Our schedule:
- Passbacks. Students received returned homework and some received edited memoir pieces. Students should incorporate the edits I provided on their memoir pieces into the complete rough draft, due Friday.
- WordSkills 1.11-1.15. Vocab. If you were absent, you need to get notes from a friend. If you’re in Standard English you need to pick up the guided notes handout from the Make-Up binder in my room.
- Map of Piece. In class students started creating a Map of their memoir piece by answering the following questions:
Focus statement: Write two to four sentences about what you want readers to understand and connect with in your paper. This should contain two parts: what the memoir is about (topic) and what a reader could learn about life by reading it (lesson). For example, if my topic is various sporting events I have competed in, my lesson could be “the body is a fragile thing that has limits when tested.”
Working Title: What are you thinking of titling your memoir as a whole?
Existing Pieces that I may use: List them and rate the shape they’re in, 5 for perfect and 1 for really rough. You could choose from your Name Piece, Episode Piece, Place Piece, Slice of Life Piece, or the pieces you wrote over the weekend for your focus.
Pieces I may need to write: What else do you need to tell? What other parts of the story are missing? Have you written about everyone in your family except your mom? Add her in.
Possible order of the pieces: List your pieces in the order in which they may appear.
Connective techniques: Will you use subtitles for each section or piece, separate with white space, dates, chapters, or just write it as one integrated piece?
Other concerns I have:
HW: All students need to write one more page of their memoir tonight. This may be a new piece altogether or a one page expansion of a piece they already have. Look in the “Pieces I may need to write” section of your M.o.P. to see what’s left to add. Bring all your drafts and your Writer’s Notebook tomorrow.
ALEXA GARVOILLE 