Writing Memoir as a Seventh Grade Unit of Study: Curriculum Calendar and Resources Memoir is how writers look for the past and make sense of it. We figure out who we are, who we have become, and what it means to us and to the lives of others: a memoir puts the events of a life in perspective for the writer and for those who read it. It is a way to validate to others the events of our lives­ our choices, perspectives, decisions, responses. Memoir recognizes and explores moments on the way to growing up and becoming oneself, the good moments and the bad ones. It distills the essence of the experience through what the writer includes and more importantly, through what a writer excludes. Memoir celebrates people and places no one else had ever heard of. And memoir allows us to discover and tell our own truths as writers. ­Nancie Atwell, In the middle, Heinemann (1998), pg. 372 In this unit, students will draw on their knowledge of narrative writing and elevate the level of their writing by crafting a highly reflective and personal piece of writing. As this is most likely the first unit of the year after giving a short assessment, you will also be launching your workshop for the year. Students will be exposed to different forms of memoir, read and analyze mentor texts, and gather seed ideas as possibilities for their own memoirs. After drafting their memoirs, they will use revision strategies to clarify, refine, and extend their ideas, and will edit for conventions before publishing and celebrating their writing. The unit will also begin with sharing strategies that writers use to generate ideas for writing. This can be done in conjunction with launching your writing workshop, if you have not already done so. Next, students will spend time immersed in an experience of the genre before ever having discussed a definition of the genre. Once students have read and responded to several mentor memoirs, it is a good time to discuss together and define the characteristics of a memoir, and how it differs from a personal narrative. An essential question to ask is, “How is memoir like­ or unlike­ autobiography?” You’ll want to teach students that good fiction will often read as if it is memoir; and memoir, on the other hand, will often feel very much like fiction (Calkins 1994). We can think of memoir as literary nonfiction (Atwell 1998). As your students read, reflect, and analyze the text structure of various memoirs, push them to look back through their notebooks and select moments that reveal their own experiences and moments that are small, yet meaningful. Writers may wish to go back to an object or photograph that sparks a memory, or create a timeline or web of a particular memory. They may write a thinking entry in their notebooks to reflect on why this moment was meaningful. They may look back through their notebook and link several entries that share a common subject or theme and begin to develop a series of vignettes, and find that the meaning is revealed to them as they write. Once students have selected a seed idea to write about, they will move out of their notebooks and onto yellow paper to write a draft of their memoir. Demonstrating your movement from seed idea in notebook to draft on paper, and sharing some basic procedures you’ve chosen (such as writing on one side of the paper only, skipping lines,
DRAFT: Created by Kimberly Kovach, Middle School Writing Curriculum Coordinator, September 2006. Revised June 2007. proper headings, and so on) will give your writers a sense of encouragement and possibility as they begin the work of drafting. When students are ready to revise they may need to focus on purpose: looking again at their writing to mine the significance of their story, which (hopefully) they discovered while writing their memoir. Strong leads and purposeful endings are important. Writers may wish to experiment with tone to add voice to their writing. They may find places in which to add dialogue, or try to balance the action, dialogue, and thought in their memoir. Thoughtful writers will try to add the kind of details and elaboration that help create a “movie in the reader’s mind.” Writing conferences are an important time for students to learn strategies for meaningful revision as you notice what they already know to do and teach into the things they need to know how to do. Because this is the first unit of the year, as students begin to edit and polish their writing, you may wish to focus on reviewing familiar conventions and setting the expectation that, once writers have been taught a particular convention or strategy, you expect them to use it consistently in their writing from this day on. Your students’ needs and weaknesses will drive your grammar instruction­ but a refresher of the basics is generally a good starting point. Once your students have published their work, it is time to celebrate! This curriculum calendar, along with the other resources included in this unit, is intended to be a framework and a toolkit for you to use as you plan your writing workshop lessons. The calendar is one way in which you can teach this unit, but there are certainly many other lessons that could have been included. Writing Memoir as a Unit of Study: Some books to support the unit
