Multigenre Memoir observations 1

education,literacy, teaching, reflection

A Word Cloud of Key Words from this Blog Post

10-27-08

Wow! The kids were excited about this project! It was hard turning the class over to the writer's workshop format, even though I fully believe in it, and I've done it before! (update: I now ONLY teach using a writer's workshop format. It has revolutionized my teaching and my students' engagement and therefore their learning)

We started class today with an overview of the project, a discussion of what memoir is, and brainstorms about our lives. Some of the students had a hard time feeling that they had anything to write about, although I stressed to them that their memories don't have to be tragic or adventurous or whatever to be important. I modeled this portion on the board as I did a simple brainstorm of things that had occurred in my life that I might like to write about (using a list format). Students are to do all of their planning and drafting in their learning logs, the spiral bound books they use to respond to reading and the place where they "think."

We discussed the writing process. Students wanted to skip the prewriting phase--don't they always? After about thirty minutes, we did a pair-share, and students began to learn a bit more about each other. Some wanted to take these brainstorms home to continue working.

We finished class by brainstorming a list of possible genres to be used with the memoir: the kids were especially fond of the idea of using a text message format to show a conversation. I also shared some of Jerry Spinelli's Knots in My Yo-Yo String as this book is a published example of a multigenre memoir. He uses narrative and descriptive text, to-do lists, pictures with paragraphs, and other genres to tell of his childhood.

Comments

Unlocking Creative Brilliance with Digital Magnetic Poetry: Teach Syntax, Diction, and Tone

Originally published 1/14/2009. Updated 11/4/2023 The possibilities are infinite--ish when you use online magnets to get creative. No refrigerator necessary. Free online kits here . Poetry, with its mesmerizing ability to encapsulate emotions, stories, and ideas within the boundaries of words, is a true art form. But there's a particular type of poetry that holds a special place in my heart—the kind that challenges our traditional understanding of language and syntax. I'm talking about magnetic poetry, the quirky, wordplay-filled realm where creativity knows no bounds. I love this type of poetry! It really makes me think in a different syntax, playing with a strange juxtaposition of words. Often, I use this format when I am bored or if I have NO IDEA what I want to write about! The beauty of magnetic poetry lies in its simplicity and boundless potential for creativity. It's an art form where words become movable puzzle pieces, waiting to be rearranged into poetic masterpi...

A Book Review of Sark's (2008) Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It

A Book Review of Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It by Sark. Three Rivers press, 2008. 185 pages. $18.95. When I first discovered Sark, I was at once inspired, envious, and critical. I remember sitting on my best friend’s bed, covered in its usual tangle of sarongs and tapestries rather than real bed clothes, growing more incredulous as I flipped each page of Succulent Wild Woman (1997). What kind of new-age hippie crap was this? Someone had gotten paid to write this ? These doodles and handwritten pages were worthy of my ultimate goal, that pinnacle of success, PUBLICATION? But each spunky drawing and passage motivated me to continue my own writing. Sark wrote the way I wrote, turning letters to friends into artwork, and if she could get paid for it then I could. ...

What is Working Memory?

How Does The Brain Work? If I could answer that question, I could probably be cooling my heels on a nice island somewhere, mimosa in hand, Instead, I am left to read research and theories about how the brain (and reading) operates. One can dream, though..... For years, researchers delineated memory into two types: short term and long term. More recently, after the advent of LaBerge and Samuels Automaticity Theory (1974) and Perfetti's Verbal Efficiency Theory (1988), this construct was re-imagined as working memory --which adds the dimension of processing to the function of storage ( Daneman & Carpenter , 1980). As they explain, "Working memory is assumed to have processing as well as storage functions; it serves as the site for executing processes and for storing the products of these processes" (p. 450). Working memory is active rather than passive. Tanabe , Azumi , Osaka, & Naoyuki (2009) explain that workin...

Out of Her Mind -- Musings on Education and Life

Search This Blog