[Mentor Text Monday] A Sunday Evening Sentence Search

It's Sunday evening. I want to post a mentor text, but my brain, she be empty. I tumble through my thoughts, flip through my mental card catalogue, scroll through my Twitter feed, and... nothing.

And then I remember--books! I read books, own books, and display said books in an easy-access shelving unit otherwise known as a book shelf. Books have words! Words have inspiration! I leap up from my slouchy-couch-typing position, semi-shut my eyes, pick a book, and settle back in (a little less slouchy, but not much).

What follows is my completely unstructured method for finding mentor-textian inspiration in a randomly-selected book.

The book, chosen mostly at random from my living room bookshelf:

The Book of Questions

by Pablo Neruda

Translated by William O'Daly

Published in 1974 by a small publishing house in Port Townsend, WA (near my home town!)

I've spent time with this book before--both in Spanish and English. I didn't read it cover to cover, but it's one of my familiars. It is not what I'd call an easy or accessible read, but it is undeniably gorgeous. The entire book is a series of unanswerable questions written as couplets. 

Unanswerable questions--I like that as a discussion and writing springboard. 

Couplets--I don't find teaching rhyming couplets overly inspiring, but I can see some interesting possibilities in a couplet conversation (rhyming vs. non-rhyming, open vs. closed, end-stop or run-on). 

I thumb through some of the passages:

XII

And at whom does rice smile

with infinitely many white teeth?

Why in the darkest ages 

do they write with invisible ink?

Does the beauty from Caracas know

how many skirts the river has?

Why do the fleas

and literary sergeants bite me?

Um... no. Even in my swirly-twirly brain, these words do not inspire a teachable moment for me. I find many more phrases that are interesting, but not "the one":

How large was the black octopus

that darkened the days peace?

No...

Who can convince the sea

to be reasonable?

Better, but I'm looking for a series...

If all rivers are sweet

where does the sea get its salt?

I like it, can I use the series?

If all rivers are sweet

where does the sea get its salt?

How do the seasons know

they must change their shirt?

Why so slowly in winter

and later with such a rapid shudder?

And how do the roots know

they must climb toward the light?

And then greet the air

with so many flowers and colors?

Is it always the same spring

who revives her role?

Yes, I think I can use this. A few of the lines are less clear than I'd like, but as a series, it has possibility. I see a few possible links:

• geography--rivers leading to the ocean, where DOES the salt come from?
• science--plants, roots, photosynthesis, how DO the plants know?
• literature--symbolism, figurative language, what is the personality of Spring?

I'd like to try a lesson with a good read of these couplets--individually, and as a series. Depending on the grade, I would dig a little deeper in to the idea that with these questions, Neruda shows a depth of learning about the topic--the idea that good questions can hold as much information as an answer. I would like to tie it in to a content area unit, and then use this series as a mentor text for showing learning about that content. 

My next step? Trying it on. I have to try to write one to see if it is possible, to watch the path of my thinking, so see if it supports the thinking I have in mind, and to use as an example if I do use this text. Sometimes I'll try this with a topic that is interesting to me personally, but often I use content that is appropriate to the grade level I'm teaching.

3rd Grade--Physical Science: Energy and Matter

Why does the fruit bowl not light up 

with the energy it stores?

Does the energy it creates 

travel in waves as well?

Are sunbeams sisters 

to soundwaves and oceans?

Well. That was harder than I thought. I tapped out at three. It took more content knowledge than I expected, and it was difficult to find a balance between poetic and factual. This mentor text would take some time, a class I knew well, and students with experience struggling through challenges in reading and writing. Considering all of that, I'd still like to use it. I'm tucking it away in my idea file!

So, that's my process when I try on a new mentor text. Do you have a process you use, a resource you prefer, or some favorite mentor texts you can use over and over?

[Mentor Text Monday] The New Culture Club

Okay, not really. The old Culture Club was enough to tide us over for a few more decades at least. Admittedly, I did just scour Culture Club lyrics for something witty. There may be a Culture Club mentor text coming soon.

For today, I want to thank one of my amazing siblings for this mentor text from OpenCulture.com.

OpenCulture's Twitter Bio describes it most succinctly:

https://twitter.com/openculture

The site itself is mind-boggling and will require much more of time to explore thoroughly. I may have found a third favorite source (UPPERCASE Magazine and WIRED Magazine being numbers one and two). Expect to hear enough about this site to become bored and eye-rolly.

