The unit will focus on identifying desired features of quality mentor essays or books to assist educators in making level appropriate selections to then explicitly teach these same features to students. Through a workshop approach, both teacher and students will then use the mentor essays to guide their own writing. The intent is to establish familiarity with author’s craft through building and using a mentor text library while engaging in an authentic writing process. Additionally, writing work will be shared across grade-levels to increase engagement and provide audience and authentic purpose to the student authors. Rigor is achieved through exposure to, and practice with, the processes used by proven, published writers’ work.

(Developed for Language Arts/Writing, grades 4-5; recommended for Language Arts/Writing, all grades)