Curated OER
When I Was Young in Brooklyn
Students identify various techniques used in memoirs. They reflect on similarities and differences betwee two authors. Students define the term memior. They write about various techiques they noticed the authors used. Students write...
Curated OER
Finding Science in An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
Young scholars read excerpts from Annie Dillard's memoir, "An American Childhood," with the teacher. They experience opportunities to connect English, science, nature and art together from a new and unique perspective. This approach...
Curated OER
Portrait of a Place, Portrait of a Family
Learners act out stories based on lives of famous people from Harlem. In this memoirs activity, students compare the life of the people in Harlem in 1930 to the people of today. Learners explore how "home" is different for different...
Curated OER
How a Writer Conveys Descriptions With a Wallop
Students identify strategies the author used to vividly convey qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China, then use those strategies in writing of their own. They examine the author's writing style and techniques to learn some...
Curated OER
Memoirs and Personal Essays
Students can then pinpoint problems the characters experience and interview their parents to see if they too may have once faced a similar problem. Interviews with family members can be recorded by students in their home language.
Curated OER
Warm Thoughts About the Cold
“What do you think life is like at the South Pole?” After responding to this journal prompt, class members read and discuss the New York Times article, “At South Pole, New Home for a New Era.” Using resources available from the Times’...
Massachusetts Department of Education
Nostalgia
To prepare for crafting their own memoir, class members examine poetry by Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Robert Hayden, and Claude McKay, stories by Richard Rodriquez and Willa Cather, and Barry Levinson's film Avalon. They examine how...
New York City Department of Education
Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons, assessment...
Curated OER
Genre Lesson: Autobiography
Have your middle schoolers write a short story about themselves with an autobiography unit about Rosa Parks. They learn the difference between biographies and autobiographies, define the different types of autobiographies and determine...
Curated OER
From Memoir to Expository Writing with Advanced English Language Learners
Learners create a memoir. They compare writing with story telling and personal experience. They analyze how they learn, so they can begin to look critically at their own learning.
EngageNY
Analyzing Experiences: Carlotta Walls
What was life like in the American South following the Civil War? Scholars watch a video that discusses the aftermath of the Civil War and the events during the Reconstruction Period. Additionally, they continue reading Carlotta Walls...
Curated OER
Using Effective, Amusing Writing As a Model
Learners use the author's writing as a model to achieve vivid description and engaging humor in compositions of their own. They examine the ways a writer can capture and hold a reader's attention and write a short personal narrative...
Curated OER
Confronting Two Challenges--One Physical, One Intellectual
Students examine the challenges of a new language and culture. In this cultural lesson, student read Running by Peter Hessler and discuss obstacles faced, including the language barrier. Students write an essay about a time they...
Curated OER
Response to Literature: Anecdotal and Saga Memoir Poems
Students differentiate between anecdotal and saga memoir poems. In this response to literature lesson students analyze poems written by others then analyze incidents from their own lives to determine whether they meet the criteria for...
Curated OER
Nudging Questions
Students choose one topic to write about. They brainstorm ideas about their topic or incident. They use sensory details to visualize their topic. They answer a variety of teacher directored nudging question to help them describe their...
Curated OER
The First World War
Students examine the process and effects of World War I on different segments of the population, beyond the political, diplomatic and military framework of the war. They analyze the memoirs of soldiers, read poetry of the time, and...
Curated OER
I Had a Hero Lesson
Students read "I Had a Hero" a memoir written by a Peace Corps volunteer serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They discuss the story, respond to it in writing, complete comprehension activities and relate the account to their own...
Curated OER
Capturing the Reader With Vivid Images
Students examine the use of imagery to hold a reader's attention in an excerpt from John Deever's memoir "Mr. John and the Day of Knowledge". They are introduced to background information about the Ukraine and create original imagery.
Curated OER
Hometown Travel Journalism
Steinbeck’s witty memoir, “Travels with Charley: In Search of America,” inspires kids to investigate their neighborhoods as local travel journalists.
Curated OER
How Weather Affects Our Lives
English learners practice basic weather terms from listening to two books. They keep a daily weather record for two weeks to record the type of weather, as well as the high and low temperatures for each day. Next, they complete a simple...
Curated OER
How a Writer Conveys Descriptions With a Wallop Lesson 3 for Running (From River Town)
Students examine strategies an author uses to provide qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China. They apply the strategies to their own writing.
Curated OER
Whose Point of View? The Journey of Three Generations
A reading of Whale Journey, a fact-filled picture book by Vivian French, launches a study of the life cycle and migration of three generations of gray whales. The interdisciplinary lesson plan offers opportunities extensions into all...
Novelinks
The Color of Water: Word Square Instructions
Immaculate, accumulation, dissipation. Vocabulary drawn from chapter 16 of James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, can prove to be challenge for readers. To help kids understand the meaning of these words and what they add to the...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Montgomery Bus Boycott: We Would Rather Walk!
Have historians use primary sources to learn about the circumstances and implementation of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and think about the issue of boycotts as a means of effecting social change. Wrap it up with a letter to the editor...