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What are the ways that students can use their writing?

First, students can use their writing as a way to connect with their peers.

Secondly, Students can use their writing to take action in their communities and around the world.

If we want our developing readers to become skillful writers, then we need to allow them to read skillful writers. 

So, what does a skillfully written piece look like?

It is interesting and relevant.

It is surprising, puzzling, funny, quirky, and frank.

It is complex enough to justify time and thought.

It invites the reader to visualize places, faces, and events.

It features people that you can get interested in.

It provokes lots of questions.

It contains debatable issues that provoke lively discussions.

It supports a wide array of writing responses and topics.

Give your students rich and relevant content that they will enjoy reading, thinking, talking, and writing about. The mentor texts that you provide should provide opportunities for students to look at text organization, voice, style, vocabulary, sentence patterns, and that sparkle that writers add to hook up and keep us reading!