Text Structures From the Masters: 50 Lessons and Nonfiction Mentor Texts to Help Students Write Their Way In and Read Their Way Out of Every Single Imaginable Genre, Grades 6-10

Gretchen Bernabei asks students to derive possible text structures from examining mentor texts. Instead of that one format students are given—the five-paragraph essay—she gives us fifty, and doesn’t pretend that’s a complete list. She changes the landscape students can work in from one of poverty to one of wonderful excess. She shows us that as writers we are playing a game with lots of moves. —Thomas Newkirk

School writing has nothing to do with my life…If that sounds like your students, ...