· In the Middle by Nancie Atwell · Lessons That Change Writers by Nancie Atwell · Making Revision Matter by Janet Angelillo · Memoir: the Art of Writing Well by Lucy Calkins and Mary Chiarella and Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing by Lucy Calkins and Ted Kesler (part of Units of Study for Teaching Writing, grades 3­5, but we know it’s useful for our middle schoolers, too!)** · Teaching the Qualities of Writing (toolkit) by JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher** · UCPS Middle School Writing Initiative Packet, developed by the Columbia University Teachers’ College Reading and Writing Project ** ** Available in all middle schools
DRAFT: Created by Kimberly Kovach, Middle School Writing Curriculum Coordinator, September 2006. Revised June 2007. Launching Writing Workshop and Memoir Writing as a Seventh Grade Unit of Study Curriculum Calendar (4 weeks) Day Mini Lesson 1 Launch writing workshop: Intro. writers to notebook, share procedures. Model/write 1 entry. Students write entry (allow at least 20 min.). HW: Bring in photos & items to decorate notebook. 2 Launch: What is a writer’s notebook? Read from Fletcher’s A Writer’s Notebook. Write another entry (20 min.) or allow time to decorate notebook. 3 Gathering seed ideas: Heart Mapping, write 1­2 entries off map (build stamina) 4 Gathering seed ideas: Memory Mapping, write 1­2 entries from map ideas(build stamina) 5 Gathering seed ideas: Create emotional places map, write 1­2 entries from map ideas(build stamina) 6 Gathering seed ideas: Create issues/moments/people chart, write 1­2 entries from chart ideas (build stamina) HW: bring in several photos of special people/places
DRAFT: Created by Kimberly Kovach, Middle School Writing Curriculum Coordinator, September 2006. Revised June 2007. Day Mini Lesson 7 Gathering seed ideas: Let a photograph spark memories: write an entry or two in response to a photograph. Lois Lowry’s book Looking Back­ A Book of Memories is a suggested mentor text for this lesson. 8 Gathering seed ideas: Reflect on previous entries and write a thinking entry or two. 9 Genre Study: Immerse students in memoir. Share mentor text (teacher choice), discuss and write a reflective/responsive entry. (see Possibilities for Minilessons – Reading Memoir for ideas) 10 11 12 Genre Study: Share more mentor text, discuss and write a reflective/responsive entry. (see Possibilities for Minilessons – Reading Memoir for ideas) Genre Study: Using mentor texts, identify characteristics of memoir, discuss the essential question, “How is memoir like ­or unlike ­ autobiography?”, examine text structure, etc. … You may wish to have students take informal notes in their notebooks and/or chart ideas shared. Flexible: You may wish to continue immersing yourselves in memoir and/or write response entries.
DRAFT: Created by Kimberly Kovach, Middle School Writing Curriculum Coordinator, September 2006. Revised June 2007. Day Mini Lesson 13 Choose a seed idea: Reread earlier entries, select one or two and create timelines to focus and plan their memoir. Writers should be able to commit to one seed by the end of the workshop time. 14 Draft memoir –out of notebook, onto yellow lined paper. 15 Draft memoir –out of notebook, onto yellow lined paper. 16 Revise: The Rule of So What? (and/ or Questions for Memoirists…may be useful as a mid­workshop teaching point or you may wish to make that the next day’s minilesson) 17 Revise: Strong leads 18 Revise: Add dialogue OR identify places of action, inner thinking, and dialogue in your memoir and expand your writing to balance the three. Depending of your writers’ strengths, this could be a mid­workshop teaching point or you may wish to make that the next day’s minilesson. 19 Revise: Elaborate on an idea. Creating a timeline is also a useful strategy writers can use in revision.
DRAFT: Created by Kimberly Kovach, Middle School Writing Curriculum Coordinator, September 2006. Revised June 2007. Day Mini Lesson 20 Edit: Add punctuation/ stop run­on sentences 21 Edit: Misspelled words 22 Edit: Create paragraphs 23 Publish: Student/ teacher choice 24 Publish: Student/ teacher choice 25 CELEBRATION!!!
DRAFT: Created by Kimberly Kovach, Middle School Writing Curriculum Coordinator, September 2006. Revised June 2007.