From an array of options so huge I cannot even rest my thoughts, I have chosen this article and video as my mentor text for today.

Forrest Gump Directed by Wes Anderson

What I imagine here is a mentor text for a book or film trailer, or a summary of an historical even to science topic. Because this is a specific "wes-andersonian" style, I'd have to decide if I was going to dive into both the trailer and the style, or focus on one or the other.

I'm fascinated by the way an entire movie can be portrayed using text and simple images--I see some great summary or synthesizing practice here. Picking out only the points that are most important, and then distill them down to text and one or two images.

I'm equally fascinated by Wes Anderson's film style or, more to the point,  the concept of having an artistic style. How is a style developed. Students can examine the styles of favorite authors--create a book trailer that honors the style of the author. Students can examine their own style. How is style developed?  Can style change? Is your writing so very "you" that someone could try to mimic it?  I might segue into the figurative language concept of a synedoche during this discussion as well. Such infinite possibilities.

In my own planning, I start with a text or texts that strike my fancy, and then work to plan using the Common Core State Standards. I teach lessons in a variety of classrooms, and in this case I am planning something for 4-6th grade 1:1 technology classrooms. This video has so many options running through my head, that it was tough to narrow it down to one or two standards.

At first, I chose:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4
Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

After reading the standard as it progressed through the grades, I realized that this was not my most effective focus. In grade K-5, this standard lends itself to a more specific focus on word usage and connotation than I want to do with this text. 

So I changed my focus to:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7
Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

I always use a writing standard as well, and will be focusing on:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

I read through each grade level of each standard to make sure I understood the intent and the progression. Click here for a documents showing the progression CCR.R.4 and CCR.W.4.

This post is getting long. I will post my next planning steps later this week!

While I'm at it, is this video something you could use in your classroom? Is there something else on OpenCulture.com you might be able to use? What Common Core Standards might you use?

[Mentor Text Monday] I Heart Wired Magazine

Those of you that talk to me on any kind of a regular basis know about my love for Wired Magazine. I love every issue that comes out, and I thank my engineer friend for getting me a subscription. It's online as well,  but I truly enjoy the hard copy each month. Of course it isn't a perfect magazine (what??? impossible!), but I'm accepting of a periodical's growth areas.

I have narrowed down my Wired love-fest to four Mentor-Text-Monday-worthy reasons: Titles, Academic Language, Whole Text Structure and Text Complexity.

Titles

The article titles themselves serve as mentor texts for writing headers, titles, and punctuation for effect. Check out these intriguing titles:

See How Cadbury Hatches 350 Million Goo-Filled Eggs a Year

Are Touch Screens Melting Your Kids Brain?

Ridiculous New UFO Poll Reveals … Nothing Important

This Ex-Astronaut is Stalking Asteroids to Save Civilization

How to Make Fake Brains and Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

Academic Language

Wired Magazine does not shy away from academic language. Using a super-cool tool called WordSift (thank you Kenji Hakuta and Greg Wientjes of Stanford University and the SDAWP Fellow that shared this with me), I was able to sift through the text for various kinds of academic lanaguge.

Whole Text Strucutres

There are also some fascinating mentors for whole text structures:

Bird flipbooks made from old clocks and bike parts

A photo study on the earth's relationship with water

Chased by a Zombie
A Physics problem using zombies. Need I say more?

Text Conmplexity

The text in Wired Magazine is of a high level. I took one text--the body of a short article accompanying a graphic--and ran it through some text analyzers. This text, Science Graphic of the Week: 5.3 Million Years of Sea Level Change on One Cliff Face, was especially high. There is a variety, but expect to find texts that push the limits for your students.

So there you have it. four excellent reasons to go online and spend some time reading Wired Magazine articles. You'll learn at leas tone interesting thing, I promise!

Linking up to Mentor Text Monday on SDAWP Voices.

[Mentor Text Monday] Shhhhh....

Last week I visited our newly-built San Diego Public Library. I had been once before, but hadn't gotten to wander around. My favorite places are the main elevator, the blue chairs in the reading room, and the 9th floor views:

The elevator--because it is a visual shindig:

The blue furniture because it looks like a cartoon and I want to sit on a cartoon and read:

The bookstore because they had fabulous books and booky things that I loved:

Like the book I bought that is my new favorite and should be read in that blue sofa.

