th Grade Memoir Unit information compiled by Ms Gilmore Intern Getting Started My dear childrenyou must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory especially a memory of childhood of home People talk to ID: 631718
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Slide1
What is a memoir?
Mrs. Harrell’s 6
th
Grade Memoir Unit
information compiled by Ms. Gilmore, InternSlide2Getting Started
“My dear children…you must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If one carries many such memories into life, one is safe to the end of one’s days, and if one has only one good memory left in one’s heart, even that may be the means of saving us.”
–from
The Brothers Karamazov
by DostoevskySlide3Getting started
He is talking about a recollected moment in which someone has tasted of life, a moment forceful enough, charged enough, to survive many other moments. Perhaps Dostoevsky is suggesting that an especially vivid memory itself survives as a monument…Without such compelling memories, we are not ourselves, but rather anyone.” –from Robert Coles, The Call of StoriesSlide4
What is a memoir?A memoir is a person’s written account of a memory or experience that takes place in the past.
Memoirs allow people to look back on their lives and reflect on their own significant experiences. How did a certain event make them feel? What did they learn from it?Slide5Characteristics of a memoir
Memoirs usually include:A significant event or experienceFacts as well as emotional reflectionsFirst person narrationStories that are true (memoirs are considered non-fiction)
Lots of vivid details so that the reader can understand what the writer felt in the past.
A teachable moment or lesson. This means that the writer is able to show the reader what he/she learned from the experience.
Note
: Memoirs sometimes include compacted experiences. For example, sometimes things that happened to the writer in a period of 3 weeks can be condensed into one day for the sake of storytelling.Slide6How is a
memoir different from a biography or autobiography?Unlike a biography or an autobiography, a memoir does not have to cover one person’s entire
life. It does not have to start from birth and end at death. Instead, a
memoir can reflect
on one memory from the past or it can be composed of many
smaller memories.Slide7Quotes About Writing
“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” –John Jakes, writer“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” –
Joan
Didion
, author“One
writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time and in others’ minds.” –Alfred
Kazin
, writer
“Memoirs are the backstairs of history.”
–George Meredith, Victorian poetSlide8A
few examples of book length memoirs
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls
Night
by
Elie
Wiesel
Rocket Boys
by Homer Hickam
The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
Leaving Home
by Garrison Keillor
Sweet Summer
by
Bebe
Moore Campbell
The Polio Hole by Shelley Fraser
MickelThe House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisnores Slide9What we did in class
Although you may not have access to the short memoirs my students read, you will be able on your own to find some of them, along with many others with the help of librarians, teachers, or the internet.On the next several slides I will insert material from the handout we followed for our memoir unit.On the final slide I’ve shared the sample memoir I wrote to read to my students. They always loved it. Please don’t judge me. Please enjoy writing memoir.Slide10Slide11
As you read, jot down on your own paper a one sentence summary of each memoir you read along with a brief annotation about a lesson learned from the memoir and a one word comment on the tone or voice of the piece (humorous, sarcastic, thoughtful and reflective, sad, etc.)You will see on the next page of this “packet” some suggested prompts for memoir writing. Next to some of these prompts I have written the names of pieces you may have read from the folders that fit them. Note how the student writers (and many of these pieces were written by students) handled writing to a prompt. You don’t have to use the prompts
provided
however, if your memoir is on something else. Whatever you write, be sure I can hear your voice in your piece. Also strong verbs and concrete details are imperative! Don’t forget to “Have a Writing Conference with Yourself” before typing your final draft.
Manilla folder (trauma and tear jerkers)
The Kindness of Strangers by Chris Morris
Eleven
by Sandra Cisneros
Murderer by Brent
Dean
Charlie
by Sandi
Ryals
Deliverance by Dorothy
Coar
Moth excerpt by Annie Dillard
Ken by U of F student
A Discovery by Erin Pearson
The Doe by Ian Richard
Orange folder (places)
Porsche by Bailey White
Summer of the Yellow House by Linda
Gunsaulies Middle Georgia by Jill Smith Long-legged House by Wendell Berry
607 East University Avenue by Mrs. H To Dad by Mrs. H Backyard by Kevin Lehner
Bobo’s House by Danielle Kiel McGriffRed folder (revelations and philosophy
)
Santa by Allison
Cravey
Crayons by Robert
Fulghum
Discovery
by Cathy David
A Child’s Life by Mrs. H
What is Under My Bed? Mermaids by Robert Fulghum Larry Walters by Robert Fulghum (the movie, Up, is based on this) Three Letters from Teddy
Yellow folder (childhood adventures) The Cornbread Calamity by Jimmy Galindo Daydreamer by Catherine Quaimbo Catfish excerpt by Farley Mowat Get em by Matt Stone Car Graveyard by John Cadwalleder You Can’t Fly in a Coat by Barbara Hontz Our car boiled excerpt by Tobias Wolff Rabid Alligators and the Dreaded Cotton Mouth Python by Alex Wayne
This is
material from page
2 of the guidelines for our memoir unit. It may not be as useful as the previous
page was
or
that the
next few pages which include ideas for your own writing and a sample memoir I wrote called “Murder She Wrote
” might be
It’s included just to give an idea of what we did. Find your own samples of brief memoirs a la Chicken Soup
for
various souls…Slide12So many ideas…so little time:
1. Write about a pet you once had but don’t have anymore (Farley Mowat’s catfish) 2. Did you ever try to cook something that didn’t turn out right? (Cornbread Calamity) 3. Can you recall a time you got in trouble or broke something? (The Pie) 4. Can you remember a trip you would not want to take again? (A Discovery) 5. Can you remember a birthday or holiday you wouldn’t
6
. A time you got lost… 7. A first impression that turned out to be wrong… (Three Letters from Teddy)
