Well, it depends upon the context. Most of the time, the term 'mentor text' is used in the context of writing. Stacey Shubitz (2016) describes mentor texts as "samples of exemplary writing we can study during writing workshops" in her book Craft Moves. Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell (2017) define the term as "books or other texts that serves as examples of excellent writing." Lynn Dorfman has a great interview on National Writing Project Radio where she defines mentor texts as "pieces of literature you--both teacher and student--can return to and reread for many purposes. They are texts to be studied and imitated...Mentor texts help students take risks and be different writers tomorrow than they are today. It helps them to try out new strategies and formats." If we use the dictionary definition of mentor, it says that they are "an experienced and trusted advisor."
Taking into account all of this information, I think we need to focus on certain aspects of the various definitions. Experienced, exemplary, excellent. Mentor texts are all of these things--and more. They are texts that we should (as Dorfman says) study and imitate. We should return to them and reread them for more than one purpose. Another thing to remember about mentor texts is that they are not just books. They could be poems, letters, songs--really anything that you return to many times in your teaching.
So, back to those lists of books that you got with your latest TPT purchase. Those books could easily be used as anchor texts. Anchor texts 'anchor' your unit of study. An anchor text is the main text for your unit, the text that all the other texts you use in your unit revolve around. These books are valuable and important, but they are not the books that are "as comfortable as a worn pair of blue jeans" as Dorfman and Cappelli refer to mentor texts (2017). Anchor texts are texts you might use once or twice to teach a lesson or concept. But mentor texts are texts you come back to time and time again--you use these books for a variety of teaching purposes. As a good teacher, you will likely have a big stack of anchor texts--I know I do! But your mentor text pile, well, that one holds your old favorites--the books you absolutely love to share with your students. These books will be your best friends to help teach writing craft, reading concepts, and likely even social skills, science, or social studies concepts.
In my next post, we'll dig deeper into mentor texts and explore the ways in which you can choose those texts. In the meantime, interested in checking out some of the authors I mentioned? The links are below.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on mentor texts or answer any questions in upcoming blog posts, so leave your 2c below.
Happy Reading!!
~Carrie
Lynne Dorfman on NWP Radio: https://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/4090