The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood illustrated by Renata Liwska

I am not usually a fan of picture books with "cute " pictures. So often that seems to be the bulk of the content--the act of being cute. I love this book because of the text, and cute-picture lovers will also like the illustrations. As a mentor text, the illustrations definitely add to the content, and for this I can forgive their cuteness.

The story is a list of kinds of quiet. The types of quiet listed have nuance and depth--

First one awake quiet.. Jelly side down quiet... Last one to get picked up from school quiet...Lollipop quiet... Best friends don’t need to talk quiet...Bedtime kiss quiet...”What flashlight?” quiet... Sound asleep quiet....

As a whole, they follow a full day from wake-up to sleepy time. Each type of quiet allows room for a vignette or scene as well. 

Two of my favorites are:

First look at your new haircut quiet

and

Thinking of a good reason you were drawing on the wall quiet

I could tell a whole story just about those two kinds of quiet.

I like the idea of using this book with the book A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood--even just the first page of the book:

Sometimes a person needs a quiet place.
 A place to rest your ears from
Bells ringing and
whistles shrieking and
grown-ups talking and
engines roaring and
horns blaring and
grown-ups talking and
radios playing and
grown-ups…
Well, even grown-ups need a quiet place sometimes.
 But it can be hard to find one.
You have to know where to look.

Separately or together, these books can spring board a conversation, writing time, or an inquiry into nuance and juxtaposition. There are also language structures and word choice in both books that would be great for mentor sentences or phrases--parallelism, repetition for effect, use of the ellipse, run on sentences as a poetic structure--so many possibilities!

In my searching for images of these books I came across this website that provides a moment of quiet for each of us. Warning--there is one adult word used. I still very much enjoyed the site and want to share. If you choose to try a moment of quiet at the Quiet Place Project, maybe you can use it to set the scene for who you will use these titles in your classroom?

The Quiet Place Project

Happy Mentor Text Monday!

[Mentor Text Monday] Using Photos

When I'm looking for mentor texts, I often forget to consider photos. "Reading" a photo uses some of the same skills as reading a text with words. 

One of my favorite sources for online photography is www.wprasek.com. There are a variety of categories and the photos are vibrant and rich. When I look for photos to use as mentor texts I am looking for photos that encourage questioning--that aren't static or purely a still object.

For example,

I  will share how  I "read" the photo above using some of the same guiding questions I would use with a written text.

What do you notice?

water

blue skies

bathing suits

4 young-ish people

a shadow of the closest object/surface in the upper right corner

no boats or other swimmers nearby

hills or mountains at the edge of the water

What does that tell you about the photo and why?

Setting

• The setting looks like a lake because the water is very still and the hills in the background remind me of what I've seen next to a lake before.
• The weather is probably warm because the jumpers are wearing shorts and bathing suits and the sky is blue.
• The color of the sky looks like the sky in the Spring in the places I've lived, which makes me think it isn't Summer or very hot. I would have to look up more information about the color of skies and the season to be sure.
• The kind of vegetation showing on the hills is different from the kind I see in the places I've lived (west coast), so I think it is further east.

Point of View

• The photographer is below where they jumpers jumped, and next to surface the jumpers jumped from because the shadowed area at the top right was in the view of the camera.
• I don't think the photographer is friends with the people jumping because they aren't waving or acknowledging the camera in any way.

Plot

• Right before this, I imagine the jumpers were laughing and talking loudly like people do when they are excited or nervous.
• Right after this, after the jumpers have landed in the water, I think they will come to the surface smiling and yelling.  I think they will swim towards the shore, but they might play in the water for awhile before they jump again because it probably takes a lot of energy to climb that high.

Characterization

• At first I thought these four jumpers must be very courageous, but then I realized that not all of them have to be. Sometimes there only needs to be one courageous person in a group in order for other people to try it.

Wonderings

• Where are their shoes?  Did they leave them up there? Did they climb barefoot?  Did they throw them down?
• Is the photographer a friend of theirs?
• Are they jumping more than once?

Simply "reading" the photo is a worthy task. Using the photo as a writing prompt is equally worthy. We can take it further though:

Geography/Setting/Expository Writing:

• In what part of the world does this photo take place? What can you use to make your determination?  How specific can you get? What is your evidence?

Narrative Writing:

• You are the photographer.  What's your story?
• You are with this group. What are you thinking?
• You are with this group and you didn't jump. Why?  What are you thinking?

