Chapter 3 of Mentor Texts by Lynne Dorman and Rose Cappelli is full of engaging strategies to help writers young and old find ideas that inspire them to write. The strategy that I want to focus on during this post is Heart Maps. I'm choosing to focus on Heart Maps because I think they are a great way to get reluctant writers excited about writing. Heart Maps allow the writer to be the expert about the content they are choosing to write about. The "Your Turn" lesson I'm going to share below can be found on page 68-69 of Mentor Texts and it follows the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) model. The GRR model can be summarized as "I do, we do, you do". The teacher models, the students and teacher try it together, the students try the task independently.
Model: Teachers should create their own Heart Map to share with their students. You can make your Heart Map ahead of time, but I think it's best if your students are able to observe you make it. This allows them to see what questions you ask yourself and how you decide what to include in your Heart Map. After you have filled your heart, select one section and share with your students how that section of your heart can inspire you to write.
Here's my Heart Map for reference:
Shared Writing: Now that you have modeled the process, it's time to try it together. Create a Heart Map as a class. Maybe draw a huge heart on the white board in your room, on a piece of paper you show under your document camera, or create one on jamboard so that your students can participate virtually! Ask your students some of the following questions to get their ideas flowing:
- Who are the special people in your life?
- Do you have any pets?
- Are there any places that are special to you?
- When you're at home, where do you spend most of your time?
- What are some things that you like to do?
After your class has had some time to think, ask for some student volunteers to share one thing they thought of adding to the Heart Map and what story it leads them to sharing. During this you may need to ask additional scaffolding questions to help students create thorough ideas that will lead to writing inspiration later. When we are no longer in a pandemic, you can also have students turn to their neighbors and ask each other what they would include in their Heart Maps.
Independent Writing: Now it's time for students to complete their own Heart Maps! You can provided a template or have students draw their own hearts to fill. Give students time to fill up their heart with ideas, once everyone is at a stopping point have them share one section of the heart and the story they can write based on that section. Then have students do a short entry in their writers notebook about the section of their heart they selected.
*If you teach lower elementary students, you might want to break this lesson into two days. Create your hearts the first day and write about something within your heart the second day.
Another way to use the Heart Map concept!
If you are working with upper elementary students, the Heart Map concept could be used to help students conduct character analysis. This would requires students to imagine that they are the main or selected character of a text. They would then need to use the text to help them decide what the selected character would put in their own Heart Map. This will have your students practice going back to the text for support/evidence and help them make inferences that are supported by the text. I used the books Mango, Abuela, and Me and Happy Like Soccer to create an example. You can learn more about each book, the author, and the illustrator below!
Mango, Abuela, and Me
*click the image to view a read aloud
Meet the Author: Meg Medina
Visit her website
Follow her on Instagram
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Click her photo to watch an interview about her book Mango, Abuela, and Me
Meet the Illustrator: Angela Dominguez
Visit her website
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Happy Like Soccer
*click the image to view a read aloud
Meet the Author: Maribeth Boelts
Visit her website
Follow her on Instagram
Follow her on Twitter
Click her photo to read an interview she did about her book Happy Like Soccer
Meet the Illustrator: Lauren Castillo
Visit her website
Follow her on Instagram
Follow her on Twitter
Writers Notebook
This week I tried out several of the strategies in Mentor Texts chapter 3 to help me get some fresh ideas for a narrative piece I will be working on for the next little bit. I used and hand map and a heart map to help spark some ideas in the old noggin. I have a few that I'm excited to explore, but wasn't ready to settle down and commit to one idea so I started with a self portrait! I used the information I included on my hand and heart maps to help me create this Nate Williams inspired piece. I'm working on adding a self portrait page to my site, so be on the look out for that! Here's a sneak peak.
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