![]() The primary emphasis remains a focus on a seed moment, or pebble, but additionally and ultimately, the 7 th grade memoir must (1) answer the “so what, (2) show not tell through sensory & personal details and (3) expose the author’s thoughts & feelings. In seventh grade, we look for the Memoir to evolve from fundamentally expressive, toward discerning and reflective. My wonderful new colleague, Rosemarie Hebner, gives us the perspective from seventh grade: My hope is that this work has helped my sixth graders truly move into memoir territory, where they begin to see the value in this type of writing…and that they will carry what they’ve learned to writer’s workshop in 7th. And then we move on to create a timeline, that looks like this.Īfter all of this thinking, planning and strategizing…we are ready to write. Not all of the above can be filled out in the planning stages of writing, but I find that my students will come back and add to this chart as they write – as though the act of writing makes them reflect deeper.ģ. I want my reader to know _.Īnd, I ask them to create “reflections” for each of these ideas as well: So I ask them to write a purpose statement for each of the three memoir moments they will write flash drafts for. Once the groundwork had been laid, and my students are ready to draft, I find that they need to anchor their writing once again to make sure that the “memoir worthiness” is at the heart of their writing – that they know the idea that their memoir writing is built around. Is there time in my life when I thought a certain way and then something/someone changed my way of thinking?Ģ. Is there a time in my life when I figured out something I didn’t know before? or when a truth was revealed? What are the standout memories I want to hold on to forever? So, for each addition to their writing list I ask my students to consider the following questions (thank you Ralph Fletcher!) in order to identify the truly memoir worthy moments: Rich mentor text work helps to clarify their thinking and move them to consider new ideas. Often, my kids reach for the same ideas once too often, and I have to really push them to dig deeper. I find that my kids need to spend a lot of time sorting through their writing ideas, and really considering what makes a memoir worthy moment. In sixth grade, my teaching focus is to establish the difference between personal narrative and memoir, and then to plan, plan, plan. The rewards are quite wonderful, however, for in those moments that our kids have been keeping lists of, heart mapping, and writing notebook entries about, lie moments of self discovery, moments to write about and treasure forever. Moving from personal narrative to memoir presents challenges and rewards for sixth and seventh graders – they are working with a very familiar genre (they’ve been writing personal narratives since kindergarten, after all), and yet memoir requires digging deep and working hard to create something entirely different.
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