Opinion/Argument Writing:

• You are one of the jumpers. Convince the other jumpers to jump again--even if they don't want to. 
• Make a true statement about this photo and prove it is true using online resources (example: prove jumping into lakes is dangerous using news articles that show injuries).

Fun, huh?

Herea re a couple more photos I love to use.

Try it out!

[Mentor Text Monday] An Intriguing Lead

Thanks to a friend and colleague Amy, I've renewed my intention to post mentor text ideas each Monday. Since Amy is going to post as well, and since she is a powerhouse who does what she says she does, I'm thinking this will be a good thing!

For today's Mentor Text Monday post I want to focus on the very first passage from a book I've just started. The beauty and the curse of reading like a writer is that EVERYTHING you read becomes a mentor text. Every passage, every ad, every article, holds mentor text opportunities. Curling up with a good book must now include a pile of sticky notes or an annotation app close at hand to mark each new idea. The other afternoon, recovering from the flu, I downloaded The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman on my e-reader. My intention was to relax, rest, and recover. Within thirty seconds I had marked up the pages (using my favorite tools on my e-reader) and put the book down to try out what I had read.

Here it is:

Ask yourself, what do you notice? What is it that the author tells us in this short passage, and how does he do it?  As a lead into a story what do you learn from this passage, and what does it make you wonder?


Here is what I noticed:

The very first line gives me a setting that I feel like I recognize--I've seen duck ponds before! It gives me a sense of a small, slow-moving, simple country-side.

Then right away the picture of a duck pond is contradicted with the word ocean. My image of a countryside no longer fits, and the fast-moving, vast ocean is in it's place. This also tells me about something about Lettie Comstock--she is an unreliable source. But who is "they?" Did they cross the ocean or not?

I watch the phrase "old country" grow and change.  It was across the ocean, it had sunk, it wasn't the oldest country after all.

I learn more about Lettie Comstock as well--she has a grandmother and a great-mother who were alive at the time of this excerpt. This makes her younger than I originally thought and maybe an even less reliable source.

And then, the final line. Blown up?  The old country sunk, which is concerning, but the older country blew up? That's so intriguing!

Part of my process in breaking down a new peice of mentor text is to try it out. I thought of a short story--a memory from my childhood--and tried to use the same strucutres to introduce the story. I'll admit, this was a challenge. I wanted to keep all of the writer's craft techniques from the original, but there were so many!  Here's my attempt:


It was only an abandoned windowless house, next to the street. It wasn't scary.

Tracy Majors said it was haunted, but I knew that was silly. She said that it just rose up out of the driveway one day.

Her older sister said that Tracy didn't remember properly, and it was before she was born, and anyway, it was the family that built that house that died in it. 

Mrs. Majors, their mother, said they were both being dramatic, and that the family that built it hadn't died in it. She said she knew their grandson.

She said said that their grandson still lived in it today.

Writing this helped me to realize how many different pieces of information the author put into this passage. As a whole, this is a complex lead to write--I really had to know the story I planned to tell well. Some of the simpler structures within the whole might be more accessible--using three different persepctives (Lettie, mother, grandmother), inserting a jusxtaposition (duck pond/ocean), giving relative historical context (old country/really old country).


Either way, I can't wait to keep reading. I'll share more as I do!




*I did some searching and I don't know if the O. stands for something in a literary way, or for ocean or for zero? If you know, give me a shout-out, would ya? It looks like so:

[Mentor Text Monday] A is for Abecedarium

I was tickled to learn the work "abecedary" recently.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abecedary

Even more ticklish is the pronunciation. I was trying to make it fancy--/ab-ced-ar-ee/--but no. If you look in the definition page there, and even click the video it is /ay-bee-see-duh-ree/. It truly is a word made from the first three letters of the alphabet. A-B-C-dary. I'm in love with this word (only slightly disappointed with the pronunciation not being fancy-pants).

Then I realized that my new favorite magazine, UPPERCASE (see here and here for my posts extolling the virtues of this magazine), has and abecedary in the newest issue as well. I'm using my context clues here and am thinking there may be one each issue?  Sweet! I loved the one on sticky things last issue, and this one is just as amazing. 

