Real Life: Stranger Than Fiction
Reading Memoirs
Essential Questions
How does perspective shape truth?
How do people create and express truths that define them?
How is personal narrative used for personal gain (political, fame, fortune)?
How do these authors set the tone for their personal narratives?
Independent Reading: Choose two memoirs from our book list
*Get approval from Mrs. Schulz if the memoir you want to read is not on this list.
Assignment Due October 1
Part 1 (do this assignment for one of your books) - Reader Response Journal: Create FIVE 300-word responses to quotes you select from the book (the quote doesn't count towards the 300 words). In your responses you will make one thematic connection and one personal connection.
Format:
Quote
Thematic connection (What is a theme in the book and how does the quote you selected connect to that theme?)
Personal connection
Part 2 (do this assignment for the other book) - Book Trailer
Create a book trailer. I recommend reading the same book as one or two other people in class so you can do the book trailer together as a pair or small group. More info will be posted shortly.
Part 3 (you will choose which book to write your essay for once you see the prompt) - Essay: This will be done in class one day the week after October 1
Reading Selections:
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
My Family's Slave - Alex Tizon
Salvation - Langston Hughes
Once More to the Lake - E.B. White
from Born a Crime - Trevor Noah
American Childhood - Annie Dillard
Fish Cheeks - Amy Tan
Writing Memoirs
Essential Questions
What are effective ways of presenting personal truth?
How is telling a story using art different than telling a story using words?
When I Was Young in the Mountains
(Mentor Text)
When I Was Young in the Mountains - by Cynthia Rylant
Hands
Read this poem: Hands - by Sarah Kay
Trace your hand and list things you have touched or held that mattered to you.
Encyclopedia Autobiography
Amy Rosenthal organized her memoir into an encyclopedia of episodic entries to show various details of her life in her novel Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. Here are three random entries from her novel:
Amy Rosenthal
My father-in-law informed me that my married name could produce two anagrams: Hearty Salmon. Nasty Armhole. I cannot tell you how much I love that.
Anxious, Things That Make Me
Vending machines. I have to double-, triple-check. Okay it’s A5 for the Bugles, right? Is that right? A5? I don’t want to read the codes wrong and end up with Flaming Hot Cheetos. But then, what a relief when the Bugles come tumbling down. Yes! I knew it was A5!
Birthmark
I have a birthmark on my left arm. As a child I thought it looked like a bear, or Africa, depending on the angle. I would often draw and eye and a mouth on it; sometimes I would allow a friend to do so. To look at my birthmark was to remind myself that I am me.
Assignment
Use Rosenthal’s book as a model and write 7 encyclopedia entries that are autobiographical in nature. At least 4 entries should be longer than 100 words (3 entries may be under 100 words). You may also look at my example encyclopedia entries on our class website to get ideas.
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Photo Autobiography
Create a 3 page autobiography using words, photos, and drawings. Each page must have one photo that drives the words and drawings on the page. The photo should propel the story. You can write one solid page that is unified in its telling of the story associated with the photo, or you can write several segments that are related to the photo in some way. For example, if the photo is of you and your mother, you could write one segment about the situation happening when the photo was taken, one segment about memories you have with your mother, and one segment about lessons you've learned from your mother. You can write lists. You can write sideways or curved. You can write in different colors. The only thing you must do is HANDWRITE on the page around the photo and drawings.
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Building Empathy Through Storytelling
There is power in helping others tell their own stories and in using the stories of others to build empathy.
Assignment
Interview someone who lives or works in the 93706 or 93721 zip code and take their photo. Make sure your photo is clear. See HONY for options of taking photos of people.
Upload the photo and a caption of 50-200 words onto Teams. Follow the HONY style of captioning. It should read like a very brief story that provides a glimpse into the life of the person you interviewed.
Only students who select one of the colored papers can interview a student who attends Edison HS.
Give the info sheet to the person you interview so they have information about our project. Participants have to consent to their photo being used.