Entry #7: What Makes a "Good" Mentor Text?

 "One drawback of the current lists of ECCBYA and TSGA winners is the lack of diversity of the main characters....Although diversity is an issue, winners of these two awards can provide rich resources for teachers of young students looking for well-written and well-illustrated mentor texts to foster the development of emergent writers" (MacKay, Ricks, & Young, 2017, p. 178). *Link added

List of Award Winning Books
(MacKay, Ricks, & Young, 2017, p. 179)

In their article Supporting Young Writers with Award-Winning Books, MacKay, Ricks, &
Young (2017) emphasize the importance of reading strong mentor texts so students can use these as models for their own writing. The quote written above leaves me to wonder: Just because a text is an award-winner, does that mean it is the best mentor text for all students? As seen above, MacKay, Ricks, and Young (2017) acknowledge the lack of diversity in many of these award winning texts (and I am glad they did). However, in my opinion the authors briefly mention the lack of diversity and then continue to argue that educators should use these books as mentor texts. Personally, I think educators (myself included) should go beyond an award winning "stamp of approval" and think critically about the texts we choose to use as mentor texts. Shouldn't diversity and representation of people and thought be on the forefront of our minds when we choose mentor texts to use with our students?

Critical Questions
about Life Writing
(Marshall, 2019, p. 175)

While conducting research for my Genre Expert Project, I came across an article that offers a more critical perspective when it comes to choosing mentor texts for genre studies. Rather than focus on whether or not a text has won an award, Marshall (2019) argues that we should shift our focus toward diverse counter-narratives when choosing texts to use for teaching "life writing" (aka biographical writing). Marshall (2019) explains that educators often choose biography texts that highlight exceptional, heroic individuals who led to positive change. The examples that come to my mind are the "big names" we learn about in school during the Civil Rights unit (e.g. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, etc.). We celebrate the change that these individuals created and the progress that resulted. But should we only use read and write biographies about activists whose efforts resulted in change? What about all of the other activists whose efforts did not lead to change or whose efforts went unrecognized?

What I appreciate most about Marshall's (2019) article is that she encourages educators like myself to ask critical questions when choosing mentor texts, particularly for biographical writing. Yes, MacKay, Ricks, & Young (2017) offered some strong, award-winning mentor texts. In my opinion though, educators must not rely solely on texts that have won awards. We cannot overlook diversity when choosing mentor texts any longer. How many strong mentor texts are not given an award because of the biases held by the people who choose the winning texts? How many biographical texts do not win an award because they do not tie up historical events in a nice neat bow? 

These two texts lead the voice in my head to scream MUHAMMAD (2020)! HRL LEARNING GOALS! CRITICALITY!!! Not only should teachers be critical of mentor texts, particularly biographical texts, but we can also teach STUDENTS to become critical readers and writers. As Marshall (2019) mentioned, educators can talk about the author's stance when students read biography texts and write their own. She notes, "Scripts, cultural conventions, and the writer's own perspective and politics inform the writing of a life story" (Marshall, 2019, p. 171). We can teach students to learn about their own identities and how their identities impact they way in which they read and write biographies (Muhammad, 2020). We can then help students critically read texts and analyze the author's stance, noticing how the author's identity impacted the way the life story was told. Many people think that nonfiction texts are all facts, that they must be true. I strongly believe that we must teach students to be critical consumers of ALL information, even information presented in nonfiction texts. Reading Marshall's (2019) article led me to question MacKay, Ricks, and Young (2017) further. I will certainly be more critical of texts when I choose them in the future, and I plan to teach students to do the same as they read and write.

References

American Library Association. (2021, March 24). Theodor Seuss Geisel Award. ALSC. https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/geisel

MacKay, K. L., Ricks, P. H., & Young, T. A. (2017). Supporting young writers with award-winning books. The Reading Teacher, 71(2), 177-187.

Marshall, E. (2019). Life writing and the language arts. Language Arts, 96(3), 167-178. 

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic.