How do we even find mentor texts?

We're all thinking it. Okay, maybe not all of us, but at least the vast majority. I didn't encounter the concern until a few weeks ago, and now it just keeps coming back again, and again, and...again. I had finished up my class surveys and there I was with all this information. I knew what TV shows my students liked; I knew their favorite video games; I knew if they liked art, dance, or sports; I thought I knew it all. So like the good preservice teacher I am, I thought I'd use all this information about interests and hobbies to decide what mentor text to use for my first minilesson ever in this 11th-grade classroom. It needed to be good. It needed to be memorable. It needed to be the best minilesson this world had ever seen. My pride wanted to believe that I of all preservice teachers was capable of such a venture. 

As I began my adventure into the literal and figurative "safari," I found my travels feeling less like an exotic expedition and more like I had decided to walk through a line of tangled fishing poles, only to find myself snagged on every line and unable to come out with anything that actually felt functional once untangled from the others. I settled on an article about the tv-show Breaking Bad, a show that my students claimed to enjoy on their surveys. Well, it ended up being a total flop. Students were halfway drooling on the article and when I asked them to talk about it I wanted to die from the perspiration that coated the silence. 

When I was reflecting on the lesson, I couldn't help but think about what went wrong. I did exactly what all my professors taught me to do. I found a text that related to my students and their interests, correctly displayed the craft we were hoping to adapt into our own writing, and allowed them to annotate the text with their findings. It was set up the way that I had seen so many other "professionals" do it time and time again. So, because I am not about to tell my professors that they got the research all wrong and that this whole mentor text thing is a bunch of bologna, I settled on the idea that it just must've been the wrong topic. Not every kid said they liked Breaking Bad, but 65% of them did say they liked sports. So for the next mini-lesson, I untangled another fishing pole and brought with me this beautiful article about Aaron Judge and his 62nd home run that was published in Sports Illustrated just the day before. This was GOOD. I mean realllll good. We had colons and emdashes and semicolons and sentence fragments. It was like I hit the jackpot for a mentor text. So I fed it out to my students. Like I would those easy bake oven cookies I would make for my mom, I waited, waited for the smile--the evidence of satisfaction--that I had perfected the art of mentor text selection. 

"In my classroom, I had the hold world before me. A variety of backgrounds. And these humans could not just be expected to be engaged through baseball and Breaking Bad. Instead, I needed to connect to their heritage, their home, their real life. I needed to establish a deeper connection."

But, nope. Nothing. Not a bite. Honestly, it was even worse than the first. Could it be that I had come across the most disengaged and uninterested 11th-grade English class on earth? Though I was tempted to just settle with this idea, I decided to go back and look at those surveys. What did I miss? It should be here. Somewhere. Anywhere. And then I found it. 43% Hispanic/Latinx/Chicano. 6% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. 63% White/Caucasian. 4% Native American. 2% Black/African American. 2% Asian. In my classroom, I had the hold world before me. A variety of backgrounds. And these humans could not just be expected to be engaged through baseball and Breaking Bad. Instead, I needed to connect to their heritage, their home, their real life. I needed to establish a deeper connection.

Now, I'm still a preservice teacher and this is something I'm just getting into, but what I have found since making this shift towards deeper connection, focusing on multicultural mentor texts, is that it is way less of a hunt for resources when you are going down the right path. Not every time you plan a lesson must you be a pave setter <that really hits the preservice ego>. Instead, there are many many many people who are doing the work you are wanting to do. Social media has made it easy to connect and share and explore. So, in order to save you some time and heartbreak, here are a few accounts that can take you down the paved path for connecting with your students through multicultural mentor texts. If you have any you would like to add to this list, drop them in the comments below. Let's just make this whole teaching thing a bit easier for everyone. 

The Big 6 (because 5 isn't enough and 10 is too many):

1. For when you need a variety and a bit more info: 

• @weneeddiversebooks 
• @thereadingculturepod

These two accounts do a good job at bringing you into the multicultural literature community. A lot of people are working on bringing about diverse texts into the classroom. These accounts are platforms to amplify those individuals and to lead you to others that are hoping to do the same thing as you. The @thereadingculturepod account is actually an Instagram account to a podcast, so you'll see less books but if you go to their podcast in their bio you'll find the extra info you're looking for. 

2. For when you need a good children's book: 

• @coloursofus 
• @hereweeread 
• @nortonyoungreaders 
• @diversebooks

Let's be honest, sometimes children's books do it better. Lots and lots of accounts focus on multicultural children's books and making sure kids feel represented in literature. These accounts are always posting about new books written by multiple voices and backgrounds. These books could be a great addition to a text set or spark deep writing responses. Anyone that has cried reading a book to a child at night knows just how powerful these little guys can be. 

3. For when you need a book that highlights Indigenous people and Native Americans: 

• @indigenous_storytellers 
• @cynthialeitichsmith

Face it, the only Native American story many of us grew up on was Disney's depiction of Pocahontus. It's time to branch out, and to read the real thing. These accounts focus on the works of Native Americans, their voices, not the white spin off. The first account focuses on children's books, while the second introduces you to a variety of genres written by Indigenous people. 

4. For when you need a book that highlights African Americans and their experiences:

• @antiracisthomeschooling 
• @theblacksyllabus

Since the Black Lives Matter Movement, a lot of us have started waking up to our racism and shortcomings when it comes towards our treatment towards and understanding of our Black community members. These efforts to do better are often hard to see translated into our classrooms. These accounts helps us in building a classroom that is a safe space for our students of color. 

5. For when you need nonfiction multicultural texts: 

• @beaconpress 
• @theoffingmag 

I adore nonfiction texts. I have a niche for the personal essay and just a dang good article. That's why I got a little giddy when I came across these accounts. @beaconpress shares multicultural nonfiction books and articles that could be beneficial for highlighting essay techniques. @theoffingmag is an account full of creative nonfiction writers from a variety of backgrounds. 

6. For when you need a variety of multicultural YA novels: 

• @diversateareads 
• @tumasbooks

Recently, YA literature has been making strides in appearing in high school curriculum. With the desire to not only teach the standards, but also enstill a love of reading into students, teachers have found that YA lit is pretty successful. These accounts share the latest YA novels from diverse authors highlighting the struggles of teens from diverse backgrounds. These accounts cover strictly book content, nothing more, nothing less. This makes them nice because you don't need to sift through much to find one that fits what you're looking for.