Every year I am always searching for mentor texts to help support writer’s workshop. I love to use a mixture of books that explains the writing process of each genre. Oriental Trading has an amazing line of I Can Write Books that fit perfectly into my lessons with step-by-step guides and examples.
I introduced this lesson by reading the section, "What is a Story?" As a class, we then wrote an anchor chart for the section making sure to hit the key points provided. Check out the table of contents! Everything you may need to help support your lesson is included in this book. Each section is broke down in the same format as the, "What's the Plot" section shown. 
After learning and reviewing all about what a story is, I used Colorful Word Strips to label the key parts of a story. We did a brief explanation of each element using the I Can Write Stories as our resource and reflecting back on prior learning. Then, we broke down the elements of our story of the week! I wanted students to see the connection between our basal story and what is needed to write our own story. 
During small groups, students completed a story mountain to help support writing a beginning, middle, and end in their Black & White Draw & Write Composition Journal. Oriental Trading's composition journals are my favorite! Each page contains the perfect space for drawing a picture and writing! Not only does this journal provide the perfect sized lines under the picture, but it also provides more lines on the back page. 
We will continue to use the I Can Write Stories as our main mentor text throughout our writer's workshop these next few weeks to support story writing. The Capstone I Can Write series includes the following books:
- I Can Write Instructions
- I Can Write Journals and Narratives
- I Can Write Letters and E-mails
- I Can Write Poems - What are poems?
- I Can Write Reports
