assignments ENGL513 READING & WRITING THE MEMOIR Teaching the Memoir
|
Need to be in touch with me?
LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
SUMMER 2014 Office Hours:
are by appointment. |
Overview. This summer we have focused for the most part on you as readers and writers of memoir. I know that for some of you that idea of thinking about yourself as a writer has been something of a struggle--like a look around the room and think "who? Me? A writer?" kind of a struggle. But you've all acquitted yourselves nicely. I hope you will continue to think of yourself as a a writer in some way shape or form. I tell people that there are writers who teach and teachers who write--and I am the latter. I'm good with it.
I am of the firm belief that one reason to engage in serious writing as a serious writer is that it can inform our practices as serious teachers of writing as well. What I mean is, there is no greater teacher than the actual doing of a thing. And what we learn by doing we can share with our students to their benefit. We write and so we struggle--to find our story, to find our voice, to find our form, to find our truth. We worry if we are meeting the requirements of the teacher and the assignment. We worry about sharing our work with others. We worry about the feedback we will (or won't) get. We worry about getting our feelings hurt. We worry through a next draft--and the process starts again. We get tired. We get lazy. We stop. We start. We finish. Finally.
That experience, as much as what we might say we've learned formally about memoir, is our teacher. And so, now, at the end of this experience, it is worthwhile to turn back to our classrooms and consider how we might harness the formal training in the genre with the lived experience of writing and reading it and share this remarkable genre with our students.
Content: For the Teaching Memoir portion of the final exam, please come to class with an idea for teaching memoir to your students at whatever reading/grade level you find them. It can be an assignment that focuses on reading the genre. It can be an assignment that focuses on writing in the genre. It can be something that does a little of both. Whatever you end up doing, consider how it accomplishes the following (what I would say are some decent outcomes for a lesson on nonfiction):
Whatever you can say about the new Common Core, this focus on what skills students will take from a lesson is present. The assignment itself is just the final manifestation of all of the things that you want a student to learn. Like Lopate describes truth-telling in essays, writing assignments for the Core suggests (it does more than suggest, really, it out-and-out requires) that the lessons you end up with grow organically out of the content and skills you identify as most important to learn. The guiding questions listed above are inspired thusly.
Format: I think that I mentioned that I am not trained in the intricacies of formal lesson plans, nor am I actually interested in learning them. For this assignment, there are two parts totaling roughly two to four pages, typed, double-spaced, max.
For part one: I am looking for an overview of what you would do--described in any fashion that makes sense to you: a numbered list, paragraphs, headings, poem, whatever. This should not exceed two pages. The only real requirement for Part One is that you identify some memoir to use with your students.
For part two: Please answer the guiding questions bulleted above. This should be no less than one page. Again, I have no particular plan for how to do this. You can plant the bullets on the page and answer away. Mini-essay. Sonnet. Again, whatever.
If you wish: you can include any handouts you might provide students in support of the assignment. You do not have to.
You'll have time in class to get feedback from your fellow-teachers on the idea--a kind of workshop of your lesson idea. You don't have to bring print materials to that workshop; you need only be ready to talk about it, ask colleagues questions about what seems to work and what seems to look like trouble, and do the same for others.
Perhaps it is clear and perhaps it is not, but the privilege of the class is on you and your writing. This final assignment asks you to make a connection between your writing self and your teaching self, but I would not want this to be the focus of your real energy during the final week of class.
I am of the firm belief that one reason to engage in serious writing as a serious writer is that it can inform our practices as serious teachers of writing as well. What I mean is, there is no greater teacher than the actual doing of a thing. And what we learn by doing we can share with our students to their benefit. We write and so we struggle--to find our story, to find our voice, to find our form, to find our truth. We worry if we are meeting the requirements of the teacher and the assignment. We worry about sharing our work with others. We worry about the feedback we will (or won't) get. We worry about getting our feelings hurt. We worry through a next draft--and the process starts again. We get tired. We get lazy. We stop. We start. We finish. Finally.
That experience, as much as what we might say we've learned formally about memoir, is our teacher. And so, now, at the end of this experience, it is worthwhile to turn back to our classrooms and consider how we might harness the formal training in the genre with the lived experience of writing and reading it and share this remarkable genre with our students.
Content: For the Teaching Memoir portion of the final exam, please come to class with an idea for teaching memoir to your students at whatever reading/grade level you find them. It can be an assignment that focuses on reading the genre. It can be an assignment that focuses on writing in the genre. It can be something that does a little of both. Whatever you end up doing, consider how it accomplishes the following (what I would say are some decent outcomes for a lesson on nonfiction):
- What does it teach students about the genre (as different from fiction or poetry)?
- How does it help students to be better readers of texts generally and memoir/nonfiction particularly?
- How does it help students be better writers--not just of memoir but just plain better writers?
- What skills can they take from this assignment that might help them in other classes, in other grades, in other reading writing settings?
Whatever you can say about the new Common Core, this focus on what skills students will take from a lesson is present. The assignment itself is just the final manifestation of all of the things that you want a student to learn. Like Lopate describes truth-telling in essays, writing assignments for the Core suggests (it does more than suggest, really, it out-and-out requires) that the lessons you end up with grow organically out of the content and skills you identify as most important to learn. The guiding questions listed above are inspired thusly.
Format: I think that I mentioned that I am not trained in the intricacies of formal lesson plans, nor am I actually interested in learning them. For this assignment, there are two parts totaling roughly two to four pages, typed, double-spaced, max.
For part one: I am looking for an overview of what you would do--described in any fashion that makes sense to you: a numbered list, paragraphs, headings, poem, whatever. This should not exceed two pages. The only real requirement for Part One is that you identify some memoir to use with your students.
For part two: Please answer the guiding questions bulleted above. This should be no less than one page. Again, I have no particular plan for how to do this. You can plant the bullets on the page and answer away. Mini-essay. Sonnet. Again, whatever.
If you wish: you can include any handouts you might provide students in support of the assignment. You do not have to.
You'll have time in class to get feedback from your fellow-teachers on the idea--a kind of workshop of your lesson idea. You don't have to bring print materials to that workshop; you need only be ready to talk about it, ask colleagues questions about what seems to work and what seems to look like trouble, and do the same for others.
Perhaps it is clear and perhaps it is not, but the privilege of the class is on you and your writing. This final assignment asks you to make a connection between your writing self and your teaching self, but I would not want this to be the focus of your real energy during the final week of class.