Clip Description
In this writing workshop clip, Aria is interviewed about how she uses a mentor text for help in her writing.
Commentary
This clip shows that students can independently handle sophisticated tasks while the teacher is conferencing with other students. For a successful writing workshop, it is critical to provide students with a variety of resources so that they are not constantly interrupting the teacher during conferences. Mentor texts serve as one of those valuable resources. They are excellent writing models for students, and they can help in expressing an idea or using a new writing strategy.
Transcript
| STUDENT: | I'm looking for like how they act and how I can find like if... So I'm doing a narrative and I'm - and I'm doing it on my family. And I'm looking - because this is about a family. I'm looking to see what ideas I could get from this story. |
| VISITOR: | Could you remember? I mean, sounds like you guys read that book before, right? |
| STUDENT: | Yes. |
| VISITOR: | So what kinds of things stuck in your memory that you're looking to be reminded about? |
| STUDENT: | I'm trying to remember like some people did - like he tried to eat that stuff which he hated. She already ate it.. And I'm trying to see if there's something else related to like in the family, like traditions. Like a grandmother or [unclear]. And she used to make that stuff for them. And I'm just trying to see if there's anymore tradition like they go to the fair and stuff. So I'm going to see if there are any traditions in going to the fair. |
| VISITOR: | And are you connecting that to traditions in your family or - ? |
| STUDENT: | Yeah. |
| VISITOR: | What kind of tradition are you writing about? |
| STUDENT: | Once a year we go to the Wine Festival with my grandfather. And I don't ride those kinds of rides but there's lots of rock climbing and there's jumping houses and stuff like that. And I'm seeing if there are any traditions. |
| VISITOR: | So how do you guys generally use text like, like Mr. White was talking about mentor text? Do you guys - when you go to a book, what kinds of things are you generally looking for? What are other students looking for? |
| STUDENT: | They're looking for a lesson and seeing if there's any - anything they're looking for. Like, say I was sleeping there trying to look for like how should they describe going to sleep? |
