This week is our first week of our memoir unit. This is always the most memorable and intriguing assignment of the year.
We will spend approximately six weeks on this unit.
This first week, we have started out by asking ourselves, What is Memoir? How is it different from an autobiography?
Rather than coming up with an immediate answer, we are spending the week completely immersing ourselves in various memoirs and composing a list of qualities that we see in each piece of literature we study. By the end of this week, we will analyze our list and come up with a solid definition. So far, we have looked at "Knots in my Yo-Yo String" by Jerry Spinelli, "Looking Back" by Lois Lowry, and "Thank you, Mr Falker" by Patricia Polacco.
The following five weeks will follow this schedule:
Week Two: Generating Ideas
Students will generate as many entries in their writer's notebook as possible, including liss, sketches, bits of remembered dialogue, events and images.
Week Three: Selecting, Collecting and Layering in the Writer's Notebook
Students choose a lens, frame, angle or theme as a focus for their memoir draft. After the have an idea of what their emmoir will mostly be about, they collect more information and layer additional text about this theme.
Week Four: Planning and Drafting
Students begin a first draft, using outlines and materials they have collected.
Week Five: Drafting and Revising
Students continue to draft their memoirs, applying several revision strategies to rework the structure. The share their changing versions with classmates and the teacher, getting feedback on what works and what still needs fine tuning.
Week Six: Editing, Publishing and Celebrating
Students reread their final draft, exchange with several peer editors. A final, corrected copy might be typed or handwritten, illustrated or bound.
Students read their published memoir to an audience of peers, parents and teachers. We celebrate their lives and the accomplishment of composing a memoir!
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