article 2 : librarians and writing

  A Collection of Mentors: How the Library Program Can Support Writing Instruction.

One of our main roles as teacher librarian is a reference guide.  Typically we think of help in finding non fiction books for research project papers and projects.  This article however brings in to light how a teacher librarian can help students become better writers.

The author uses the term "mentor texts" to refer to great examples of books and publications students and teachers can use as writing models in writing instruction.  By pulling paragraphs or sentences from a "mentor text" the teacher librarian can provide good examples to inspire and instruct students.

Librarians are shown as a key component in  writing instruction.  After all, as the article states "they have been collecting the work of amazing authors all along."

According to the author Friese, students are "reading like authors every text offered to them opens up new possibilities for their writing."  She encourages librarians to assure that their collection has  a variety of genres and styles of books, from picture books to short stories and novels.

The article also mentions online resources.  Authentic persuasive letters are easily available online.  (the opinion section of a newspaper, for example ).  Using group inquiry, students can examine a piece of writing and elicit what the effective aspects of a  persuasive letter are.

The article gives suggestions on how teacher libarains can develop their collection to include "mentor texts"  The author makes sure to add that organization and accessibility are of equal importance. One suggestion is to tag the "mentor books" with specific terms so that teachers can easily locate them..

I found this article to be somewhat unique in that it brought the teacher librarian in to the writing process. I don't usually think of that as being one of our roles.  

I wondered if I in my future job as TL if I would be familiar enough with my collection to decide which resources would be deemed good enough to be "mentor texts".

Friese, Beth.   A Collection of Mentors: How the Library Program Can Support Writing Instruction. School Library Monthly, Mar2010, Vol. 26 Issue 7, p17-19