a wonderful choice! I had
the privilege to hear her speak at the AR convention. She has a video much
like her presentation that you could use with your class; I believe I paid
$20 for it. It is ALMOST like having her there telling her stories. She
speaks a lot about her book The Keeping Quilt.
And, Thank You, Mr. Falker would be so ideal to use with students,
too. She has many messages that you would like for a mentor to convey.
Mary Anne wrote in to say:
I've used both Patricia Pollaco and Paul Fleishman as what you
are calling "mentor authors." I've just never called it that.
Patricia Pollaco has a movie out in which she talks about herself as a writer.
Most of her stories are memoirs of herself or others she has met. In many
of her books she includes real photographs of the people the characters
stand for. In "My Old Man" there are a lot of pictures hidden
in the illustrations of her family. I believe the title of the movie is
"Dreamweaver." I checked it out of a public library.
Paul Fleishman is an amazing but little used author. His "Seedfolk"
is a collection of vignettes surrounding a community garden in inner city
Cleveland. The kids also use his poetry as a model of poems for two voices
on a theme and his "Bull Run" as how to tell a story through letters.
Nancy shared this:
When choosing a mentor author, you have to choose an author
that has written across grade levels and/or genre. Patricia Polacco is a
good choice because she has written in different genre and her books can
be used across grade levels. Other writers to be considered are Gary Paulsen,
Ralph Fletcher, Angela Johnson, Gary Soto. The first week of the mentor
author study is about your mentor author and the rest of the study is about
the child's mentor author.
Our first week of study
For the first week of our unit of study, I model "Choosing a mentor
author" with one author, Patricia Polacco. It's hard to imagine
what this is like -- having Patricia Polacco join us in our small group
conversations about reading like writers. It's as though she's really with
us. We read and reread many of her books as we discuss what she does
as a writer.
As we talk about her books, we build a chart of what we notice in her writing.
* She always uses another word for grandma, Babushka. The word is Ukrainian.
Rechenka's Eggs
* She puts her husband, Enzo, and other members of her family, in some
of her stories. In Enzo's Splendid Garden and My Rotten, Red Headed,
Older Brother and The Keeping Quilt
* She gives lots of information about the characters. Meteor!
* She often describes grandparents. Thank You, Mr. Falker
* Some of her books take place on a ranch (farm). My Rotten, Red
Headed, Older Brother and Babushka's Doll
* She puts in lots of excitement. Meteor!
* She writes poems with rhymes. Babuska's Mother Goose
* She puts her friends in her books. Chicken Sunday and Thank
You, Mr. Falker
* There's always a problem and a solution. Chicken Sunday
* We decide that there's always a sad part. Maurice suggests this excerpt
from Thank You, Mr. Falker. "It's the part about not letting
go of the grass," he reminds us.
Trisha's grandma used to say that the stars were holes in the
sky. They were the light of heaven coming from the other side. And she used
to say that someday she would be on the other side, where the light comes
from.
One evening they lay on the grass together and counted the lights from heaven.
"You know," her grandma said, "all of us will go there someday.
Hang on to the grass, or you'll lift right off the ground, and there you'll
be!"
They laughed, and both hung on to the grass.
But it was not long after that night that her grandma must have let go of
the grass, because she went to where the lights were, on the other side.
And not long after that, Trisha's grandpa let go of the grass, too.
School seemed harder and harder now.
We also read and discuss what we are learning about Patricia Polacco to
discover what makes her "writerly life" special. (Excerpts are
from the book, Firetalker, by Patricia Polacco).
* She loves to write. "I am so lucky...so very lucky! I love my life.
Can you imagine doing what you love every day? When I am working on a book,
I work every day until it is finished."
* She gets her ideas while she is sitting and rocking. "The first thing
I do in the morning, though, just like I did when I was a little girl, is
sit and rock. I listen to music and let my imagination soar."
* Her artwork is very important to her. It makes her happy. "My heart
sings whenever I am drawing."
* Her family is frequently a source of inspiration for her work. "In
The Keeping Quilt, I tell how my mother's family came to be here
in America."
* Storytelling is in her blood. "Many of our evenings were spent in
front of the fireplace, popping corn, eating apple wedges, and hearing rich,
incredible tales. My babushka (my Ukrainian grandmother) called this "firetalking."
Whenever she finished one of her tales of magic and mystery, my brother
and I would always ask, "Bubby, is that a true story?" She would
look at us and reply, "Of, course it's true...but it may not have happened."
* She had to work very hard to learn things.
Gladys finds this quote from Patricia Polacco as she is reading the book,
Firetalker. She reads it aloud for all of us. "I had difficulty
reading. Math was and still is almost impossible for me. I knew that inside
I was very smart, but at school I felt stupid and slow." Gladys pauses,
and everyone gasps. She continues reading, "I had to work very hard
to learn things."
It seems that, in the end, these kids who are struggling with reading and
writing, just like Patricia Polacco did, really do understand how she feels
about her work.
Next week: The kids choose their own mentor authors
Download Juli's Curricular
Calendar #8 (mentor authors) for Writing Workshop
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and Writing Workshop plans
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