Authors as Mentors: Grammar as Tools, Not Rules

ABSTRACT Using a contextualized approach to grammar instruction, with published authors as mentors, contrasts starkly to ineffective methods that use worksheets and isolated grammar instruction. With this contextualized approach, students turn to authors as mentors for using grammar as tools, not rules. Positioning published authors as mentors for students' writing provides authentic models for students to construct knowledge about grammar within meaningful contexts. This article offers a process for using mentor texts as a pathway for teaching grammar and usage. We include both primary grade and middle‐school examples of this approach, which offers a research‐based alternative to ineffective grammar instruction that is driven by worksheets and decontextualized examples.