Resource Sharing: Romelle Broas on Using Mentor Texts

I've read over 300 books so far in 2016.  These are some of my favorites that have 

become my mentor texts.  

Before I started on my ReFoReMo journey this month, I downloaded Romelle Broas’ carefully critical Mentor Text Worksheet from the ReFoReMo blog.  I didn't print it out, but it was so thoughtfully arranged, I saved it on my desktop and tucked it in my mental file—To Deal With Later.

Then as I read through the mentor texts, I fell in love with a few of them. I read and reread them, trying to figure out why I found them so compelling. They were books I wish I had written, books like the ones I wanted to write. 

So I opened the Broas’ worksheet and looked at it again.  Then, I made a little folder on my desktop, copied the PDF into a Word document that I could easily edit, and began filling in the worksheets for the twenty or so books that I’d already decided I wanted to study from the first week's reading. 

Broas’ talks about how to approach mentor texts (and how to use her worksheet) on a guest post in Carrie Charley Brown’s site, but Broas' blog is also a rich resource.  On Feb. 8, 2016 she posted a wonderful analysis of breaking the fourth wall in picture books.  I signed up for her blog updates.  I can’t wait to see what she’ll do next.