Memoir - Julie Mars
Summary : Why Teach Memoir?
Julie Mars: We want students to read memoir to show them, through experience, that each human life is complex and often difficult, and that reflecting on one’s own life (or others’ lives) is interesting and fruitful.
Allison Barns: It helps us to unfold the real difficulties in pursuing truth. If we’re honest in our stories, we’re not always the hero or the victim. Sometimes we’re the villain, victimizer, or the perpetrator. Admitting that is very hard.
Julie: Taking a creative approach, such as producing writing about one’s life, promotes the possibility of a change in perspective, freedom from suffering, and a greater sense of understanding; that self-expression is usually healing. Finally, that students’ own lives are important and therefore worth the time, effort, and commitment it takes to record them.
Allison: How well do we really remember our past? How honest are we willing to be with ourselves? Why is it so difficult and why so important? For the high school student, and for the high school teacher, these questions frame memoir writing. It’s a smart way to lead them into the world.
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Reading Memoir
We began in “intellectual mode” using concepts in Ursula K. LeGuin’s article on memoir to discuss ideas about memory and imagination. Then we looked at examples of memoir, considering their structure in terms of the chart shown below.
Focusing on these pieces’ structure, we were able to speculate on writerly concerns:
- Why did the author use two different voices?
- How do we distinguish voice from point of view?
- Who is this piece actually about?
- How does the form of this excerpt contribute to its message?
By doing character analysis, we could discuss how writers create both “round” and “flat” characters. This kind of close reading helps us to see how interesting and complex the writing process is, to see the value in delving into small events, to internalize how the elements of non-fiction work together to create the whole, and to be brave enough to begin.
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Writing Memoir
In her book, Mystery and Manners, Flannery O’Connor discusses the importance of a “gesture” that is at the heart of every good story and speculates on what creates such an important gesture. Participants were asked to recall a gesture that lies at the heart of their own story [Allison: THAT gesture, which marked for whatever reason, the event you need to tell, the event that unleashes the story of your memoir.] and to freewrite about it. Later, as homework, they expanded these freewrites to five pages for sharing and discussion.
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Teaching Memoir
We have to be very curious about the writing process to teach it well. No one can teach writing who doesn’t experience it—in its beauty and fulfillment but also in its frustration and pain. Here are some themes and strategies that emerged in our work together.
Concepts of Time
- Linear
- Stream of Consciousness
- Flashbacks
- Reverse Expectations
- “Poetic/Metaphoric”
Themes
- Honesty/Truth
- Doubt
- Fear
- Self-concept; self-respect; difficulty of seeing one’s self; self-perceptions
- Fear
- Risk
- Concepts of Time
- Reliability of the Narrator
- Voice (whining or yelling or matter-of-fact, etc.)
Teaching on Themes
- Unveil the process
- Model the Risk
- Take questions they have from modeling as an entrance to revision
- Remove Judgment
- Circle-sit
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Teaching Strategies
- Brainstorming Topics
- Mini-lessons
- Using daily journals to lead into memoir topics
- Sitting in a circle for equal ground and sharing of stories
- Guest speakers (or have actors come as the person in the memoir or have students act as actors for the person in the memoir telling the story)
- Place the memoir in context --- find a topic based on the themes in the readings
- Read-alouds
- “Who am I?”
- “I am a person who…”
- RRRPQ = read, repeat, remember, praise and question
- Build into a trust unit
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Cool Resources/Tools to Use in Teaching Memoir:
- James McBride “Chicken Man” (in orange packet)
- Kate Horsely “My Son Aaron is Dead” (in orange packet)
- Naomi’s Performing Art Students (contact the Performing Arts school and then contact Naomi)
- Intro from “Fiddler on the Roof” for a memoir on tradition
- Draw a picture of a special place and write from that
- Memory capsules (bringing objects and write on memories/associations to objects)
- Art
- Graphic Organizers (either student-made or teacher-made) (Use Inspiration)
- “Worth a Thousand Words” (book of images)
- “Picture Books for 6-Trait Writing”
- “We Didn’t Start the Fire” Billy Joel’s song
- Van Gogh “Starry Night”
- “War” by Edwin Starr
- “Finding Forrester” movie
- TVI Actors
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