• Best of 2014: Most Popular Posts

    January 1, 2015 /

    Looking back over 2014, I wanted to take note of my most popular posts on my blog. It helps me see what posts are most helpful to my readers. The shocking thing for me was that all of the most frequently read pages of 2014 were actually posts I…

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  • Baseball Books as Mentor Texts: BARBED WIRE BASEBALL by Marissa Moss

    May 21, 2014 /

    Barbed Wire Baseball By Marissa Moss Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu Abrams, 2013 Kenichi Zenimura loved to play baseball. He play baseball for years. Until World War II, when he and other Japanese families lived their lives in internment camps. But inside that bleak camp, Zeni made a baseball field.…

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  • Baseball Books as Mentor Texts: MIGHTY JACKIE by Marissa Moss

    May 14, 2014 /

    Mighty Jackie: The Strikeout Queen By Marissa Moss Illustrated by C.F. Payne Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, 2004 Jackie had been pitching her whole life, even getting coaching and encouragement from a former Brooklyn Dodger pitcher. But girls couldn’t play major league baseball. Her team played an exhibition game against…

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  • SHE SANG PROMISE by Jan Godown Annino, Mentor Text Lesson Plan

    May 9, 2014 /

    SHE SANG PROMISE: THE STORY OF BETTY MAE JUMPER by Jan Godown Annino Illustrated by Lisa Desimini A few weeks ago, I featured SHE SANG PROMISE as a mentor text on the Grog site. This week, I’m debuting the full length lesson plan. SHE SANG PROMISE MENTOR TEXT LESSON…

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  • Baseball Books as Mentor Texts: Miracle Mud

    May 7, 2014 /

    This month, I will be featuring baseball books as mentor texts. Using sports-related books is a great way to get reluctant readers and writers interested in the story and the story structure. There are so many wonderful picture book baseball books that I couldn’t fit them all in. But…

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  • Poetry Mentor Texts: When Thunder Comes by J. Patrick Lewis

    April 23, 2014 /

    WHEN THUNDER COMES: POEMS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS by J. Patrick Lewis Illustrated by Jim Burke, R. Gregory Christie, Tonya Engel, John Parra, and Meilo So Chronicle Books, 2013 J. Patrick Lewis has captured fifteen international civil rights leaders’ struggles in this poetry collection. This would be an amazing…

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  • Hi, Koo! by Jon J. Muth, Poetry Mentor Text

    April 9, 2014 /

    Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons Written and illustrated by Jon J. Muth Scholastic Press, 2014 I’m a huge fan of haiku books, and I have a huge collection of haiku picture books. For an annotated haiku book list, click here.  This particular book follows Koo, a panda, through…

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  • Water Can Be… and A Leaf Can Be… Poetry Mentor Texts

    April 2, 2014 /

    Water Can Be.. By Laura Purdie Salas Illustrations by Violeta Dabija Millbrook Press, 2014   If you love the sound of words and really love to be surprised by them, then you need to get this book. Water Can Be… is truly a beautiful piece of poetry, but there…

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  • Mentor Texts for Teachers Workshop

    March 26, 2014 /

    The month of March has been really busy for me as a writer and a teacher. I’ve attended three teacher conferences and one writing retreat. All of them were incredibly beneficial for me. I presented at two of the teacher conferences (one for my local school district and one…

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