Mentor Text Idea #1:  I referred to this here, but using the ABC structure to present or review concepts has been around for ever and a day. These UPPERCASE Abecedaries remind me that we can stretch the learning within that structure. Reach for a series words that stretches the subject in all directions. Challenge students to add new learning and show creativity within the 26-letter structure. The structure of the alphabet can serve as a jumping-off point for any grade level to develop and create a series or theme. As early as TK or Kinder, students can use them to create meaning about other topics. A 5-year-old friend of mine once spent an evening designing an alphabet book of things you'd find in a school. At first he was just imagining how the letters would be made.  For instance, the letter A could come from swingset and the letter N could be from part of the monkey bars. As he created though, he decided the letters had to somehow include the letter it formed. The letter B became "Boys playing on the monkey bars" and the letter P was formed from pencil shavings. This could be done in table groups or pairs at any grade level! My 5-year-old-friend fell asleep taht day designing and redesigning his "The ABCs of Schools" book (we had already made an ABCs of Dinosaiurs book).

Later in the issue they share a variety of alphabets inspired by office supplies.  Here are a few. You'll have to get the magazine for the rest, or go to their website and have a looksee:

Mentor Text Idea #1:  I referred to this here, but using the ABC structure to present or review concepts has been around for ever and a day. These UPPERCASE Abecedaries remind me that we can stretch the learning within that structure. Reach for a series words that stretches the subject in all directions. Challenge students to add new learning and show creativity within the 26-letter structure. The structure of the alphabet can serve as a jumping-off point for any grade level to develop and create a series or theme. As early as TK or Kinder, students can use them to create meaning about other topics. A 5-year-old friend of mine once spent an evening designing an alphabet book of things you'd find in a school. At first he was just imagining how the letters would be made.  For instance, the letter A could come from swing set and the letter N could be from part of the monkey bars. As he created though, he decided the letters had to somehow include the letter it formed. The letter B became "Boys playing on the monkey bars" and the letter P was formed from pencil shavings. This could be done in table groups or pairs at any grade level! My 5-year-old-friend fell asleep that day designing and redesigning his "The ABCs of Schools" book (we had already made an ABCs of Dinosaurs book).

As if this wasn't enough, let's add some technology! I saw a post on Edutopia with short videos using the ABC's.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Mentor Text Idea #2:  Videos like these could be made by students. Even if your classroom doesn't have 1:1 technology, creating a video like this takes many participants, planning, and very little actual technology (one smart phone to take the photos would be enough if that's all you have). Maybe take aminute and imagine a project like that. How could you extend student thinking about a topic, their skills with technology, and their collaboartive skills? My head is spnning just thinking about it!

[Mentor Text Monday] Guest Blogger--This Plus That

Wear the Cape proudly welcomes our first guest blogger!  Jeni Cass is caped teacher from a charter school in San Diego. Jeni truly does wear her cape each day in her kinder classroom. Enjoy this amazing mentor text form Jeni!

This Plus That by Amy Krause Rosenthal

As a kinder teacher the thought of doing a mentor text in the beginning of the year seems pretty daunting.  I tend to stick more with illustration and author studies (see Katie Wood Ray's work for more information onm those).  But I haven't given my kids the credit they deserve as learners.This summer I searched for texts that have concepts and writing that my kids could do.  I found the perfect one to start with.  It's super simple but the students really got into it.  Here is what I did to help them be successful:

First we read the book...a couple times.  We talked about the concepts, the illustrations and just generally enjoyed what it had to show us. 

Next, we discussed what the author was doing, taking two items and adding them together to make something new.  Then as a class we talked about possible combinations of things.  Here is where I really had to help them out.  I gave them at least 10.  

Then I started with giving them just one thing and they had to tell their neighbor (knee to knee) what they would add to it.  Finally it was their turn to orally tell their neighbor an entire phrase. 

Together as a class we listed them on a chart paper so everyone had a chance to share out and see the different possibilities.  Students then went back to their tables to write their sentence.  

By the end of the year I let them spell it out themselves and leave the chart up for support.  This time I actually cut the chart paper up and had them take their own phrase back to their seats to copy.  After illustrating them, they were done!! 

My littles were so excited to see themselves as writers and make our own This Plus That book.  It is a favorite in our class library!

[Mentor Text Monday] Creative Collections--more from UPPERCASE Magazine

Last week I talked about using UPPERCASE Magazine and their focus on "sticky things" as mentor texts. I also alluded to the fact that I would use more from this magazine.

While the theme of this issue is collage, there is a "Creative Challenge" on page 75 that suggests collecting artifacts. There is a great page on which you can cut and paste images physically or digitally.

From UPPERCASE: In our current issue, we provided a page with an image of an empty typecase. Since this is our collage and assemblage-themed issue, we encourage you to glue and modify this page, take a picture or scan of it and send it to us!

