Activity 2A: Sources of Memoir
This American Life, Public Broadcasting Corporation, Ira Glass on Storytelling, #1, #2, #3, and #4.
Activity 2B: Writing Your Memoir
Anthologies of Student Voices
Atkin, S. Beth. (2000). Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories. Boston: Little Brown. (Short memoirs based on interviews with students ranging in age from 9 to 18.)
Selections:
- “Fitting In” by Andrea Martinez, pp. 36–43: Eighteen-year-old Andrea Martinez talks about the difficulties of fitting into the Mexican community in the United States with her Zapotec Indian heritage.
- “Life in a Gang” by Frank Rosas, pp. 56–63: Seventeen-year-old Frank Rosas discusses his involvement with gangs in Salinas, California.
Boas, Jacob (Ed.). (1996). We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust. Foreword by Patricia C. McKissack. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee (Ed). (1993). Multitude: Cross-Cultural Readings for Writers. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Haynes, David, and Julie Landsman (Eds). (1998). Welcome to Your Life: Writings for the Heart of Young America. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.
Selections:
- Excerpt from “A Leak in the Heart” by Faye Moskowitz, pp. 17–20
- “A Woman in April” by Andre Dubus, pp. 79–83
King, Laurie (Ed.). (1995). Hear My Voice: A Multicultural Anthology of Literature from the United States. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.
Multimedia
The Adobe Youth Voices Web site includes interviews, memoir monologues, and theatre pieces written, directed, and taped by teens.
YouthRadio.us includes blogs and multimedia stories written and produced by young people.