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Showing posts from December, 2016

Using Mentor Texts

By now, you have all heard me mention my celebrity crush, Kelly Gallagher.  Unless you are an English teacher, you have probably never heard of him.  He is both an English teacher and an author of numerous books about teaching reading and writing.  Although I have never met him in person, he has been my mentor and inspiration for the past few years.   One of my favorite books that he has written is Write Like This .  This book encourages teachers to provide mentor texts  to guide  student writing.  He argues that students need good writing to emulate.  I agree!  Over the past few weeks I implemented one of his lessons and am pretty excited with the results.   One of the writing types that seventh-graders must learn is the informational essay.  Last year I had students pick a teen issue from The Outsiders to research and write about.  I had about 40 essays on child abuse, 50 on smoking, and another 30 on peer pressure.  You get the picture!  Let me tell you, grading those essays was