Penny Kittle is the author of Micro Mentor Texts, a professional development book that uses short passages from great books to teach the craft of writing. Penny teaches writing at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She taught in public schools for 34 years and learned two essential things: all students will build independent reading lives of joy, curiosity, and hunger when given agency; and teachers who write with their students generate community and creative power. Penny is the founder of the Book Love Foundation. She has written nine books on teaching and travels the world to learn beside teachers and students.

What inspired you to write Micro Mentor Texts? How do you envision it supporting teachers day-to-day in the classroom? 

I’ve been collecting passages, stuffed into dozens of notebooks, for decades. I am intrigued by the study of how authors craft phrases and dialogue and the details of a setting. The exact things we want to teach our students! Writing teachers now have so many gorgeous texts at their fingertips; this book is a teacher’s companion for the teaching of writing. The work students do next to these passages will surprise and delight them. Studying and imitating the author's craft builds confidence and fluency and joy.

The book contains many passages from beloved books across many different genres and age ranges: Why did you choose the books you chose? What was it about those particular books that stood out to you? 

 You can imagine my office was stacked with books. I could have doubled the size of Micro Mentor Texts and still not exhausted all the beautiful craft I noticed. I loved the voice that authors used to distinguish characters—and how you can hear subtle changes in that voice over time. I liked the discovery of different craft moves as I was reading. I couldn’t help but see them! My wonderful editor, Ray Coutu, helped me decide on eight craft moves that are taught and retaught throughout years in school. You never master them—they continue to be useful in all genres and grade levels. We focused this book on those moves. However, I do have another list of craft moves common in nonfiction, and I plan to write about them someday.

Why is the practice of studying the craft of micro texts so important to helping students develop their reading and writing skills? 

It helps to isolate a skill when you are teaching. Most of the time with great essays or novels, there is just so much going on at once. The author is a master of many craft moves.  It helps students learn if we study them one at a time. I started by asking students to collect examples from their independent reading. We would cover a white board with them. Students were drawn to what other students found, and I watched them read each passage closely. Close reading and close writing go hand in hand. When I taught three or four lessons in a row about a particular move (the power of three, or crafting dialogue, for example) students isolated their practice on that move. I could see how focused attention improved their skill and their understanding.

In what ways do the strategies in Micro Mentor Texts help to develop students’ critical thinking skills?  

Writers think about how to present an idea. How to focus an essay. How to develop a character or how to show a secondary character’s perception of a main character. It is why we ask students to slow down and analyze what we know and understand in a book—and how we know it. It is helpful to tune students into the craft of a writer’s work. When you say, what are the strengths of Aida Salazaar’s? Students return to parts of her book and look more closely, sentence by sentence. Discussions develop depth with this rereading. You can then nudge them to try those craft moves in their writing. I have loved watching my students develop clear and effective writing under the influence of the gorgeous books in my classroom.

Teachers today play a crucial role in the social-emotional development of their students. How can educators use Micro Mentor Texts to help students learn skills and strategies to support their social and emotional learning in school? 

It’s no secret that reading develops students’ social and emotional selves. In a recent four-year study of middle and high school students, Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston found that, “Reading engaging narratives about characters with complicated lives, they reported, helped them become more empathetic, less judgmental, more likely to seek multiple viewpoints, morally stronger, and happier. Yes, happier. They reported improved self-control and building more and stronger friendships and family relationships. Students reported becoming better people, a change also noticed by their parents and peers.” (Teens Choosing to Read.) We need to invite students into books that help them make those changes—and using a micro mentor text as a craft study encourages students to pick up the book and read the rest. More reading is better in all ways.

When you share a passage from a particular book, how do you give students that are unfamiliar with the text some background information so that they understand the context? 

 Every day my classes begin with book talks. I am always seeking ways to invite young people into reading. Students often say, “I never knew there were so many interesting books in the world!” I vary my book talks from fiction to nonfiction to graphic texts and poetry. I summarize the big idea of the book in a few sentences, and often add, “If you like science fiction or mystery stories… you’ll love this.” That is the same kind of introduction I use to give students the context for the passage.

What are your three key tips for writing texts that will help hold the reader’s attention? 

You have to believe the story you are telling or the argument you are making is important—really important. If you believe it, your readers will hear it, and they will keep reading. Hearing that passion is evident in voice and in word choice and in sentence structure. We craft writing artfully, as I say in the book, and make use of rhythm (like the power of three) and detail (to engage a reader’s senses) and a playful, informative voice to keep eyes on the page.

Is there anything else you would like to add? Any questions you wish I’d asked and would like to answer to give more context? 

I want to create students who are independent of me. I know if I teach them to study good writing for the craft that it holds, they can write anything. There is a mentor text for everything we write. Do you want to improve turnout at your next concert? Craft a review of the music with style and soul. Give me a glimpse of why you love that musician. Want to design an enticing advertisement for an Airbnb? Study descriptions that make you want to rent that place! We teach writing to empower writers forever. The study of micro mentor texts leads them to this lifelong habit.