Wishing Teach Mentor Texts A Great Birthday!

I am thrilled to be a part of the birthday celebration for Teach Mentor Texts. Since I started book blogging last December, I have participated in their weekly meme "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" Jen and Kellee stop by every week to comment and are so kind! They've asked fellow bloggers like me to join in on their celebration and share their own mentor texts!

My book choice is a classic with an iconic yellow cover. It's got a great title, and many teachers have it in their classroom libraries: LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech.

I know many bloggers and reviewers have already shared their opinions about this book. What can I write that has not already been written?

Answer: What it has done in my own classroom!

As we started our poetry unit, I wanted an entry point for my readers/students. I picked up LOVE THAT DOG and started reading it aloud. (My students know that anything I choose to read aloud to them is a text I value. They listened because they trusted me. After all, had I not read A Dog's Life, I Want My Hat Back, Extra Yarn, Grandpa Green, and so many more?)

So from the first page, I had a class of engaged listeners. But Jack took over from there. As he truthfully told my students how he felt about poetry, Jack started becoming my students' writing mentor. Amazingly, with a 5-line stanza in which he told us how he didn't want to write poetry, Jack was unknowingly inspiring my students to do that very thing.

When I read Jack's red wheelbarrow poem, my class wanted to read The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams! Thankfully, it's included at the end of the book. (Do you see what Jack did here? He lead us to a poem we might not otherwise have read.)

When Jack first told us about the blue car, he gave my students something to wonder about. In his November poem, we find out Jack had a pet. My students are intrigued. The questions naturally erupted as I paused after reading and waited.

As I showed the shape poem on p. 37, my students asked, "Can we write a poem like that?"

Yes.

With each progression of the story, I stopped to offer up Jack's learning to my class. Do we want to learn what Jack is learning?

And so the poetry writing came--- in beautiful bursts each day as I read. Simply, it was my students liking what Jack had done, and wanting to do the same.

Moving from this point, we were ready for focused lessons on techniques and types. But Jack had prepared my students for this path, and he had given them permission to love poems.

How do I know this book has had an impact on my class?

Recently, a student wrote "Love That Bear!"
Another student, heading towards his desk with Hate That Cat in hand said, "I'm about to be inspired by Sharon Creech."
Today, as we rode the bus on a field trip, I overheard another student tell his chaperone all about Walter Dean Myers.

So the next time you begin your poetry unit, bring out LOVE THAT DOG. Let Jack show your class the power of poetry.