I have 24 wonderful, smart and kind second grade students in my classroom. My school is in Woodbridge, VA, which is one of the many suburbs of Washington, DC. Both our school and the classrooms are every diverse, both culturally and economically. A mini United Nations, with many different languages spoken at home. About 36% of our school population receive free or reduced-price lunch. Even with this diversity, the school received the School of Excellence award for the 2016-2017 school year.
My classroom currently has ESOL students (English as a Second Language), Special education students, and General education students, all of the students in the classroom read at their own instructional level whether that be on grade level, above grade level or below grade level.
The students are very creative, they love to read and write their own stories. I have a couple of artists in my room as well.
My Project
These titles have been carefully selected to teach grammar and mechanics in a meaningful and exciting way. The traditional approach to teaching mechanics is often ineffective for students because it lacks meaningful application. Using these mentor texts, students will learn to look at sentences written by established authors, notice grammar and mechanics at work in the sentences, and apply those skills in their own writing. These titles serve many purposes in the classroom and can be used for a variety of subject areas.
A "Mentor" is an experienced and trusted adviser - why can't that adviser be a sentence?
It can! Using a strategy called "Mentor Sentences" (inspired by the writings of author Jeff Anderson) students will look more closely at a carefully selected sentence from a familiar text and use it to advise their own writing. On Monday, students will be presented with the mentor sentence. They will be invited to notice interesting qualities of the writing. This requires students to look at the writing as an author, and encourages a deeper level of thinking and processing skills. On Tuesday, students will diagram the mentor sentence, looking for parts of speech and the specific grammar conventions that have been taught in other lessons. On Wednesday, students will attempt to improve the original sentence by looking at word choice (using synonyms), adding descriptive and vivid language (adjectives and vocabulary), and considering punctuation (use of ellipses, hyphens, etc.). On Thursday, students will imitate the author by writing their own original sentence that uses the same structure and grammar conventions as the mentor sentence. The week concludes with an assessment of the grammar focus.
It is time to offer my students a way of accessing grammar and writing conventions in a powerful and purposeful way. These texts will help us get there!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Rossey and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