The process of collecting items, like in the abecedary in the previous post, has many possibilities in the classroom.

The UPPERCASE blog is showcasing reader collections.  Here are some of my favorite--with an eye to teaching possibilities:

Another creative challenge submission! This box of treasured things is by Lisa Fitzhugh of Wideyed.

Read Vanda Vilela submitted her response to our earlier creative challenge.  Thank you to all who submitted over the past couple of months. I guess it is time I issued a new challenge! I will be posting all the open calls for participation very soon.

Kathryn Cole submitted this one: "Inspired by your call for creating a shadow box, I created one with my favourite shells that I collected at the my favourite beach in Florida and some fresh roses from my yard."

UPPERCASE subscriber Cornelis vanSpronsen writes: 

"I received my copy of UPPERCASE today and was immediately inspired to respond to the creative challenge on page 75. For many years my wife and I have collected special mementos that were both of great importance as well as those that were memorable for just a small moment in time. This is some of that collection. Going through these is like leafing through a photo album but only better because there are memories attached to these things that photos could never capture."

As springboards for writing, illustrations for published pieces, or even the act of collecting and labeling as a writing task. I am tickled by the idea of this simple wooden type case and the fun of filling it up.

Some of us are participating in a photographic collection--SDAWP Photo Voices. On a weekly or monthly basis, we curate our images from a designated time period and display them in a collection (of one or many). Previously I've collected images on symmetry,  the color green, and the color yellow (I did well with colors).

For the month of October, we have the theme "writing." Oddly, I've struggled. Combining my SDAWP Photo Voices theme and this idea of collections, here is my "writing" collection so far:

Where do you think you take this in your classroom? What collections do you have or would you have? How would you fill in this amazing wooden typecase? 

[Mentor Text Monday] "An Abecedary of Sticky Things"

UPPERCASE Magazine, Issue No. 18, "Cut it Out" is all about collage. Yup.  you read that correctly, collage. It's a beautful magazine printed on amazing paper.  The tagline is "a magazine for the creative and curious." Well that's us in a nutshell is it not?

Keeping "creative and curious" in mind, I thought I'd share some mentor text thoughts that crossed my mind during my "1st Draft Reading" last night. I have about a gabilllion ideas, so I'll start with my favorite.

"An Abecedary of Sticky Things" pg. 14

First, a word study.  Abecedary--an ABC Book.  What an amazing word! A-Be-Ce-Dary--see it? Even more fun, it's an ABC book of... sticky things!  The list is creative and gives pause for thought multiple times. I imagine this as one in an array of ABC book mentor texts, though the depth and vocbaluary used in this one makes it my all time favorite. Just look at this list!

I know, right?  What a rich and thoughtful list of... sticky things! We're not talking a Level 1 or 2 DOK (Webb's Depth of Knowledge) list here. Historical reference, science, Dr. Seuss, candy, toilet plungers, and, of course,  bubble gum. This two-page magazine spread is chock full of learning, thinking and creativity.  I can't wait to use it! 

That's pretty cool in itself, I'll grant you. But let's take it up a notch.  On page 101 of the same issue is an article called "Sticky Business: A Brief History of Glue."

Looking for a piece of complex non-fiction text for upper grades? Try this one out.  It's a challenge, most certainly, but link it with the Abecedary of Sticky Things above and you have two texts on a similar topic Common Core State Standards CCR R.9), one is more accessible than the other (differentiation!), one serves as a practice in deeper reading (Common Core State Standard CCR R.1), and one provides a jumping off point for an informational writing assignment (CCR W.2) that also uses write-to-learn strategies. Use technology to draft and display your finished abecedary and you've got a hat trick!

There is only one teeny tiny itty bitty downside to this brilliance. UPPERCASE Magazine is not what you'd call a budget publication. Each issue runs $18. I rarely allow myself to buy it. It is a marvelous publication and worth the money, I swear, but there is a budget option. The folks at UPPERCASE are very thoughtful and provide their articles online for free.  I don't know how long they leave it up, but this issue is on the blog right here.  Pretty cool, huh? So maybe go out and try an abedecary with your own learners? I most certainly am!

Please share here if you do!

Next week... Creative Collections as mentor texts, A.K.A. more ideas from UPPERCASE Magazine

Linking up to the #113Texts Mentor Text Challenge on SDAWPVoices.com