8. A time you learned something from a child… (Mermaids, Crayons)
9. Can you remember a time you were tricked or lied to? (Kindness of Strangers)
10. When you were little, what was it like going to the movies? (Mexican Movies)
11. A place you would like to go back to… (Summer of My Yellow House, To Dad, 607 East Univ.)
12. Recall the neighborhood bully… (Green Gulch)
13. Recall a great fort, exploring cool places or devising childhood games or clubs…(Car Graveyard, Get ‘
Em
)
14. Stray animals you brought home…
15. A difficult decision you had to make…(Deliverance)
16. Write about a time you found out something about yourself. (Murder She Wrote, The Art of Living Simply)
17. A time you had to communicate with someone you couldn’t understand (My Fourteenth Summer)
18. Did you ever see a ghost?
19. Running away from home…
20. Were you ever accused of something you didn’t do? (Mrs. Williams, Ducks Don’t Drown, Murderer)
21. Sand castles or mud pies (A Child’s Life)
22. Write about feeling like a misfit. (Ken, Falling Asleep)
23. Write about nightmares. (What’s Under My Bed?)
24. Having to wait for something you wanted… 25. Finding out the truth about Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, et. al. What are you implying, Mrs. Harrell!? 26. A movie or book that made a huge impression on you…
27. Describe the best time you ever had in your life. (The Power of Being There, Rabid Alligators) 28. The funniest thing that you ever saw or that ever happened to you… (Larry Waters)
29. Did you ever feel really sorry for someone? (Charlie) 30. Do you remember a special cloth doll, toy, costume or piece of clothing from your childhood? (Mothball Memories, Red Blanket, etc. You may expand your “cloth memory” piece into a full-length memoir if you wish.
“We do not know what we will say until we say it, and so we discover…by writing what we have seen, what we have learned, what we have lived and what it means. Each draft is new, filled with surprise.”
~
Donald Murray in A Writer Teaches Writing Slide13Cloth Memories
The cloth memory writing assignment is a chance for you to practice your memoir writing skills before the more in-depth memoir assignment later on in the unit. For this assignment, you will be thinking and writing about a piece of cloth from your childhood that means a lot to you. Some of the cloth memory pieces we will be reading include: “My Mother Pieced Quilts” by Theresa Palma Acosta Excerpts from students’ cloth memory memoirs Cloth Memories (Red Blanket) by David Houder
Mothball Memories by Mrs. Harrell
Quilt Song by Mark Vinz
After reading these sample pieces, here’s what you will be doing:
1
.
Think
about a piece of cloth from your childhood that has a special place in your heart. It could be a stuffed animal, a security “
blankie
,”
a costume
, or other piece of clothing or special cloth belonging to you or to a special person in your life to whom you were attached as a young child. (I believe a few of the memoirs you looked at in the folders included a reference to cloth—“Eleven” and “You Can’t Fly in a Coat” for example)
2. After
you have your cloth in mind, share what it meant to you by writing a short
(1
page) memoir reflecting on its appearance, significance, use, etc. Paint a vivid picture for your reader with strong verbs, sensory details, and even figures of speech if you need some. Write in first person. If you need help getting started, recall the examples and reread them if you wish.
3
.
When
you are finished with your piece, turn it in to me and I will give you a square sheet of paper and some crayons. (
ahhhh
, remember crayons)
Color the paper so that it looks like a piece of cloth from your memoir, and turn it in when you are finished. I will assemble a class quilt of everyone’s paper pieces. Everyone will have an opportunity to read his/her cloth memory aloud as we try to match the story to the piece of cloth! We could later dismantle the quilt so you can put the “cloth” and your typed, edited writing in your
antholio (or we could take a photo). Slide14Slide15Now see what you can do. Hopefully you’ve grown to be a more disciplined person than I was for those treacherous moments in 3
rd and 6th grades.I am all for peace and love now.