Project Exchange

SUMMARY

Goals

Utilize peer and teacher comments to revise and polish a personal memoir. Incorporate the writing techniques of "exploding the moment" and "thoughtshots" in the revised memoir.

Details

Duration: N/A

Assessments: Student writing

Materials: Computer with InDesign

Description

For this project, you will be writing a chapter in your memoirs, a chapter about something that is important in your life. Since we began our exploration of the above Essential Questions, we have done various personal writing to help us connect to the questions. Your personal writing has included spontaneous monologues; narratives about saying good-bye, a significant influence, and your "age"; a guided writing story; a sensory story; and a sensory poem. You all have moments that stick out in your minds, moments that will help you create wonderful chapters for your memoirs. You will be writing about one of those moments and learning how to make your writing interesting. Ultimately, you will be sharing an excerpt in our first exhibition: The Book Project on Thursday, November 9th 2006.

Themes:
Your chapter must have a theme to help guide your writing as you explore aspects of one of the essential questions. The themes you may choose from are as follows:
* Community/Friends/Group Membership
* Future/Purposes/Actions/Choices
* Family/Culture/Home
* Inner self/Outer Self/ Appearance

Your Assignment:
In your memoir you will be expected to do the following:
* Write an interesting lead or beginning
* Use detail to make your story interestingbaby steps, thoughtshots, and exploded moments (you'll be learning about these)
* Write dialogue correctly (if you use it)
* Indent at paragraphs
* Use punctuation correctly
* Double check your spelling

Prewriting activities help students tap into some moments that might eventually become their memoirs. To give students ideas it helps to have students read their unpolished writing out loud or do pair shares where they can share their writing with each other. Some prewriting activities are attached.