Storytelling: Fictional Narratives, Imaginary People, and the Reader's Real Life

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 12.02.07

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. Objectives
  4. Context
  5. Philosophy
  6. The Unit
  7. Conclusion
  8. Classroom Activities
  9. Endnotes
  10. Bibliography

Reading, Writing, and Recidivism: Healing to Learn through Memoir and Vignette for Adjudicated and/or Traumatized Youth

Krista Baxter Waldron

Published September 2012

Tools for this Unit:

Bibliography

Alvarez, Deborah . "I Had To Teach Hard:" Traumatic Conditions and Teachers in Post Katrina Classrooms." The High School Journal 94, no. Fall (2010): 28-39.This author is a seminar leader at a local initiative in Delaware. She happened to be visiting our National Initiative, and I was fortunate to spend an evening sharing some email exchanges of information with her. She emailed me this article directly.

Blinn, Cynthia . "Teaching Cognitive Skills to Effect Behavioral Change Through a Writing Program." Journal of Correctional Education 46, no. 4 (1995): 146-154.Blinn explains the Writing for Our Lives program created for Massachusetts correctional facilities. Her emphasis is on creating pro-social behaviors as an outcome, but she also depends on research that demands that literacy education is a key to reducing recidivism rates.

Brewin, Chris R., and Hayley Leonard. "Effects of Mode of Writing on Emotional Narratives." Journal of Traumatic Stress 12, no. 2 (1999): 355. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/advanced?sid=c57ab683-7e37-4db0-ab09-31c7efc47268%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=12 (accessed July 6, 2012).

Katsiyannis, Antonis, Joseph B. Ryan, Dalun Zhang, and Anastasia Spann. "Juvenile Delinquency and Recidivism: The Impact of Academic Achievement." Reading and Writing Quarterly 24, no. 2 (2008): 177-196. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/advanced?sid=c57ab683-7e37-4db0-ab09-31c7efc47268%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=12 (accessed July 11, 2012).

MacCurdy, Marian M.. The Mind's Eye: Image and Memory in Writing about Trauma. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007. This was a most helpful book. It most directly and thoroughly addressed the best strategies for leading students through a healing writing process in the classroom and explained the relationship between imagery and traumatic memory as they relate to the writing process.

Pennebaker, James W. "Writing about Emotional Experiences as a Therapeutic Process." Psychological Science 8, no. 3 (1997): 162-166. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/advanced?sid=c57ab683-7e37-4db0-ab09-31c7efc47268%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=12 (accessed July 6, 2012). Pennebaker has numerous brief, informative articles on writing therapy. I encountered him in many other source bibliographies.

Pennebaker, James W., and Janel D. Seagal. "Forming a Story: The Health Benefits of a Narrative." Journal of Clinical Psychology 55, no. 10 (1999): 1243-1254. http://content.epnet.com/ContentServer.asp?T=P& P=AN& K=2338446& EbscoContent=dGJyMMTo50Sep7E4yOvqOLCmr0qeqLFSr6y4SrWWxWXS& ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGrr06yqLFRuePfgeyx%2BEu3q64A& D=aph (accessed July 6, 2012).

Rogers-Adkinson, Diana , Kristine Melloy, Shannon Stuart, Lynn Fletcher, and Claudia Rinaldi. "Reading and Written Language Competency of Incarcerated Youth." Reading and Writing Quarterly 24, no. 2 (2008): 197-218. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a61990b2-f3db-4e22-8dcd-b345beb74c80%40sessionmgr12&vid=8&hid=7 (accessed July 11, 2012). Based on their sound research on literacy as an antidote to incarceration, I depended on their criteria for my classroom text selection.

Van der Oord, Saskia , S. Lucassen, A.A.P. Van Emmerik, and P.G.M. Emmelkamp. "Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children Using Cognitive Behavioral Writing Therapy." Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy 17, no. 3 (2010): 240-249. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/advanced?sid=bedbdabf-1d5f-4abb-8917-2ba6b9238d47%40sessionmgr10&vid=1&hid=12 (accessed July 11, 2012). This study reaffirms other research I've included on narrative writing therapy, but the cognitive behavioral writing therapy it described is intended for a clinical setting.

Classroom Resources

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

"The Ethicist." The New York Times Magazine online, selections.

Hughes, Langston . "Salvation." Salvation. www.courses.vcu.edu/ENG200-

dwc/hughes.htm (accessed July 13, 2012).

O'Brien, Tim. "In the Field." In The Things They Carried: a Work of Fiction. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 155-170.

Spiegelman, Art. "Chapter Six." In Maus: a survivor's tale, I: My Father Bleeds History.

New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. 129-159.

Wright, Richard. "7." In Black Boy: (American Hunger): a Record of Childhood and

Youth. New York: Perennial Classics, 1998. 161-169.

Common Core Standards

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading

Key Ideas and Details: standards 1,2

Craft and Structure: standards 5,6

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: standard 9

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: standard 10

Career and College Anchor Standards for Writing

Types and Purposes: standard 3

Production and Distribution of Writing: standards 4,5

Range of Writing: standard 10

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