Mentor Texts - 6th Grade Expository

Mentor Text Websites

From Heather Lattimer's "Thinking through Genre" (Stenhouse, 2003):

New York Times Upfront
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/index.asp
Grades 7-12
Great sample article written by a teenager about living in New York
and New Delhi:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/voices/index.asp?article=v011810

Teen Ink (written by and for teenagers)
http://www.teenink.com/
Check out this article on photography:
http://www.teenink.com/college_guide/college_essays/article/18060/Still-Life/
And a personal essay:
http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/all/article/72451/Front-Line-of-Embarrassment/
There are book reviews in this publication as well.

Weekly Reader
Grades 3-12
http://www.weeklyreader.com/teens/index.asp
Check out a sample of their publications:
Read: http://www.weeklyreader.com/pubstore/pdfs/16/SI/RDS_Issue2.pdf
Current Events: http://www.weeklyreader.com/pubstore/pdfs/11/SI/09WRCES10.pdf

Time for Kids
Grades 4-12
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/magazine/wr/0,28413,100122,00.html

National Geographic Explorer
Grades 3-6
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/teachers/
An example of one of their featured articles on volcanoes:
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/1001/articles/mainarticle.html
Junior Scholastic
Grades 3-8
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp?lnkid=TNav:home&ESP=Teachers/ib//acq/main_tnav_home///nav/txtl////

Editorial/opinion

Chocolate milk debate

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/wr/article/0,28391,1976176,00.html

For other topics, type “In My Opinion” into the Search engine

Reviews

Book reviews from students:

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/specials/articles/0,28285,1871633,00.html

Teen Ink (written by and for teenagers)
http://www.teenink.com/
There are book reviews in this publication as well

Feature article/personal interest

Eli Manning story about million dollar grant for schools:

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,1977508,00.html

General news page:

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids

The page

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/magazine

Interesting stories, including one about a fifth grader speaking his mind: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/archive

And a personal essay:
http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/all/article/72451/Front-Line-of-Embarrassment/

Informative

Of interest to student interested in world travel. Students can meet in groups and come up with a commercial or brochure for any number of assigned countries. Place these on sheets for random assigning. Students also take the Challenge (ten multiple choice questions on each country):

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/hh/goplaces

Rapid Research on a wide range of topics:

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/hh/rr

One example from this site:

http://www.earthcalendar.net/index.php

Another example from site (persuade your science teacher to conduct one of these experiments):

http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/

Writing process on same site – ask students what R.A.G. stands for and why it is valuable:

http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/ (The ABCs of Writing from Edmonton)

Check out this article on photography:
http://www.teenink.com/college_guide/college_essays/article/18060/Still-Life/

http://mrshahsclasspostings.blogspot.com/