During the third quarter of the school year, eighth grade students read and write memoir, a kind of writing that looks back at one's life and searches for the threads or themes that tie that life together. By reading and listening to a variety of different memoir, students are introduced to the ways in which authors have chosen to explore and write about their own lives.
Students are led through a series of exercises designed to prompt their own memories about their childhood. Students are encouraged to identify important themes in their lives and look at ways in which they have changed over time and ways in which they have remained the same. They explore their families, schooling, interests, dreams, struggles, achievements, and failures. They tell the stories of their lives, and, more importantly, they tell about the person to whom those stories happened: themselves.
Memoir is a wonderful kind of writing for eighth graders. Memoir requires proficiency with narrative, descriptive, and analytical writing. This project helps students in their last year of Middle School to take a good look at where they have been and, to some extent, plan for the future.
We invite you to read the excerpts from 1997 or the
additons for 1998 and share your responses with us.