“Against all odds, you have put it down on paper, so that it won’t be lost. And who knows? Maybe what you’ve written will help others, will be a small part of the solution. You don’t even have to know how or in what way, but if you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. You simply keep putting down one damn word after another, as you hear them, as they come to you.” -Anne Lamott1
Introduction
In my classroom I want students to experience success and build academic confidence while also feeling comfortable making and learning from mistakes. I want students, as writers, to understand that 1) Writing is difficult. Even the “best” writers struggle, and 2) Writing is revision. Good writers are always revising. That is simply part of the writing process. I am inspired by what Verlyn Klinkenborg writes on the subject:
It’s hard work, and it's been hard work for everyone all along.
If you think that writing – the act of composition – should flow, and it doesn't, what are you likely to feel?
Obstructed, defeated, inadequate, blocked, perhaps even stupid.
But if you accept that writing is hard work,
And that's what it feels like while you’re writing,
Then everything is just as it should be.
Your labor isn’t a sign of defeat.
It’s a sign of engagement.2
All 12th grade English students begin the year writing a personal statement that can be used for their college applications. While my students are already skilled oral storytellers, this unit will support them with the difficult task of translating these stories into the written word. Every day they tell stories about what is happening in their neighborhoods, in their classrooms, and with their friends. They recount these experiences with expression, vivid details, and humor. But recording these experiences can be tricky. Heather Lattimer writes, “Although memoir must start with emotion, the writing itself is far more complex than simply recounting an event, and much more restrained than the slopping, gushing out every feeling that passes through one’s head...A good memoir demands the disciplined use of language and structure.”3In this unit I aim to guide students through telling their stories. Personal narrative is about telling your story with passion, conviction and emotion and it is about organization, voice, figurative language, and more.
Students will analyze mentor texts and write their own personal narratives using explicit writing instruction. This unit will be broken into two parts: Reading the Personal Narrative and Writing the Personal Narrative. During the first part of the unit, students will read published personal narratives to examine the genre. Exploring these mentor texts will support their journeys as writers later in the unit. As Klinkenborg writes, “You can only become a better writer by becoming a better reader.”4
During the second part of the unit, students will dive into writing. Students will write their first draft, then will focus each week and a half on a specific writing technique. As students learn a new skill, we will revisit our mentor texts to see how these authors successfully incorporated this skill. Then students will work to implement that into their own narratives, creating multiple drafts and improving their writing with each new skill.
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