Hi Ross. We really want to use books during our writing lessons in the EYFS. Do you have any advice on how this could be done?
Absolutely! Teachers should use mentor texts to inspire and guide the youngest of writers to create their own engaging and informative non-fiction picture books. To put it simply, mentor texts are texts that can teach children about great writing.
- Finding mentor texts: You can find mentor texts in your classroom library and use picture books written by children from previous years or even ones you have written yourself as a writer-teacher. It is important to make sure that the mentor texts you select match the kind of writing your pupils are doing; if you’re asking your class to create a six-page non-fiction picture book, you should study mentor texts that are also short non-fiction picture books. We have a list of great mentor texts here.
- Reading as writers: After reading your mentor texts for pleasure with your pupils, read one again and encourage them to think about the text as writers. You can help guide them with open-ended questions, such as: ‘What’s the writer done to make his picture book the best in the world?‘ or ‘What do you see that you would like to do in your books too?!’ You can then record their responses on a flip chart to use as product goals (success criteria) for your own picture book project [LINK].
- Craft moves: You can teach children to recognise craft moves that authors use in their picture books. For instance, in the book Do Whales Have Whiskers?, author Emily James uses a question and answer format to present information and vivid verbs and prepositional phrases to make the writing more engaging. Another example is I Am Angry by Michael Rosen, where he uses repetition, onomatopoeia, contractions, ellipses, and exclamation marks, as well as changes in font size and style to make the book more interesting.
- Mini-lessons: When teaching mini-lessons, select a craft move used in a mentor text you have been looking at with your class. For example, if you want to teach your pupils to include a new piece of information on each page, you can show them how the picture book you are making does so. You can then invite them to do the same during that day’s writing time.
It’s important to note that you should use commercially published picture books and teacher-created texts as mentor texts. You can also use children’s texts from the previous years. This is very effective!
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If you found this advice useful, you may want to consider purchasing a copy of our book: How To Teach Non-Fiction Writing In The EYFS. Alternatively, it’s free for our members.
