Using Mentor Texts for Reading
The use of quality texts in the classroom to teach reading and writing is critical, and selecting appropriate texts can sometimes be challenging and time consuming for a busy teacher.
These texts, or mentor texts as they are more commonly known, are the foundation for rich and explicit instruction and can be used for many different purposes when teaching literacy.
A ‘mentor text’ is an engaging piece of text that is rich in content and supports strategy and skill instruction. When using a mentor text for reading instruction, the text itself can be used to explicitly model the application of specific reading strategies and according to the experts at the National Writing Project, they are “pieces of literature that — both the teacher and student — can return to and reread” depending on the focus of the reading lesson.
When exploring mentor texts, picture books, chapter books, articles, nonfiction texts, magazines, and poems should all be considered. Once a teacher has established a clear understanding of the focus for learning, they can be strategic in how they use the mentor text to emphasise the specific comprehension strategy being modelled. Decisions can also be made as to how much of the mentor text will be used during the mini-lesson. Rather than using the whole text, teachers may choose to use a small section/paragraph to highlight what is being taught or focus in on a chapter or page.
When choosing a quality mentor text, it is important to consider the following:
- Use quality literature
- Read the text yourself rather than relying on online advice
- Consider the engagement levels of the text for your students
- Look for parts of the text you could use for explicit instruction
- Flexibility of the text – links to inquiry and other reading strategies
If you would like to find out more, schoolED can provide support with the following:
- Model reading strategy lessons with quality mentor texts in classrooms
- Educate teachers of the benefits and importance of ‘mentor texts’ in the primary classroom F-6
- Work with individuals, teams, whole staff and leadership to identify quality mentor texts for specific Units of Study
- Set up collections of quality mentor texts that can be utilised across F-6
