At this point in the year, my students always begin writing their memoir. It's time to start reflecting on our school year, on our work as writers and on our lives. You'd be surprised how reflective a 10 year-old can be. And how wise.
We always connect our work to a mentor text. Writing memoirs is not different. Together we read the book, Marley & Me, by John Grogan, which is mostly funny, but has bittersweet moments. (We read the children's version - Marley & Me, A Dog Like No Other, it's shorter, geared to children). The combination entertains the kids, but gets them thinking about the bigger picture in life.
A memoir is the story of one's life, but slanted to tell a specific tale. It isn't a chronological list of events. Rather it's choosing which events you share, based on the message you want to send your readers. We all have many facets to our life. I'm a wife, mother, daughter and sister -- the events I write about are different depending on the part of my life I choose to focus on.
For the first few days, probably all this coming week, we'll read a couple chapters a day, "donating" a good chunk of our writing time to reading Marley. We need to get a head start before they start penning their memoirs. Sometimes the work of writing is reading, almost like we are researching. Sometimes our work in writing is thinking. We can't just spew words on a page. There is a good bit to be done before we start.
