Genre: a particular type of text that can be found in the world outside of school. Feature articles, travel essays, book reviews, and abstracts are examples of genre.
Mode: a purpose for writing. Most often the modes are classified as exposition, narration, persuasion (or argumentation), and description.
In the subpages, you will find listed different genres and within each page are possible mentor texts.
Here's another google site filled with possible mentors.
Curious about how you could use the New York Times to study genre?
Check out Moving Writer's dropbox for mentor text.
And check this out for mentors for social studies.
Here's an article that could prompt some historical fiction writing: http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/22/516651689/after-slavery-searching-for-loved-ones-in-wanted-ads