In this unit, students learn to write about themselves by first analyzing audio stories and excerpts from published memoirs and then developing their own short memoirs about an incident they have never forgotten.
Students examine how writers apply literary techniques, such as narrative arc, point of view, characterization, and figurative and sensory language, to narrate true stories that enlighten, amuse, and emotionally move their readers.
Integrated Units - English Language Arts
Students research how authors create authentic, believable settings for literary fiction, using details of time and place that engage the full range of senses. They analyze how these settings establish and shape the story being told, and explore the relationship between creating settings for literature and creating them for visual media, such as movies or television.
Students learn to analyze characters and their development in a work of fiction. They select a character in a written work and imagine him or her as a main character in a TV show or movie. They craft monologues and dialogues for the show or movie that introduce the character and reveal his or her development.
In this unit, students examine and articulate their own interests and goals as artists, and explore ways of communicating those interests and goals to the public in order to build an audience for their work. Students develop writing skills in two basic areas, promotion and presentation, as they prepare to stage an arts or media event.