Tuesday Tip - Mentor Text VS Stimulus Text

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss switching from mentor text to stimulus text.

Video Transcript

It's Jocelyn with a Tuesday Tip. We all know that authentic, beautiful texts are fantastic to work with in the classroom. They're not just a nice to have, they are a must have. We often want to use those texts as the jumping off point for writing. And today I want to talk to you about the language we use to describe these texts.

We often refer to them as mentor texts. And the trouble with this is that it locks us in to the kind of writing the students can do. So in order for the mental text idea to work, if we're reading a fiction text, the writing must be fiction. If we want the children to write a nonfiction text, then the mental text must also be nonfiction.

But I actually don't think that this is accurate. I think it's much more helpful for us to think of those texts as stimulus texts. And that broadens the scope of what we're able to do. It's perfectly reasonable to read a fiction text, but teach children to write a nonfiction response to that text. 

We can also, in some circumstances, help the children engage with a nonfiction text and have some sort of fiction writing come off it. So adjust your language from mentor text to stimulus text to give yourself and your students way more options.

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