Crafting Sentences with Mentor Texts

with Harney ESD, Burns, Oregon
Write well-crafted sentences with Alice Nine and learn the basics of an easy to implement, sentence-crafting routine she calls Ape the Author.  Using this imitation routine, students develop sentence writing skills through close encounters with words, phrases, grammatical structures, and sentence rhythms used by great storytellers.
In this workshop, teachers will:
•    Examine the how-to basics of Ape the Author
•    Create their own well-crafted sentences using the routine
•    Search literature for mentor sentences that can work for their students
[Teachers should bring some samples of literature they use in their classroom.]

—AM session with an eye on grades K-2  (8:30 – 12:00)
—PM session with an eye on grades 3-5  (12:30-4:00)
Teachers may attend the entire day, regardless of grade level. Alice Nine will do a minimum of repetition from one session to the other. The routine is great for middle school also.

About Ape the Author
In his essay “The Sedulous Ape,” Robert Louis Stevenson shares how he developed his writing skills —through journaling, copy work, and imitation. He wrote, “Whenever I read a book or a passage that particularly pleased me, I must sit down at once to ape that quality.” Inspired by these words, Alice Nine developed a sentence-crafting routine she calls Ape the Author.