Dream Wakers: Mentor Texts That Celebrate Latino Culture - Softcover

Culham, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1625311117 ISBN 13: 9781625311115

Publisher: Routledge, 2016

Synopsis

“There is power that resides in outstanding culturally diverse literature—a power that has the potential to engage students in reading and teach them about the art and craft of writing.”
—Ruth Culham
 
We dream of a time when all students will be confident, capable readers and writers. When we teach students to read as writers using mentor texts, we awaken that dream and make it real. Imagine the power of providing students with books that show them their faces, their culture, their lives on every page. And imagine how every classroom’s collection of mentor texts can grow by adding books that celebrate diversity.
In Dream Wakers: Mentor Texts That Celebrate Latino Culture, Ruth Culham focuses her love of children’s literature—and her decades of work developing the traits of writing—on books that celebrate Latino life and culture. She provides a wide variety of ideas to teach writing using some of the richest and most beautiful children’s books available. Dream Wakers gives you:
· An annotated list of more than 120 books with do-it-today lesson ideas for teaching the traits of writing—Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions. More than half of the books listed are bilingual or offer English and/or Spanish editions.
· Eleven original, insightful essays by renowned children’s authors of some of the featured books
· A handy reference chart that helps teachers locate books quickly by trait, genre, language, and author/publisher information.
Ruth encourages all of us to make sure students of all backgrounds have access to high-quality, culturally diverse texts and recognize the difference those texts will make in their reading lives, as well as in their perception of themselves as a thinkers, learners, and citizens.
 

About this title

About the Author:

Ruth Culham, EdD, launched a writing revolution with the publication of her book 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up, followed by 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades and Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School, winner of the 2011 Teacher’s Choice award. Her groundbreaking work with the writing traits is the culmination of 40 years of research, practice, and passion. Most recently, Ruth has published the bestselling The Writing Thief: Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing that demonstrates how to read with a writer’s eye to lift the best writing techniques from favorite authors. Ruth has also penned What Principals Need to Know About Teaching and Learning Writing for all school leaders and literacy coaches. Ruth’s professional books have illuminated both writing and the reading-writing connection for countless educators around the globe.

Her many professional resources include the immensely popular, grade-specific Trait Crates that use beautiful children’s literature titles to spotlight and teach each writing trait and drive home the reading-writing connection. And, Ruth’s ground-breaking, all-in-one curriculum Traits Writing: The Complete Writing Program for Grades K-8 aligns the traits with writing process and writing workshop—and enhances teachers’ professional understanding of writing as it elevates the effectiveness of student writing.

Ruth is currently a contributor and Writing Department Editor for the professional journal Reading Teacher. She’s president of the Culham Writing Company and former Unit Manager of the Assessment Program at Education Northwest in Portland, Oregon. She was English Teacher of the Year in Montana, one of the highlights of her 19-year teaching career. Culham holds specialty degrees in Library Science and Elementary, Middle, and Secondary English Education.

From School Library Journal:

Writing workshop guru Culham showcases 116 diverse mentor texts within her well-established framework of the "6+1" writing traits. She uses the analogy of guests at a dinner party to explain the importance and interdependence of ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and convention—her six traits of wonderful writers—and has compiled a well-curated compendium of recent and classic picture books about Latino culture(s) by (mostly) Latino authors and illustrators. There are few chapter books; a fifth of the materials are nonfiction. Culham offers a short synopsis of each title and a unique writing (or otherwise creative) extension activity. Readers will appreciate interviews with seasoned writers, including Alma Flor Ada and Duncan Tonatiuh, and new authors such as Monica Brown, who speak about their journeys and the need for Latino voices in children's literature. There is an informative introduction on diversity in literature, and the appendix sheds light on Culham's selection process and explains her criteria, developed by experts such as Jamie Naidoo and Louise Derman-Sparks. There is also a handy chart for identifying the type of book (bilingual, English with Spanish words, English only), the highlighted trait, and the genre. VERDICT Great for collection development, cultural literacy, and lessons about a writer's craft. Educators who work with students from second through sixth grade will find this volume highly useful.—Sara Lissa Paulson, City-As-School High School, New York City

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1625311117
• ISBN 13: 9781625311115
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 162