collecting & gathering

When you COLLECT & GATHER information for your project, it can look very different depending on what genre you are doing.  For example, this step in the writing process could include:
  • Finding / reading model texts to get ideas and good examples of what good writing looks like in your chosen genre.  (See below to get a list of strong model texts to read.)
  • Doing some research and taking notes on your topic (e.g. for informational booklets, historical fiction)
  • Doing interviews (e.g. for newspaper & magazine articles, guidebooks, biographies)
  • Gathering / taking pictures (e.g. for cookbooks, scrapbooks, newspaper/magazine articles)
  • Doing research on specific writing techniques common to the genre (e.g. fiction, poetry, review writing, etc.)



need some inspiration? 
check out some of these model texts! 

For Fiction...
Graphic Novels
  • Maus by Art Spiegelman
  • Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
  • American Born Chinese by Gene Yang


Poetry
  • Things I Have To Tell You: Poems and Writings by Teenage Girls edited by Betsy Franco


Short Stories
  • 13: Thirteen Stories That Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen by James Howe
  • Best Shorts: Favorite Stories for Sharing compiled by Avi


Diary Entries
Without Images:
  • Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Diary of Latoya Hunter by Latoya Hunter

With Images:
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
  • Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell


Picture Books (Children's Books)
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
  • Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
  • Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
  • Dr. Seuss books


Fables & Fairy Tales
Click on these websites to begin reading some classic fables and fairy tales! 


For Nonfiction...
Newspaper Articles, Editorials
  • New York Times
  • Daily News
  • New York Post


Film Reviews & Book Reviews
  • New York Times


Magazine Articles
  • Time
  • People
  • Vogue
  • Seventeen
  • Tiger Beat


You could also bring in your own model texts!  Think about something that you have read in your chosen genre and use it as model / guide as you create your own!