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Multigenre Memoir Introduction


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MultiGenre Memoir--My Daily Reflections and
Lessons

(Click on the title for a link to PART of my multigenre memoir at ASU)

Time--2 weeks 90 minutes a day Level--9th grade English 1 (easily adaptable)

I started this memoir project two weeks ago. We began work on our projects after students read Tears of a Tiger, by Sharon Draper. They loved the book, by the way. Throughout the reading, we had meaningful and authentic discussions about the author's use of genre, why for instance she opened the book with a news article that objectively discusses the tragic car accident before she flashed back to conversation in the locker room beforehand. The following notes are from my observations in and after class as we worked on the project. This particular project was completed with two year-long English 9/Reading classes. The highest reading level is 6th grade, and many of the students are EC, ELL, or 504. I adapted this project from http://urbachc.org/urb_multigenre_memoir.htm In my class, step 5 is called a learning log rather than a writing journal because it is the tool I already had in place. I excluded the preface in step 6, required 4 genres rather than 6, and combined the reflection and end notes into a section called author's notes. I did not use the rubric on this site! 

 A quick explanation/overview of writing workshop: http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/writers/writer-4.html (This is a design that works for all ages, and you can find many more resources online.)
If you're interested, you can email me at girlfaulkner@gmail.com , and I will send you the modified assignment, my rubric, and student and teacher examples. Happy reading, writing, and teaching!

(This project was presented in 2008 at a NWRESA and a NCETA conference).
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