Unit One: Exploring the Inner Self - Continued (1.2)

Students Will: Identify and apply a variety of appropriate reading strategies to make sense of a variety of print texts, to understand the human experience, and to develop ideas in written/oral responses.

Task: Go to the identified website(s) and locate the following memoirs, personal essays and other personal expressive writing. Read each selection carefully, noting the criteria required to generate personal expressive writings.

http://www.ioweb.com/civilwar/ Once you are at this site, click on the memoirs icon on the left side of the screen and then select the memoirs, "Going off to War 1862" and read. Then scroll down and select the memoir, "Desperate Illness July 1863" and read that memoir.

 http://www.afb.org/archives/papers/writingsbyhk/w-epic.html Read this personal writing from Helen Keller.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/9404/holmes2_1.html Read this personal experience writing from Sherlock Holmes

Based on the completed readings, make notes about the common elements found in all the readings. Make certain to look for the elements of personal expressive writing. Remember personal narratives are written about one experience in the writer's life that was significant where a valuable lesson was learned. Remember that a memoir is written to show a relationship between the writer and another person, usually older, pet, or object. Its emphasis and focus is on the relationship and conveying the significance of that relationship to the writer.

You are now ready to write a memoir. Your memoir will not cover your entire life, but will focus on the relationship between you and someone or something else significant in your life. Now that you have the necessary tools to begin your writing, please complete some form of pre-writing for your memoir. It may take any form you are comfortable with e.g. cluster, story map, brainstorming, sequence chain, etc. Once the pre-writing is complete, please write a memoir that focuses on your relationship with someone or something significant in your life. This memoir should follow all the conventional forms of writing that includes title, introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Please be descriptive and use dialogue if needed. Remember you are showing the importance of the relationship to you and sharing your valuable experience with others. The focus should be on HOW the relationship was special and not just relating events that happened with you and that significant influence in your life. It should be at least 3 pages in length and probably no more than 5 pages in length because memoirs are not meant to be all inclusive of your life story, but merely focus on one relationship.

Once the writing is complete, have a friend/parent/teacher revise or conference with you about the papers strengths and weaknesses and then produce a revised draft that is free of grammatical, mechanical and punctuation errors that is suited for an appropriate audience and is focused on your purpose of personal expressive writing.

Your writing will be scored according to the holistic scoring guide for Kentucky Writing Assessment.