Writing Mentor Texts With Incredible Board Books
The other day I was reading with my baby boy (my favorite activity to do with him) and realized that board books would make a great writing mentor text. Board books have so much more information than I realized they did. Before I became a parent, I always assumed board books were simple words with not much substance. Yes, some can be this way, but others are quite informational and detailed!
Using Board Books as Writing Mentor Texts
When I teach writing workshop to my students, I love using writing mentor texts to show them ways they can write about our focus skill. My school follows the Lucy Calkins curriculum, but you can use this idea for any writing lesson! For example, we look at a Time for Kids magazine, National Geographic Readers, or a Gail Gibbons book to examine the different parts of non-fiction writing.
We look at the titles, headings, the purpose of the photographs, the captions, the vocabulary words used, how the information is described etc. It is so fun when students really dive into a book and look at the author’s thinking behind writing it that way and what writing skill they can learn from the author’s craft.
Writing mentor texts are very useful and important for teaching the different aspects of a type of writing. However, I can tell some of my 2nd graders get really overwhelmed at the thought of creating their own book like that. Using board books as some of your mentor texts demonstrate that varying lengths and complexity of writing is all accepted and wonderful!
We also talk a lot about audience in our writing. We examine various books and how the writers is addressing the audience’s needs, age, and interests. Many students pick a younger sibling to be their target audience. In this situation, using a board book as a writing mentor text shows the appropriate amount of words and how the information should be provided for this age group.
When we examine board books, I find that students confidence goes up and intimidation factor decreases as they begin to write their own books. It is more accessible for struggling writers to think how to write a non- fiction board book than a higher level picture book.
Writing Mentor Texts I Use
These are a few of the board books that I use for our non-fiction writing unit. Click the links to view the books on Amazon. There are so many other similar possibilities out there. If you find great ones that you like to use, I would love to hear about them!
- Baby’s Big World- Chemistry
- Babies & Doggies Book
- Sesame Street Books of Firsts Series
- Book of Opposites– Bert & Ernie
- Baby Dinosaur
- Hello World, Ocean Life
- National Geographic Look & Learn Series- Bears
I also love having these types of board books in my classroom library! My students always love reading them. Especially the Hello World and National Geographic Look & Learn Series I think because they do not look “babyish”.
Celebrating Students Writing Board Books
For one published writing piece, I encourage all of my students to write to a board book style book for a younger audience. Then we buddied up with a Pre- Kindergarten class and they got to share their book with a few younger students. It was so incredible to watch the students pride as they read their books with their buddies and could feel that it was a level of book appropriate for them! I love having reading celebrations like this whenever possible.
In an effort to celebrate all of my students’ writing at whatever stage of the writing progression they are in, it is also important to celebrate all types of writing mentor texts! I hope this gives you some ideas for how to use board books as writing mentor texts to teaching writing skills to your students!
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