Marvelous memoirs

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.

So tomorrow, off we go to write about our lives...

A Last Word on Letters...

Once we finish our letters to our friends, we will finish our letter writing by writing a letter to an incoming 4th grade student for the next school year. I have two friends that have done this over the years in their fifth grade classes, and I think it's a very nice end-of-year wrap up. 

Even though we aren't that close to the end of the year, we aren't that far from it either. While we are on this letter writing topic, now seems as good a time as any to write those letters. That will be one end-of-year task done!

Students can start by introducing themselves, telling their reader what they enjoyed about 4th grade, what was a challenge for them this year, and offer some words of advice. This is a nice reflective piece that helps students as they gain an understanding of just how much they have achieved this year. By completing the letters now, they can bask in their achievements for the remaining weeks of the year.

My challenge: remember where I put the letters so I can pull them out in September!

More from the paint counter

So it is possible that I have an obsession with the paint store, but it works out well for my teaching life. My son won’t even go through the paint section with me anymore. The last time I headed for paint, he headed to the car.

That’s because the time before that, I wasn’t even shopping for paint when I went there. I just wanted the chips. Teenagers are notoriously paranoid. They think every clerk is watching; every shopper is staring. “Okay, Mom. You have enough. What do you need all those for? Don’t take them all!”

Turns out, there are lots of freebies in the paint section that make great teaching tools. Take those little tiles that are counter top samples. Really, take some. Then hand them to students and give them a challenge: incorporate this texture/color into a fiction writing piece. This will help them add descriptive language to their work.

What else? How about those paint brochures that show beautifully appointed rooms. Some have kitchens, living rooms, while others have foyers, fronts of homes. There are endless, I mean endless pictures.

I cut them apart and separate the rooms into piles. I make a kitchen pile, a living room pile, etc. I do a week of descriptive writing with room cards. I give students each an exterior house. They begin writing by setting the scene for the story. The premise – You are standing on the sidewalk outside the house you have in your hand. Start writing and describe what you see as you walk to the front door. Fourth graders can get an entire page out of this. The next day, they get to open the door and enter. I give them another room.

We keep going for a few days. When we finish, they put the room cards on the document read and project one or more of the pictures as they read their story. They are eager to see what houses and rooms their friends got and the story they wove.

This year one of my talented writers started her story in a very typical way. She was approaching the house because she was going on a babysitting job. But when she rang the bell, she noticed that the house wasn’t really a house inside. The living room on the card depicted an aqua paint scheme with very modern furnishings.

In my student’s story, this room became an underwater realm where the citizens needed her help. When she rang the bell and the door opened, she walked in. She noticed her hair and clothing getting wet. She unraveled an amazing tale of heroism in a fantasy world inspired by the marketing department of a paint company. Amazing!

Tomorrow, we will not talk about paint supplies. Promise!