Disorderly Contexts: ELAC Conference 2024

Choosing texts for ELA can seem daunting, messy, and chaotic. Are we giving students mirrors to see themselves and windows to see others? Are we getting to enough poetry, non-fiction, and other forms? Are we teaching enough mini-lessons on authorial craft? This session will provide teachers with one possible solution: the mentor text. Mentor texts can act as a close reading activity, mini-lesson, and writing prompt all in one. It will showcase how you can bring so many voices, text types, and elements of craft into your classroom and get students writing in only 15-30 minutes a week. You will leave this workshop with an understanding of how to utilize mentor texts in your classroom. Take-away materials include a large number of mentor texts highlighting many voices and genres—and their corresponding mini-lessons and writing prompts—that you can start using next Mentor Text Monday!