"All this happened, more or less."

As part of training on Writing with Mentor Texts, we've been asked to access the movingwriters.org site and find mentor texts to use as inspiration. It's a great resource for finding mentor texts to use for personal writing and/or with students. Check it out! Mentor text used (from movingwriters.org): My poem inspired by this piece: “What they Did Yesterday Evening” by Amber Counts June, 2020 They staged a protest in front of my school; I selfishly worried that they might loot my classroom, as my window faces the front of the building. I thought about all the treasures I might lose – drawings made by students, little scraps of origami with notes to the teacher, framed photos of students who graduated years ago, stuffed animals representing inside class jokes – representing the class culture I always work to build – the inclusive culture I always hope to build – and I think about the students who left these treasures behi...

I asked my students to craft an epistolary poem using Dwight Okita's "In Response to Executive Order 9066" as inspiration. I joined them in the activity, and this is the result. I think this is a great writing activity for students, of course, but also an opportunity for teachers to share something of themselves with their students. I also asked them to mark at least 3 literary devices they incorporated into their pieces. A few of the devices I labeled for them in this poem include: anaphora, parentheticals, intentional fragments, and shifts. Link to Okita's poem:  https://www.nps.gov/manz/learn/education/dwight-okita.htm “Dear Students”  by Amber Counts, August 30, 2019 Dear students, Of course I care about you. I am sorry that not every adult you’ve encountered has made their support abundantly clear. You should be able to expect this from anyone charged with your care. Some of you look at me with distrust in your eyes, and I underst...